I had always considered myself relatively well-rounded and tried to dabble in different fields of study, hobbies, what have you. When the time came to choose a major, all my interests made it that much more difficult. Now I’m in sitting in my cubicle, at my first job out of college, pondering my future. It occurs to me that I still haven’t figured out what my “career” will be, or for that matter, what I want it to be.

As I toss the word “career” around in my head, it begins to sound strange and foreign. It is after all just a word. So I wonder, what does it mean to have a career? Is this really my goal in life? Or is this word just that, a word? One that we use to feel like we’ve achieved something important and can now move on with the rest of our bucket list.

The recession may have done me a favor. Layoffs left and right have forced some people to learn a new skill or to branch out into other fields and take on numerous “careers”. Many are no longer bound to nine-to-fives because their nine-to-fives no longer exist. Temping, freelancing, and volunteering have taken the place of many lost jobs, and I’m excited to say that people may be reluctant to return to the not-so-reliable nine-to-five. Perhaps this is the kind of “career” I’ve always been looking for, but didn’t know existed; the multi-career.

One thing I know for sure is that separating work and life is no easy feat. With the way things are going for me personally and for the country as a whole, we may not all have the luxury of boasting one solid job and enjoying the fruits of our labor on the weekends. Perhaps it’s time to let the two fuse together into a lifestyle that allows us to pour ourselves into our work and allowing for a seamless transition between the two. Of course I say this now. Next year I may want to grunt through the work day and never think of it again after 5 o’clock. I don’t know.

By the time I had reached the upper division classes in my undergraduate major, I was on a first name basis with many of my professors, was allowed to express my opinion freely, encouraged to form original and challenging ideas, and was generally treated like an intelligent person. It seems that graduates have to abandon that disposition when they leave college. I assumed that holding a Bachelor’s degree meant that I would continue to be taken seriously and would maintain a level of respect. Life after college takes an unexpected turn… I’m not sure I can handle being at the bottom of the food chain yet again.

I recently attended a networking event during which I was vehemently encouraged to generate conversation with panel members and industry professionals. It’s safe to say that these conversations were forced and uncomfortable. The entire event felt like a factory where the input was creative college students and the output was yet another army of mindless cubicle soldiers. Though we were given sound advice on inter-office behavior, the perfect elevator pitch, and personal presentation, I’m convinced that such advice is the reason that so many professionals are dissatisfied with their jobs.  Somewhere between the completion of our studies and the commencement of our careers, the quirks that set us apart from each other are shooed away and replaced by dollar signs and suit jackets. This is, however, not to knock the process of networking or the advice of industry vets, because I was very lucky to be in the same room as them, but I’m beginning to see networking as the answer to the question “if you had a super power, what would it be?”

Perhaps my liberal arts education made too big a skeptic out of me; I have trouble with fake smiles, and my conversations usually leave puddles of sarcasm on the floor. Entering the professional world and mingling with potential employers means controlling the impulses that make me want to say “let’s cut the crap, are you going to hire me or not?” I guess this is the beginning of an entirely new school of thought; the school of networking. I just hope I can stifle my ironic sense of humor for thirty seconds at a time, long enough for that elevator pitch.