What do you want to be when you grow up?

What do you want to be when you grow up?

I knew exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up: a banker!  Oh wait, maybe a lawyer.  Never mind, let’s try spy, or perhaps maybe a Soviet analyst.  Certainly not a teacher!

Like most females growing up in the 70s, I came of age wanting to have a reputable, high-powered profession.  I had no idea what a "banker" really did, but I knew one got to go downtown to a big office building dressed in a fancy business suit, and that was good enough for me.  After a summer being bored to tears at the First Wisconsin Bank, however, I knew that financial services were not in my future.

But I wasn’t about to give up my fancy suit and office just yet.  How about lawyer, I thought – just as reputable and prestigious as a banker.  Post-college I spent a year as a paralegal at O'Melveny and Myers in Washington, DC.  The only thing I dreaded more than heading into the office each day (to copy, file, and copy some more – it was my first real job after all) was the idea of having to do what my superiors did.  It quickly became apparent the world of law was not for moi.      

So what then?  I had always loved James Bond movies and my then fiancé (now husband) convinced me I needed to follow my "passion.”  I could be passionate about espionage, I thought, and thus begun my third career attempt into the central intelligence world.  My straight-A-student tendencies got me through the CIA written tests in a breeze landing me in a final interview at the Grand Central Hyatt in New York City.  A short middle-aged man opened room 1215 and then escorted me to a table where he proceeded to ask me a series of innocuous interview questions.  Satisfied with my responses, he moved onto Part 2:  "Let's role play!  Let's pretend we were having a covert meeting and a government official were to knock on the door: how would you respond?"  I jumbled a few words as I tried to picture the awkwardness of the situation.  He later informed me the correct answer was to both jump into bed and pretend we were doing “something else.”  Needless to say, I did not get that job!

I was, however, still determined to follow my "passion."  In addition to James Bond, I was fascinated by Russian and Soviet history, politics, and culture.  I might not be cut out to be an operative, but I could be an analyst.  After a graduate degree in Soviet Studies, I first landed a job at the Pentagon working for the Army Chief of Staff for Intelligence and then at the CIA.  Both jobs were interesting, exciting, challenging, important, and demanding, but not conducive to raising a family (by this time I had two young daughters age 1 and 3).  I resigned and moved with my family to Milwaukee to be closer to my family as we raised ours.

Not surprising, there was not a high demand for intelligence analysts in Milwaukee, so what could I do?  While I had minimal teaching experience (I had worked as a substitute teacher while in grad school and had served as a TA in college), I applied for a job at University School as a history teacher.  As luck would have it, there was a very unusual part-time history opening mid-year and I took it!  I found a great mentor who provided me with lots of support and good advice.  I worked really hard to learn the material, the job, and the field, and I loved it!  Other opportunities began to emerge.  Would you consider coaching the ski team? Would you be willing to serve on the Faculty Action Committee?  Would you write college letters of recommendation?  We are looking for a Varsity field hockey coach!  How about Assistant Dean of Students!  While “teacher” hadn’t even made my short list of jobs, over time it morphed into the perfect one:  Director of College Guidance, Varsity Field Hockey Coach, and part-time history teacher – all with a very family-friendly schedule.

You do not need to know what you want to be when you grow up!  Instead, you need to be open to new opportunities, to be willing to be flexible and take risks, and to try to discover what you like and what you don't like.  And when opportunities arise, don't be afraid of working hard or asking for help and advice!