i tend to think of the careers industry as both a pyramid scheme and a cult an invaluable service. many people have benefitted from good careers advice. and some have gone into space after receiving excellent careers advice (probably). while others have become high-flying careers advisors, who have successfully recruited more souls to the church cause of helping others become careers advisors.

# i might have benefitted from something i am skeptical of

not that one can tell, but i have attended my fair share of cv workshops, and what next sessions. maybe i don't know how to take advice. that's certainly a possibility. or perhaps my expectations of these sessions are out of whack. i don't know. i do, however, have a sense that i haven't benefitted from them. and, that that might be nonsense.

there's a non-zero chance that i might jump ship soon. and i haven't got another boat lined up. so, i trotted along to a careers workshop, because i felt a tiny bit obligated, and like i owe it to myself. maybe.

quick grumble: it did not need to be a full day.

grumble over. there were plentiful breaks, and the free lunch was good.

there was a heavy emphasis on networking bleurgh and the hidden job market. to which my inner toddler screamed "but i don't want to join linkedin".

early on in the day we were asked to draw our career path. however we wanted. one suggestion was to draw it as a river. i graphed the thing. and endeavoured to be as cough objective as possible.

# some observations:

when in employment cash and (my perception of my) prospects are positively correlated. whereas when in training, cash tends to dip, but perception of prospects rises.

peak feelings (which some might call happiness) tend to be followed by a dip in prospects. which is a shame. because that tends to drag the feelings down.

generally, feelings are all over the place.

not withstanding the fact that this was hastily and meticulously plotted on the BoW scale, i had an uncomfortable realisation as soon as i lifted my pen...

| <--- Better <-- Or --> Worse ---> |

...there must be some kind of mistake. no way are my "prospects" that high.

having never felt like i've had a positive experience in the workplace, and being void of confidence, i had come to assume that my prospects weren't great. but, here in front of me, was a line. a line i had just drawn. a line showing that my prospects are +10 squares on the BoW scale.