First Seven Jobs

Because who doesn't love being part of a trending topic? Here we go...

My first job was paper carrier for the Wednesday Journal of Oak Park and River Forest. My route covered the four blocks of East Avenue between Roosevelt Road and the Eisenhower Expressway. I walked my route every Wednesday for many years and received lots of nice tips every Christmas.

My second employer was the Park District of Oak Park, and I had three different positions over five summers. My first summer, 2006, I was a bike attendant for the pools, an entry-level position that was new that summer. The next year I was a pool maintenance technician, and the following three summers I was a facility operations coordinator, the shift supervisor for all the maintenance staff.

In between those summers, when I was a student at Wheaton College, I had two different jobs. I was a stage manager for the Conservatory of Music (to which I credit my eventual arrival in the arts management profession) for seven of my eight semesters of undergrad and an office assistant to Dr. Tim Yontz, the director of bands and music education and my major adviser, for four semester.

My first "career" job (and I am not counting freelance trombone performance gigs and a handful of private lessons) was Assistant Band Director at Hadley Junior High School in Glen Ellyn, a year with all the challenges of being a first-year teacher but one I overall enjoyed and am grateful for.

And those were my first seven jobs. If you've read my biography, and have now done the math, you will know that I am already at double-digits for number of jobs held. In addition to the three I have now (with two employers), I also worked for a few months in 2014 for Quinlan & Fabish Music Company. If the hashtag had been #firstelevenjobs, I would have just made it.

So there you have it, a narrative form of my resume!

On Professional Confidence

Over the weekend, I had the chance to talk by phone with one of my Wheaton College roommates. Paul is currently serving in the United States Navy, and at the moment he is at Naval Station Norfolk in the final major portion of his training as a helicopter pilot. He reflected to me that at this stage, he feels more "trusted" by his superiors than in previous stages and as a result he feels more confident in his work.

I realized that, even in my very different lines of work, I feel the same. Like Paul, I am now four years past completing my undergraduate studies, and within the last year I have felt more confident in my work. I credit it to accumulated experience as well as being trusted and empowered to take on greater challenges and responsibilities by my superiors.

I have had a number of people who in the context of being my boss have also served as professional mentors to one degree or another. They have continually encouraged me and challenged me, and I know that I am indebted to them for the professional success I have had to date. Having a tremendous education such as I received from Wheaton College was a huge foundation (apologies for the hyperbole, but anyone who knows me knows it is hard to resist when talking about Wheaton), but I know that my professional mentors were (and are) profoundly significant in my young professional years.

And so, for any more junior young professionals reading this, let me say two things. First, be patient with yourself if you feel that you have yet to "achieve" anything. And second, keep learning, and find professional mentors who can help you keep learning.

College and Education

Troy Boccelli, a senior at Walter Payton College Prep in Chicago, wrote for the Chicago Tribune last week about the value of a college education. He makes the observation that, in today's thinking in America, "The outlook is that if you don't attend college, you're probably McDonald's-bound." He then writes that we should focus on "re-evaluating the purpose of education."

All well and good, to both points. Boccelli's observation on the way non-college grads are viewed is fair, and I believe that the purpose of education should always be re-evaluated, otherwise we as a society will take it for granted and not make an adequate investment (either in the public or private sector).

However, I believe that college is about so much more than education, if by education we mean the transfer of knowledge and skills (Boccelli contrasts the professionals of a doctor and a plumber, and the differences in how the knowledge and skills for each are transferred, noting that plumbers do not need a college education to learn their trade). College should be about having a structured season of learning how to pursue knowledge and skills, not just of a given field of study but of life as a member of society. Particularly at residential colleges, young men and women experience the highest degree of personal responsibility of their lives to date. Relationships (both social and professional) form and develop in different ways, more closely to the way they form among adults, and "learning experiences" are often deeper because students do not "go home" from them at the end of the day. I firmly believe that college is a worthwhile investment, and I hope every person of influence, from all levels of government to the private sector to the educational institutions themselves, will consider what he or she can do to make college available to every young person.

Anyone who knows me will be able to guess where I will take my argument next: to the value of a liberal arts education. A young person who receives a liberal arts education, I believe, will be able to pursue any profession, from medicine to plumbing, with a deeper appreciation for the relationship between all branches of human knowledge, and can use the ability to make those connections to serve society holistically. I wonder what Troy Boccelli thinks about liberal arts education, and if he might be planning to pursue it?

Another Graduation in My Family

Yesterday, my family and I spent much of the day in Valparaiso, Indiana, to celebrate my younger brother, Paul’s, graduation from Valparaiso University. He is receiving a Bachelor of Science, cum laude, with a major in meteorology and minors in math and Spanish, and is also being made a Christ College Associate (Christ College is the Honors College of Valparaiso University).

Conferring of Degrees, Athletic-Recreation Center arena, Valparaiso University

We attended two events yesterday. First was a lunch reception hosted by the meteorology department. It was a quiet affair compared to some of the other receptions, as there were only a dozen seniors in that department. After some free time for pictures, we joined the crowds walking toward the arena in the Athletic-Recreation Center for the Conferring of Degrees.

The commencement address was delivered by Dr. John A. Nunes, the president and CEO of Lutheran World Relief. His brief message challenged the graduates to see “people as people” regardless of any distinguishing characteristics or status, in contrast to many of the generations before them.

The ceremony was lengthy, as there were some 700 degree candidates to recognize (both graduate and undergraduate degrees were awarded during the exercises). However, the setting was such that one could get up to stretch one’s legs if desired during the conferring of degrees themselves. I really liked that they had the University’s Chamber Concert Band provide the live music.

It was an exciting day of celebrating the Valparaiso University Class of 2013, and my favorite member of it.

From left: me, Paul, Mom, and Dad