Career Workshops

My career (transition) workshop is a group of 8 people, and we meet every Monday evening for two and a half hours.  That is quite a time commitment, at least for me, and we also have homework to complete in between.  It has just been a phenomenal experience!  I've met people I never would have met otherwise, and I've learned so much about myself...

A greatly simplified explanation of the process is that we have been working steadily using a variety of methods to identify our skills, our passions and our talents. After that we brainstorm and come up with three potential new careers that match up with what we have learned.  I sort of cheated on that part, because when I entered the program I had the tiny house idea in my head already.  (My other idea is construction related.)  I remember telling my coach when she passed out the list of careers that matched me, "I am pretty sure that my career doesn't exist on any list anywhere yet.  It's probably something that I am going to make up."  She was completed unfazed by that - in fact, she encouraged it.  She said when she started her business of coaching people through career transitions that nobody was doing that at the time, either.  So - onward! 

But what the workshops have done for me is to validate that I do indeed have the skills and talents for a career involving tiny houses, and that those skills and talents are somewhat unique. That sort of surprised me, because I thought everyone could do the things that I can do - I really didn't think they were unusual. The workshops have also given me the foundation to see how I can turn the tiny house into a life style and an occupation.  It's so exciting!  

I went to college to be in the legal field, and I've done very well in legal. But I am ready to try something new.  My coach tells me that being an engineer would have been ideal for me, but when I was choosing what to pursue in college, nobody ever uttered the word "engineering" to me, and I don't recall taking any type of assessments to see what I would be naturally good at.  (And I cannot see myself going back to school...)

After we identify potential careers, we research people and companies in that/those field(s) and then contact them.  We aren't necessarily contacting them to be employed by them, but more to gain knowledge about the field.  I chose to first contact Jay Shafer, the Founder of Tumbleweed Tiny House Company.  You really can't say "tiny house" without saying "Jay Shafer."  More to come!

How it All Began

Honestly, I'm not even sure how it all began.  Having my tiara for the Queen of Rationalization firmly affixed on my head, I can rationalize starting my story as a child - a child growing up in Minnesota, spending summers in small cabins on crystal clear lakes and cranking our own vanilla ice cream.  But that would be a very long story and I'd probably lose you along the way.

I could jump ahead to my love of camping and the outdoors. But camping stories?  Endless rabbit trails, and we'd never arrive at our destination.

Or I could start with my lake property.  I had been a renter for years.  And then after a small financial windfall I leapt out of my box and bought 3 lakefront lots, intending to build a weekend cabin.  Ohh the fun!  I spent weeks pouring over cabin books about building small. Ultimately, after a great bit of education I sold the land, and at a profit.

And then the interest rates dropped, and buying a house started to seem like a good idea.  Friends and family encouraged me - "you should buy!  Rates are so low!" 

"But I love that nothing is tying me down, that I could just pick up and leave at any time!"

"But you never do.  You've been in the same area in the same job for years." 

[long silence]

It was true.

And so I bought a house and began small renovations, and furniture buying and lawn mowing and gardening.  And then...

Somewhere along the way, I found the tiny house movement, and the more I read about it, the more it called to me.  On my old 1929 Tudor blog I see an entry I made on July 18, 2011 wherein I was musing about Tumbleweed Tiny Houses...

My boyfriend of ten years (ten! TEN!) has long wanted to be in an Airstream camper, on the road.  He jokes about buying a sack of potatoes and disappearing.  For a while he tried to convince me to join him but I was steadfast in my refusal.  "I need dirt to dig in."

"You can have whiskey barrels of plants on the back end."

Mmmm .... not enough. 

But when things culminated - the last of which was the beat down of the June 13th hailstorm when I lost all the landscaping I had so lovingly nurtured... and I kept reading more and more about tiny living...I knew that my life needed an overhaul.  A big one.

Meanwhile, a head hunter I'd been working with recommended a career coach to me.  A woman named Helen Harkness (http://www.career-design.com/) who specializes in career transitioning and has owned her own business for over 35 years.  I called her, and honestly?  Fairly skeptical after our initial telephone conversation.  But feeling so discouraged, and yet so determined to keep putting one foot in front of another in some small way, I agreed to go for the free consultation.  It take long to be mesmerized by this woman who made all things seem possible.  I had the power.  I could have freedom. I could make a new life plan.

I should not be rash.  Make a plan. YOYO she said. 

"You're On Your Own."

I signed up with her in May 2012.  Change was coming.