Exciting News! Announcing the HDFS Careers Podcast!
The last few months have been difficult for our world and country, and we still have a long road ahead. However, in the midst of so much pain, I am excited to be able to share some happy news. This May, I started the HDFS Careers podcast!
This has been a goal of mine for a few years now, and the extra time at home while social distancing gave me the added push to finally go through with it. In terms of the inspiration for the podcast, it has come from my own past experience as a student and my experiences working with my own students. Way back when I was in college, I read Roadtrip Nation: A Guide to Discovering Your Path in Life. The book summarizes interviews conducted by three recent college graduates traveling around the nation in an old RV. As they make their journey, they stop and interview people who are engaged in interesting work. Seems like a pretty basic premise, but this book was life-changing for me. By reading it, I realized that many people were working in jobs that I had never heard of and that nearly all of them had taken a winding path to get where they were. In the words of one of the professionals who they interviewed, "The path is never linear going forward. It's only linear in the rearview mirror" (Randy Komisar). This quote has definitely proved to be true in my own career. I can see how many of the jobs and experiences I had built upon each other to prepare me for my current role today.
Random Side Note: While creating the HDFS Careers podcast, I realized that Roadtrip Nation recently launched a podcast as well! I have only been able to hear one episode so far, but I recommend that podcast, too!
I remain curious about what other professionals are doing within the field of HDFS and family science. First of all, I simply love hearing about people's professional journeys. Second, I think these stories can help me to help HDFS majors and other family science students explore their own future possibilities. This brings me back to the podcast. I will be interviewing HDFS and other family science major graduates about their current jobs and how they ended up in them. My hope is that I can create a podcast library that serves as an additional helpful resource for students, recent graduates, and professionals changing careers. The podcast is pretty low-tech and informal, like meeting a professional for a cup of coffee to get to learn more about what they do and how they ended up doing it.
You can hear more about the general plan in this first quick episode at the player below. You can also listen and subscribe on iTunes. Look for the first interview to come out on Friday!