I ended up in graduate school, studying environmental science (my area of concentration was terrestrial ecology, and my research project involved the population dynamics of smalll mammals in the Virginia piedmont). I took a job as a computer operator's assistant to get by while I worked on my thesis. When I realized my life would be spent behind a desk in Washington, D.C., writing environmental impact statements, I decided to commit to a career in computer science. I was spending most of my time working at the computer lab anyway, and I had always enjoyed technology.
A few years later, I completed a Master's degree in computer science. By that time I was already burning out on my computer career, and believed it was a career I just drifted into rather than choosing it because it reflected who I truly am. I went for career counseling for the first time in my life, and the work I did in counseling pointed toward careers I hadn't even considered as a young man ... or for that matter, as a man rapidly approaching middle age.
I spent the next 24 years as a computer professional, mostly doing management-level consulting on software development processes and software quality assurance. Don't get me wrong, it was a good career. Relatively late in life (at least by society's standards), I decided to switch careers and obtained a graduate degree in clinical psychology, and have been counseling individuals, couples, families and groups ever since. I see my work as a sacred calling or vocation, rather than the way I simply make a living. Work for me has always been about more than bringing home a paycheck.
Coaching people through life transitions - particularly career transitions - strongly appealed to me because I have been through so many transitions myself, typically with no one to act as a sounding board as I made life-shaping decisions in the dark. How differently would the shape of my life be, I wonder, if I had had access to a career coach earlier in life? Would I have felt empowered to make different (and perhaps better) decisions along life's path?
So I obtained life coach training at the Institute for Life Coach Training. Which brings me to Métier; it's my way of reaching out to others who are struggling with the important decisions related to career and vocation to successfully negotiate those decisions and find a meaningful and joyful outcome. I often think the role of the coach is something like Virgil in Dante's Divine Comedy, who walked with Dante while he negotiated that difficult and ultimately joyful journey. Whether or not you decide to contact me and develop a coaching relationship to help you with your own decisions, I wish you well in your journey. May you find the right Virgil to accompany you!
Vasily