Career Advice

I just finished my second career day at Mount Saint Joseph High School, a local all-boys Catholic high school, and as usual I managed to prove that I have no business speaking at a career day. Why do they keep asking me to these things?

The school pairs two folks with complementary occupations for three 40-minute sessions in front of a class of sophomores and juniors. Last time they paired me with a radio news reporter, whose career path was quite logical: majored in broadcast journalism in school, snagged an internship at a small radio station, worked his way up the lader, etc.

This time they paired me with a graphic designer whose father, coincidentally, I had written about years ago. He has a degree in art, took three years of graphic design classes, went to work for a publishing company fresh out of college and is still there. He took the right classes, met the right people, did everything the books say to do.

So the students are listening, nodding and jotting notes during his presentation. They're thinking, "Hey, this guy is 27 and he has his act together." I'm thinking the same.

My turn. I tell them the truth: I've never taken a course in either of my careers in my life, started out in newspapers as a reporter (and later an editor) by walking into the local newspaper and offering to work for free if they'd let me learn a little about the business, switched careers to advertising eight years later when I won a job interview in a poker game.

I've seen more expression on the faces on Mount Rushmore, and nobody is taking notes while I'm speaking. At the question and answer sessions after the presentations, no one is asking me for any career advice.

Too bad. I'm a pretty fair poker player.