Do you have any interest in the theatre? Your skill set is pretty well suited to working behind the scenes, e.g. director, producer, technician. Of course, the problem is that you won’t make any money with a career in the theatre, and it’s nearly impossible to break in. So, whatever you choose for your money-making career, you might consider doing some theatre on the side as an outlet for your creative side.
If you’re interested in advertising, you could consider the copywriter route. Being an account executive doesn’t sound like something you’d enjoy (lots of setting your own deadlines and keeping others to them). You’d need graphic arts training for the design aspect. I doubt media buying is anything you’d like (it’s a lot of negotiation and can be rather dry). But you do like to write.
Unfortunately, you need a portfolio of copy work to get in. Many start by doing writing for college organizations (doing volunteer fund raising copy, etc.), translate that into an internship, and then get hired (many advertising intern positions are unpaid). But there may be alternate routes. Your best bet is to find someone in the profession to take to lunch for an informational interview.
If you’re interested in any area of advertising, you’re extremely unlikely to get a job through sending resumes. Most get hired by being members of the local advertising or marketing clubs, working on club projects, making connections, and showing their quality of work through that.
Porn star
Interestingly enough, I thought the same thing. It was the “likable, authoritative” combined with “excellent at analyzing and critiquing”.
But, yeah, typoink, you’re right. It’s very difficult to break in as a designer these days.
What about project management?
You said that you are creative and somewhat authoritarian. Project managers have to be able to lead, but also think flexibly and analyze real-world solutions, rather than just parroting whatever is listed in a book as a best practice.
If you were a one-man IT department, then you may have actually performed project managment activities. Did you ever have to prioritize work, determine what resources were needed, structure your day/week/month yourself, attempt to reconcile seemingly contradictory requests, or decide to miss one deadline in order to make another one that you felt was more important?
Any chance you are creative enough to write? It takes discipline, but with the right encouragement, you never know. Also, you may have light experience, but with your fast learning curve & ability to get along well with others, I cant see where you’d really be out of place in any office in any capacity that doesn’t require a CPA, a JD, a certification, or a medical degree.
Q: Do you have any relatives or friends or former co-workers who might be able to open a different door for you?
PS- maybe I’m reading into this a lot, but I bet that if you looked a little deeper into your personal assets you’d find you have truly great friends who are there for you when you least expect it.
Join the Army. Benefits have never been better, it will take you places (geographically, physically and spiritually) you would never have know otherwise. It will teach you things you though you already knew, and things you never knew existed. And you can help save the world.
I’m too fat, too old, like being with my wife, and a pacifist.
I considered joining ROTC in college, but I closed that door long ago.
For the past year, I was actually considering pursuing a night school MBA in project management. I’ve been leaning against it since realizing that most “project managers” seem to spend their time managing, well, very, very dull projects. And because my past academic credentials are ho-hum and my finances tight, my school prospects seemed limited. I’m worried about winding up trapped in middle management at a company I don’t believe in. At least with a JD, I could hang a shingle or go into public service if the corporate rat race doesn’t work out.
It’s a maybe.
I’m creative enough to write, but don’t have the discipline. I just started a personal blog as a way to force myself to write more consistently and practice, but I don’t think writing professionally is in my future (pure creative writing, at least). I’d love to do it, and I’m not giving up hope that I’ll finish my novel someday, but I’m not going to bank my life on it anymore. I’ve started to realize that the succesful writers I’m aware of have an obsession with writing that I don’t.
Oh, and I don’t really have contacts that could open any interesting doors I’m aware of (outside of law or, yech, dentistry). If I went into computer programming, I have several friends in that profession, but I really just don’t feel it’s my calling – especially since I know people who really ARE called to programming.
I’ve often thought that my dream job would be that of a pastor – somebody whose job it is to deliver an informative-yet-entertaining presentation about common sense every week, help people with problems, and encourage charity and humanitarian aids. Unfortunately, I’m completely without religious faith. I’ve considered starting a cult, but I’m too honest and I doubt I could keep a straight face.
In case anybody was waiting with bated breath for a followup, my current frontrunner is psychology. I’m trying to get into school in the fall for a second BA and try to pursue a phD program. I’ve realized it’s probably the closest thing I know to a common thread in my other interests. I think I could be very good at it, and it (at least in theory) offers multiple career options, both in academics, private practice, and (with some adjustments) business. And it’s an excuse to learn hypnosis, which I’ve always really, really wanted to do.
I love the topic and always have, but always ruled it out as a possible career path for reasons I can’t fathom. It was my dream job through highschool, but I completely forgot about it once I got to college. It plays nicely with a lot of my peripheral interests, as well, including game design, art, and media. It will give me an option to dip my toe in teaching, without needing to commit my life to it. And I can say confidently that I’d fit into an academic social group. All my good friends are candidates for graduate degrees, and I’ve had trouble finding folks I can really talk to who AREN’T.
It also helps that my wife is starting to pursue an MSW, so we’ll have career crossover and hopefully support without necessarily stepping on each others’ toes.
Where does one find a job for someone who has no in-depth knowledge of anything, is undisciplined, terrible at networking, and gets bored easily where they can be a creative, critical authority on everything…but doesn’t like to blog?
Based on your combined interest of IT and legal shit, you might want to pursue a career in litigation consulting/litigation support. There are some exciting aspects like going in behind the US Marshals after they kick in the doors to some Enron corporation and researching the ins and outs of high profile legal matter. Then again, a lot of it is just the tedious minutae of running the software that helps high stressed lawyers read millions of emails during a document review. Upi had indicated, “not wanting to jump off a building” was listed as one of your criteria.
There’s no such thing as “trapped in middle management”. It’s up to you to continuously leverage your experience into a better and more interesting job. Project management is tough though. It takes discipline, in-depth knowledge and a lot of networking to get stuff done.
I thought about joining the military when I was younger. After some thought, I felt it wasn’t in line with my career goal of not having people shoot and throw bombs at me in some remote craphole.