What is your work history? What were your goals at the beginning? How well have you met those goals so far?

I’m not asking for employers, just what kind of work and for how long you did it. If you weren’t working for a while, “unemployed” will do. If you were traveling, then stating where you went will do.

Then tell us whether your work followed a career path, what motivated that path (career or more general principles or goals), and how well you think you’ve done at fulfilling that which motivated you.

Yeah, I know. It’s a lot. I think it will be fascinating if people are willing to actually take the time to do this. I’ll show you my history to show you what I’m looking for:

Laborer on a dairy farm (3 mos), college (1 yr), laborer on dairy farm (3 mos), college (1 yr), (summer in Europe), college (1 yr), roofer and general handiman (2 mo), work for father (1 mo), college (1 yr), unemployed (3 mo), carpenter’s helper (4 mo), unemployed (2 mo), Door to door fundraiser (4 yrs), intern at a union (3 mos), grad school (1 yr), intern for a city government department (3 mos), grad school (1 yr), unemployed (1 yr), research assistant for a union health policy department(2–3 yrs), administrative assistant for vice presidents of a union (1 yr), unemployed (1 yr), health policy analyst/policy analyst (all kinds of topics) at a consulting firm (12 yrs), unemployed (6 mo), research methods consultant at a university (7 yrs)

Is that a career? Is that a plan? Could I have foreseen that? All I knew was that I wanted to help people; I wanted to use my brain to do so; I wanted to affect public policy; I wanted to have a family and to love and be loved; and I wanted balance in mylife.

I think I met some of those goals and not others.