My career goal is to make a bunch of money so that I can spend my time focusing on my passions:
- My religion (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)
- My family
- My liberty
- Food (eating, not cooking) - My wife is a rock’n good cook.
- Recreation - particularly skiing, biking, and basketball.
- Cars
How the heck am I going to do that? Ummm . . . I’m not sure; but I am living by some principles that will help me get there:
- Spend less than I make
- Only use debt as an investment tool (education, home, business, etc.)
- Never use debt to buy a toy
- Tithe 10%
- Save 10%
- Continue my education (in and out of school)
- [I keep writing "I" or "me" but really everything I just listed fully involves my wife and family so I should use "we"]
My talents are:
- Teaching - my key is focusing on underlying principles.
- Long, hard, manual labor - keeping my head in the books for more than a few hours is taxing, but when I’m doing physical work I get in a zone where I become almost unstoppable. I HATE leaving a job undone.
- Fixing things - this talent really manifested itself when I competed in automotive repair. At the request of my teacher, I entered and won a competition at the local level. That spring-boarded me to state and national competitions where I took 1st and 2nd respectively. Before that point I knew I enjoyed it, but I had no idea how good at it I was.
Throughout the path of my career I would like to:
- Work in the automotive industry - I think market research would be a good fit.
- Work in the renewable energy industry - solar, wind, hydrogen, geo-thermal, and others fascinate me!
- Write a book - I have one outlined already. I should write a post to tell you about it.
Near term:
I am using my time at the Census Bureau to gain some experience working with surveys and data. I might even pursue a Master’s degree in survey methodology or applied economics. I think this will position me well to make a transition into market research. I hope to end up in positions where not only do I analyze markets, but I also develop strategies for capitalizing on them.
My current job, while not particularly fulfilling, has been a great opportunity for my wife and I to get on our feet. We both graduated from college last year. We followed that shortly with a new baby.
Blogging has introduced me to a whole new skillset. I am working to become proficient in:
- Basic Wordpress development
- Web writing
- Web Analytics
- Various forms of online advertising
- Basic web design using Photoshop and/or Illustrator
- My latest project was a blog for my mom: http://mamacrane.com
So, going back to the orginal question of how I plan to make a pile of money, I obviously don’t know. But I think I am positioning myself well to take advantage of opportunities that come my way.
What do you think? Am I headed in the right direction? Are there other essential skills I ought to be developing?
Note: I hate MLMs and am not interested in getting involved in one. I have to throw that out there because this last year, for some reason, has brought on a bombardment of MLM proposals. MLMs do not fall under my career goals.
Vaughn used to work for an internet company. In the process of going to many different people’s homes, he was constantly given MLM pitches. I think he’s just about heard them all now. Crazy stuff.
I think your goals sound great. Vaughn is a statistician for the WA State Gov, so your current careers and goals are similar. Which is kind of strange actually. Anyway, I think automotive market research would be a great fit. I’m impressed with your career goals and drive. I hope it all works out for you and your cute family!