Oh, That I Had Lived 1000 Years Ago...

... and apprenticed a blacksmith, or some such thing.

To this day, I don't know what I want to do with my life in the long run. Seven years and tens of thousands of dollars worth of higher education elapsed, including an MA, and I still have no set direction or desire. Such is the dark side of a well-rounded liberal arts path. Sure, I'm killer at trivia and a veritable "jack of all trades," but it all seems for naught when the only thing my job searches turn up with positive eligibility are entry level sales and service positions. Everything else seems to prefer that you be a "master of one." Is it just me, or does every single job that pops up on Monster.com look like it sucks?

At the moment, I'm in a relatively low-paying hourly retail position. I suppose it could be worse. After all, I did just finish one of two allowed weeks of paid vacation, and I'm already eligible for full benefits (when the next 27-second open-enrollment window comes around in November) not even having worked a year. I just feel unchallenged and directionless, and there are days on which my job performance suffers because of it.

Over the course of my long-yet-fragmented work history (something most people can attest to through their college/graduate years), I have come up with a list of things I absolutely DON'T want in a long-term career - with most boiled down to a keyword:

• sales
• financial
• marketing
  
• manual labor
• victimization (law enforcement, loss prevention, legal, etc.)
  
• food - be it cooking, serving, hauling, cleaning up after, etc.
  
• anything requiring me to set up my own appointments (See: Vector Marketing/Cutco)
• door-to-door
• up before the sun and/or the graveyard shift
  

Things that I would strongly prefer to avoid:

• work on weekends/holidays
• getting extremely dirty on a regular basis
  
• frequent long-distance travel or relocation

Must-haves at this point in my life:

• health insurance
• more than I'm making now
  
• reasonably near current residence
• something even remotely drawing on my education and/or talents
  

Would really love:

• casual dress
• any position at Google (HA!)

Fields that have piqued my interest:

• broadcasting (preferably radio)
• public relations
• quality control
• civilian support for USDoD
• selling everything I own, leaving the rat race altogether and joining a monastery, though they may take issue with my reformed/Calvinistic theology...
  

This post is partly a personal tool as I contemplate where I am and where I want to be. I'll probably update it several times, as I add/modify my lists.