QUESTION FROM A MILITARY SPOUSE
I am trying to decide between two career paths. The first is one that I know I enjoy and already have experience in. However, it is not an extremely portable career. The second is a brand new career that I have no experience in, but think I could possibly enjoy. This second option is more portable for a military spouse, but also requires me to attend graduate school.
I find myself trying to decide between having a career I love, but only being able to work when I am stationed in certain areas, or having a career that I am okay with, but always being able to find a job no matter where I go. What do I do?
ANSWER
This sounds like a question of liking your career versus loving it. Another question to ask is whether you will always regret not picking your first love of a career. Will you resent yourself for not following through with what you knew you wanted? I also wonder if you are selling yourself short. How do you absolutely know you won’t be able to make that career portable? For example, politics is a career that is probably most useful when you live in a capital city and I could see how that would be a hard career to follow if you lived at, say, Camp Lejeune. However, you could set up your own political consulting firm or running a politics blog where you give your opinion on current events (it could help you get noticed and show you can work in politics remotely). Yes it would be tougher and take more work, but it isn’t impossible. And the fact that you are on this site right now tells me you have the ambition and drive to make it happen.
At the same time, there is a lot to be said for not having to stress about finding a job. I think you need to weight job security vs. job satisfaction and decide which matters more to you in your career.
WHAT DO YOU ALL THINK? HAVE YOU BEEN IN THIS SITUATION?
The Ambition Mission 