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A friend and former colleague once gave me the advice: "Be careful what you do a lot of... because you're going to do a lot of it." That was shortly before I decided to take the plunge and move back to Germany to work for IDEO. Since that time (late 2004), I've worked for three different companies on three different continents. Now that I'm planning to head back to grad school (either this September or next January), it feels like the thing that I'm "doing a lot of" is actually "changing what I'm doing." At least I'm consistent. ;-)
So what is it about transitions that make them so difficult, yet so attractive? The excitement of something new is certainly a factor, but I've also changed and refocused my goals as I've learned more about the world. Around the time that I graduated from high school there was a statistic floating around that people in my generation would go through five different careers over the course of their life. Not just jobs, but careers. It seemed ridiculous at the time, but maybe I just didn't know how wide my interests were.
What's all this mean on a larger scale? It means more stress, for one. Anybody who has seen me go through deciding what next step to take knows that it's never taken lightly. But, in a larger sense, it means more specialization and more adaptability of the workforce to the needs of the economy. From the dotcom bubble to the recent recession, the more people are willing to learn and change to make themselves more marketable in a changing economy, the better of the country (and world) is as a whole.
There's something in here about the difference between changing yourself to be marketable in a changing economy and changing yourself to become and to do what you want to be and do, but there are a lot of pictures in the post, and I don't want the text to be too long. Feel free to add comments below!
On to the photos (I'm all caught up! Woohoo!)
Some random, non-work, life-in-Addis stuff...
I did lights for the latest production from Addis Stage, the local English-language community theater group. Lots of fun, but lots of work. We effectively built a theater out of an unfinished building site. I think it worked pretty well for the show, "Road" by Jim Cartwright, described as a "gritty portrayal of urban decay in Thatcher-era England."
Work stuff...
And, the last of my catching-up photos! These are from my crazy trip back to visit family in Denver over Christmas...
Parting shots...
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