Gap year

 Here is a two part blog from a former student on her taking a gap year.

I always intended to graduate college in eight semesters. No gap year or semester, just take classes until I could finally be free of school forever. Then Covid-19 happened and everything moved to Zoom. Many of the most rewarding and engaging aspects of the college experience completely disappeared, and I was miserable. Halfway through Fall 2020, I accepted a Spring 2021 co-op that was like the light at the end of a tunnel.

Though I was excited, there were a lot of negative aspects to consider: an extra semester in school (and paying extra rent), graduating after all my friends were gone, and getting a later start on “the rest of my life.” My mom was also worried about me struggling to get back into the swing of academics afterward, losing those months of full-time income, and just doing something that wasn’t so clearly mapped out.

I still feel taking this internship was so much more valuable than what I could’ve learned in the classroom. There are plenty of articles out there about the merits of internships and having work experience in your field before graduating, so I’m not going to rehash those specific benefits. However, co-ops during a semester offer the opportunity to work on long-term projects, as many of them will run anywhere from four to six months and can extend into the summer for eight months total. This gives you more time to become confident in performing your job, enhance your skill set so you’re entrusted with more important or complicated tasks, and allow you to network with more people in the company.

Another benefit of taking a co-op, whether or not you need to delay your graduation, is getting an extra internship experience before going to work full-time. If, like me, you’re considering a wide spectrum of fields, you’ll have an extra opportunity to do a trial run in one of those fields. Some careers require graduate school, certification, or a series of exams in order to break into the industry. The field I’m currently working in requires multiple exams with hundreds of hours of studying even before finishing the degree, so it is helpful for me to learn now if the studying is worth my time or if I’d rather pursue a different career. I can also shape my coursework and extracurricular opportunities depending on what I learn about myself.

Also, although many employers likely won’t care how many internships you had as long as you have had one, having multiple gives you the benefit of the most prestigious one and/or the one most relevant to the job opening. In my experience (and my friends’ experiences as well), it was much easier to get responses from places with more fulfilling and coveted intern programs once I already had one internship under my belt.

 

 

Negotiating your career path

 I have been teaching mostly seniors for the past 12 years.  For much of the school year, they are obsessed with what college they want to attend.  This is stressful for most students, and when they finally make the decision, they feel a sense of relief.  This lasts only for a second, as the next question is what’s your major. 

When I walked into my first college class, my career goal was to be a professional gambler.  I remember telling a female friend of mine this aim, and her response was, “Phil, you have to grow up sometime.” As the college years went on, I switched from wanting to be a gambler to aspiring to become a college basketball coach.  When I told this same friend, her reply was, “Still a dreamer.”  

When I graduated college and took a job with Domino’s Pizza, my father’s first reaction was, “You went to college to make pizzas?”  Years later, when I left the corporate world to pursue my true passion of teaching, my dad chipped in with, “Can you support a family with what teachers make?” 

My point is that most of us do not know what we want to do at a young age.  If all my seniors went home and told their parents that they were going to get married next week, most parents would object.  You hardly know the person, you are too young, and maybe you should wait a while.  If we don’t expect teenagers to know with whom they are going to live the rest of their life, why do we expect them to know what job they want to do for the rest of their life? 

College should be about exploring, not building a resume.  Take some classes that interest you. If you still like them, maybe try an internship.  When you graduate, find a job you think you can be passionate about.  If that job doesn’t work out, find another.  You don’t continue to date a person you don’t like, so why stick to a job you aren’t passionate about? 

When I moved from job to job, I often thought that I was wasting my life away.  Now, I realize that if I didn’t chase those dreams, I might not have found my true passion, which is teaching.  I always thought my one strength as a teacher is that I love to come to work every day.  How many people can say that? 

Therefore, the challenge to all of us is to allow our kids the chance to find their place.  Stop trying to pigeonhole them into something they are not sure they want to do. 

I will end with one of my favorite sayings:  Life is messy.  Get used to it.  That is what makes the journey worthwhile. 

Humility

 Most people do not know the name Doug Polk. At one time, Doug was considered the best heads-up no-limit Texas hold’em player in the world. Heads-up no-limit Texas hold’em is a card game, and at the highest levels, the stakes involve hundreds of thousands of dollars.

One day, Doug found himself at the poker table, bored, disinterested and just not wanting to be there. He decided to retire from poker and invest his time in his other business interests.

Fast-forward two years, and Doug decided to return in one of the biggest challenge matches in poker history. His supporters were betting on him based on his history as the best no-limit hold’em player in the world.

Doug, however, realized that the game had changed tremendously. He would have to relearn the game that he once had mastered. He was betting on his ability to work hard and learn. He immediately sought out the best players in the world to help coach him, and he put together a team that would allow him to gain the knowledge he needed to win the match. Humility (more here) and confidence are a great combination. It allows us to have confidence in our strengths but also be aware of our weaknesses—the confidence to make decisions as well as the humility to examine those decisions and realize that many of them are wrong.

What can we learn from Doug’s experience? No matter how successful you are, be open-minded to different viewpoints. Surround yourself with colleagues and peers who will challenge your beliefs. Ask yourself, do I question my own opinions and beliefs? Do I value opinions that are different than mine? Do I like finding information that is different than what I think? Your confidence should be more in your ability to learn than in the decisions you make.

Doug went on to win more than $1 million in the challenge. The combination of humility and confidence certainly paid off.