One Clear Dot

When I graduated from college with a degree in English and a degree in Journalism, I had to work hard to carve out a niche for myself in the professional world. I was not like my roommate, who got her degree specifically in hotel management. She went right into the job she wanted after graduating, because she had such a good idea of what she wanted to do while she was still in school and she made sure her education was pinpointed to the skills she would need.

My path was much less defined. Throughout my career I have had to carve my niche. I’ve worked in radio, television, public relations, advertising, market research, and publishing. I finally retrained myself in graphic design and worked in that field for years. And recently, I got my certification to teach. Now I have to carve my niche in the world of teaching. It’s like starting over again.

My friend Devon always knew she wanted to do into corporate real estate. It is what her parents both did for a living. She very specifically works leasing Toronto office suites. She both rents out and manages the Toronto serviced offices that her firm owns. In the world of real estate, she is about as niche as you can get. In the better business locations in Toronto, space for lease can be difficult to obtain in just the right specifications for your business, so Devon’s tends to find most of their business with smaller firms that don’t need entire floors in a building. She says it is like working a jigsaw puzzle sometimes.

The entire point of this post is that I believe that if you can have an idea of what you want to do, you need to fine tune both your education and your experience to head in the right direction as early as possible. I spent too many years trying different jobs that entailed writing, and it took me a while to go from having jobs to having a solid career.

Posted on December 30th, 2007 by onecleardot
Filed under: The Way People Think