My new career(s)!

UPDATE, October 27, 2023: I thought it might be fun (?) to update on What Happened Next, as at the time I did this career-searching stuff, I was "between jobs."

2010: I got hired at Shaw, as a tech support person (not on the list, though #18 Computer Trainer could be a very loose fit). After six months, I was ready to look into joining the clergy.

2012: Langara College, working in...tech support! I stayed at this job until August 2021, almost nine years. By the end, I was looking at joining the clergy again.

2021-present: Working on my own as an indie game developer. I love it! I haven't released my first game yet, so I'm not exactly rolling in dough, or even Play-Doh, but if you mash together about six of the career suggestions below, and squint a lot, you might get something resembling programmer or developer.

NOTE: While the Career Cruising link still works, it just redirects to their main page, not a career matchmaker or anything other than BUY OUR SERVICES, OK?

As part of a career exploration program, I recently checked out a site called Career Cruising. The Matchmaker section has you answer 39 questions and then spits out a list of 40 possible careers based on your answers. Here’s my full list:

1.     Acting Instructor
2.     Professor
3.     Clergy
4.     Bereavement Counsellor
5.     Addictions Counsellor
6.     Sport Psychology Consultant
7.     Developmental Service Worker
8.     Adult Education Teacher
9.     Art / Music Therapist
10.     Website Designer
11.     Foreign Language Instructor
12.     ESL Teacher
13.     Psychologist
14.     Actor
15.     Curriculum Specialist
16.     Desktop Publisher
17.     Cartoonist
18.     Computer Trainer
19.     Gerontologist
20.     Occupational Therapist
21.     Animator
22.     Director of Photography
23.     Multimedia Developer
24.     Director
25.     Social Worker
26.     Marriage and Family Therapist
27.     Abuse / Crisis Counsellor
28.     Religious Worker
29.     Community Worker
30.     Psychiatric Aide
31.     Recreation Therapist
32.     Set Designer
33.     Comedian
34.     Casting Director
35.     Costume Designer
36.     Music Teacher / Instructor
37.     Print Journalist
38.     Humanitarian Aid Worker
39.     Critic
40.     Musician

And here’s my take on the Top 10:

1. Acting Instructor Is this like being a drama teacher, except for adults? I could see myself doing this, as I actually studied acting when I first entered college. Whether I’d want to do it is another matter.
2. Professor A professor presumably needs a field of expertise. Would video games count as a subject matter? I was pretty good at Ms Pac-Man back in the day. Other than that, I got nothin’.
3. Clergy This one is perfect, assuming there is an untapped demand for agnostic gay priests.
4. Bereavement Counsellor For better or for worse, I am the type of person who employs sarcasm on a regular basis. I could be wrong, but I think sarcasm is not often used to comfort people grieving the loss of someone. “To be fair, most people never liked him, anyway, amirite?”
5. Addictions Counsellor See #4. “Man, I remember when I was drinking chocolate milk every day, I couldn’t stop, so I totally understand how it is with you and heroin.”
6. Sport Psychology Consultant I’m not even sure what this career would involve. Telling people to not worry about others laughing at them when they jog? Advising on cycling pants that make you look less fat? Sharing feel-good stories with amateur sports teams for a low, low fee?
7. Developmental Service Worker This is some kind of social worker. I could do this because I’m pretty patient listening to tales of woe. If I then had to do something about the woe, it could get tricky…     
8. Adult Education Teacher I could teach newbies how  to use a computer and navigate the Internet. If I could stop just one person from sending money to a prince in Nigeria, it would be worth it.
9. Art / Music Therapist This stuff is just weird. If I had to create my own art or music I’d probably end up filling mental hospitals as my skills are somewhat underdeveloped when it comes to drawing and playing an instrument. If I had to merely apply art or music to improve the mental or emotional health of people…the result would be the same, most likely.
10. Website Designer This one is plausible as I’ve built and maintained websites before, including several from scratch. Of course, that was mostly back when everything was HTML code written in Notepad and good design meant it didn’t induce seizures or cause your computer to spontaneously reboot, so I’d need to acquaint myself with more modern techniques and that would involve programming and that wouldn’t be pretty because my brain treats programming like a foreign language it doesn’t want to learn, ever.

Overall, a few possibilities and more than a fair share of “39 questions is obviously not enough”. There is an option to answer a total of 100+ questions, so if I run the Matchmaker again, I’ll highlight the new results here.