Every so often blogs are blocked at work so at the moment I can only
read you all using Google Reader and can't comment on your posts -
sorry. But I am here, I am reading your blogs, I am writing you
subliminal comments in my head which I am attempting to transport to
you telepathically. Okay?
In other news, the other day I was asked to speak to a group of final
year students at my former Faculty about career choices etc etc. One
person asked me "So what's your five year plan for your career?"
I hate that question.
I'm asked that every six months at my performance review, I had no
idea how to answer it in job interviews, I just don't know what to
say! It's not that I'm not ambitious – I am! I just tend to do things
as they come – not for some particular reason.
It's like when people ask me why I chose to do a PhD and I just don't
have a sensible answer. It's not like I was planning to be an academic
or felt passionate about research – I just felt like doing a PhD.
And same now – I just feel like doing this job. Maybe later I won't,
maybe I will – why do I have to know what I'll be doing when I'm in my
30s? How can such things really be planned anyway?
On the other hand, my dear Hubby has a really defined five year plan.
He plans to earn twice as much by the end of next year so I can take
time off then to have a baby (eeek!)
Then he plans to grow his company so big that he sells it for enough
to pay off our mortgages so that we can live off our investment
properties and not have to work.
Then he plans to spend all his time doing charity work and helping
people in the community.
Finally, wants to open a stall selling freshly squeezed orange juice
in various markets on the weekend just so he can meet people and chat
with them and serve them juice.
Why is he so sure about what he can achieve (no matter how ambitious
it is) and why do I have no idea what I want?
Five year plans don't come that easy to me!
14 comments:
five year plans involve goal setting and having a clear idea of what you want to do. I have no idea, and for someone as introverted as me, having to put myself out there is hard. So I don't have five year plans either!
I used to have to answer that question with my yearly review with Roboto. I hated it. I have vague plans for five years from now, but I am much clearer about 20 years from now. I always see the big picture, but don't get caught up on the small details.
Here's to your hubby's great plan! Let's hope it all works out just as he's planned!
Jezzy,
A "five year plan" is, in reality "pie in the sky", or as we yanks would say "a dream". But in my 63 years of hanging out on this "big blue marble", it is what we need to move forward, it is what we need to get up tomorrow,...it is our dream for our life.
Sometimes dreams suffer setbacks, sometimes even catastrophy,...but you know what? If you see that dream, embrace it as you would "hubby" on your arrival back home, and much like Dorothy in "The Wizard of OZ" BELIEVE, it will happen, regardless of the naysayers of the world. Some day I'll write you and let you know how powerful this really is,...I've been there, done that,...and even have the Tee shirt!
-30-
Man, my five year plan is that Alex has a green card by the end of that timeperiod. I can't think past that one.
Five-year plan? How very Soviet.
I once read an article which said that asking questions like "where do you see yourself in five years?" in a job interview basically demonstrates either the interviewer's lack of experience, or their complete ignorance of the world in its current state... which makes sense, really. How can we live in a world where everything can change in a nanosecond, and then expect people to accurately predict a future ruled by chaos?? I was getting that particular question all the time in job interviews recently, and my response was always the same: "I don't think that far ahead anymore; it's not just futile, but borderline dangerous to assume our current existential paradigms will still hold validity or merit in any arbitrary timeframe" (or words to that effect, depending on the verbosity of the interviewer). And then, whilst they were reeling from the onslaught of my temporal nihilism, I'd slip in something almost inherently contradictory - usually: "having said that, I'd like to work in London sometime next year".
I'm such a mindfuck... but that line of questioning really is meaningless, and particularly in my field of IT, where a small program or website (malevolent or otherwise) can utterly redefine EVERYTHING overnight.
Where do I see myself in five years? I've no idea, baby, but I'd like to still be reading your blog in 2012.
oh my god, I can't believe people actually HAVE real 5 year plans.. Mine are always like "win lotto and learn to cook" - you know...imaginary stuff..
Finally, wants to open a stall selling freshly squeezed orange juice in various markets on the weekend just so he can meet people and chat with them and serve them juice.
Now that is extremely cool. :)
I have a five year plan... it's just that every 6 months around 60% of it changes!
I hate the diea of a five year plan. I have a hard enough time seeing one year out. Five years is so rediculously far out... ick.
And I never thought the telepathic thing was possible till I met the girl I'm seeing now... There's having a good connecgtion and then there's us... it's umm, odd. heh,
Aww, I like your hubbies plan. My five year plan involves finding a rich sugar daddy and spending all his cash. :P
Jezzy, Come back to us. We miss your candid "jezzy"
Yes - we miss you bunches, even more than you were missing bananas a few months ago during the Australian Banana Shortage. =o)
...and that's saying something!
Right, I think we need a petition.
BRING BACK THE JEZZY
*co-signed*
(with kisses and hugs and bananas)
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