Work Advice from a Non-Careerist

For this month, I've decided to take every Friday off. It's great to work 4 days a week and leave a day for blogging and running errands. I work hard but I don't take work too seriously. I can afford to do so because I don't see what I do as a career.

The career-minded professional has an upwardly-mobile outlook. I've never had a knack for that sort of thing, for my true interests always lie elsewhere. I've always wondered too, if I had decided to become a scientist (one of my many childhood ambitions), would I be a more fulfilled and contented person?

Well, I guess it is unlikely because, every job is kind of a career. A scientist has to get papers published and in an academic environment, it would literally be a paper-chase as academics are chiefly measured by their publications. Promotion opportunities are based on that for they are the easiest and most convenient measure of an academic's 'achievements'.   

I studied engineering chiefly because I liked science, not necessarily technology. Technology is an application of science, which in itself is not uninteresting, and I suppose a good compromise. As a kid, I loved building things, so it is not surprising that I ended up an engineer.  But then again, I was interested in many other things as a kid--I loved history, literature and art too. Would a career as a designer or a journalist been more rewarding for me?

But I doubt if any single career would have been a better choice. I have a naturally inclination not to be boxed into any kind of specialisation. I am interested in a wide a variety of subjects, and that's an instinct in me as natural as anyone would have in their choice of food. I guess, the mind yearns for a kind of balanced diet of intellectual pursuits.

Every subject provides some kind of nutrient that's important for one's intellectual growth.  Career-wise, that makes me a jack-of-all trades and a master of none. But I'm comfortable with that. Even in the area of IT from which I eke out my living, I have ended up performing many different roles throughout my career. By not being a specialist, I am also not an expert of anything. The advantage of that is that, you have a broader perspective of things; you rely on generic principles and common sense to get things done. 

In the field of technology, things get obsolete very fast. When you acquire knowledge of any software or framework, it is important to know how to distill its general principles. These principles will stand you in good stead through the vicissitudes of technological progress. 

I guess, I am happy being a non-careerist. It makes me enjoy my work more because I do it for 'fun'.  The reward of work is work itself--just like the performance of a religious ritual. When approached that way, work becomes a form of spiritual practice and its rewards go beyond the mere material.