Outside In

Saturday, July 23, 2005 Wednesday evening in Cambridge, I met a career counselor who works for Career Source at the Fresh Pond Mall.  I left work early in Quincy and drove directly over there in rush hour traffic.  It took me more than 90 minutes to get there and I was five minutes late.

I met with David, the career counselor that a friend of mine recommended.  We talked for over an hour.  I told him about my long search for the right career path.  I was almost stunned when he suggested the seven stories exercises from the Bolles book, What Color is My Parachute?  Then I surprised him when I told him that I've done that before 12 years ago.   That only led me to volunteering at WBCN a year later in 1994.  I spent almost six years of volunteering there and that didn't lead me to any new career path.

Then I told him about other things I did over that 12 year period while searching for the right career: networking, cold calls, meet and greet parties, informational interviews, volunteering, joining professional organizations, being part of a committee, etc.

The worst part of that meeting was that he didn't bother to read the application I had filled out three weeks ago at Career Source that explained my situation.  He had never heard of Asperger's Syndrome and Non-Verbal Learning Disorder.  Then he told me that I should put my writing career on hold in order for me to do a job search.  My current daytime job is not financially rewarding.

I had to maintain calm when he suggested that I put my writing on hold.  That made me keep quiet about my blog and websites.  I did tell him about my planned memoir and how I am re-working the query letter.

He gave me some papers about doing the seven stories and an infomercial excersize.  He told me to come back for a few more appointments with him.  I told him that I had to think about  it.


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