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Back when I was conceptualizing my book, You Majored in What? Mapping Your Path from Chaos to Career,  I struggled to find the best word to describe how my liberal arts students (and I) had found jobs over the years. Job search books seemed to fall into two basic camps: the "business" type books which are all about steps and linear models, and the "creative soul" type books which focus on "finding one's self" through the career process.  No book seemed to bridge the gap sufficiently and no book described how the process really worked.  My students (and I) didn't fit neatly into either of those categories.

Everything started to fall together when I stumbled on an article about the creative process.  The author quoted Nobel Laureate Herb Simon who essentially created the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI).  When asked how he developed the concept of AI, Dr. Simon described what he called his "network of possible wanderings."  He said that his degrees in computer science, psychology, and economics allowed his mind to "wander" into undiscovered places.  This "network of possible wanderings" becomes the mental space that can be combined in infinite numbers of ways resulting in creative discoveries.

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When I got the mockup of the Dogged Pursuit cover, with Dusty sailing over the bar jump against a backdrop of Elysian blue while looking more handsome and serene than he had anything close to a right to, I couldn't wait to share it. I sent jpegs out to various persons who had had a role in Dusty's life, including Natalie, his former foster mom at Central Illinois Sheltie Rescue.

She emailed me back almost immediately, brimming with enthusiasm for the entire project-about which this was the first she'd heard. CISR has a "brag" page, mainly devoted to alumni who achieve agility titles; I used to envision Dusty ending up there. By Natalie's reaction, it seemed this dream was not entirely lost; though it wasn't his successes but his failures-by being sufficiently comic to merit a book about them-that might do the trick.

But one thing perplexed Natalie: "I didn't recognize him on the cover. He looks like a blue, and that threw me. You changed his coloring for the design, right?"

Well, now she'd thrown me. Because there had been no tinkering with his appearance; I wouldn't have allowed it. He looks on the cover the way he looks in reality. Which is...well, dusty. Ashen. Swirls of silver laced by jets of charcoal. In the book, I even attribute his coat to having inspired his name.

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Katharine Brooks, Ed.D. is our guest blogger during the week of June 15th. If you have any questions for Katharine Brooks, add a comment to any of her posts.

Here is more information on You Majored in What?:

Has it happened yet? Have you been asked The Question? You know the one. It's the question that haunts you from your early undergrad days to months, even years, after you graduate... "What are you going to do with that major?" Inevitably this unleashes waves of anxiety, whether you're a liberal arts student unsure what your degree has prepared you for, someone with a "practical" major whose career field is oversaturated (or just unappealing), or a recent grad still searching for inspiration. But take heart - The Question is fundamentally flawed. Your major does not equal your job!

In You Majored In What?, nationally known career counselor Dr. Katharine Brooks dispels the myths and the old-fashioned thinking that can make your transition to the "real world" so daunting and chaotic. Developed from more than twenty years of teaching and guiding students to successful careers, her Wise Wanderings career coaching system helps you mine your academic and life experiences for career gold through creative yet practical techniques including visual mapping, storytelling, and experimenting. Thanks to the Wise Wanderings system, you can forget what you've been told about the job search. You don't have to know where you'll be in ten years. You don't have to have picked the perfect major. The job-finding process doesn't have to be one more burden on your already overburdened schedule. All you have to do is pay attention. Embrace the chaos. Think. Create maps. Construct small experiments. Celebrate your education. Consider possible lives. Tell stories. And start wandering. Wisely, of course. You'll be amazed at what's waiting out there for you.

 

 

 

 

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