It all started at a Frat House

Hi! Now that I have your attention…thanks for stopping by. I wanted to start by giving you a bit of background as to how Pathfindher career coaching was born.

If you’re reading the title of this post and scratching your head….I know what you’re thinking. What does a frat house have anything to do with finding your next career move? Although modern day frat houses seem like a less-than-ideal spot to have a career revelation, that’s where mine began 15 years ago.

I was a senior in college doing a work study position for the Career Development Office at Indiana University. Most of my job included filing papers, greeting people and maybe sitting in on a workshop or two. It was fine, the people were nice and gave me a little extra beer money for Two Dollar Tuesdays.

One day I went to work, and one of the career advisors had called in sick. She was slated to present at 5 different fraternity house chapter meetings showcasing the services offered at the Career Development Office and doing light resume reviews. As I was about to volunteer to email the fraternities to cancel the presentations, her boss popped in and asked if I wanted to fill in for her. As a 22-year-old with a pretty wide-open schedule, I really had no excuse to say “no” other than the obvious fact, I really had no clue what I was doing. So I grabbed a rolling cart with materials and made my way up North Jordan street to the first frat house on the list.

The first house I visited had nothing we requested set-up. No projector, no microphone and, most notably, no sign of interest when I said “Hi! I’m here to talk about career development”. I went through the presentation fending off a few eye rolls, but overall, I thought it went as well as it could go given the circumstances. Much of my other 4 visits that day were the same. Some polite nods, some blank stares and overall just an average reception. As I was leaving the last house, one of the chapter presidents stopped me and said “Hey, I have never met anyone more excited to present to a group of uninterested college students before. You seem like you really love this stuff so keep doing it, it’s important work”.

If this was a perfect story, I’d tell you I decided then to dive headfirst into the world of career coaching. I would put all my energy towards doing the very thing that excited me, even with a tough crowd. But….this isn’t the perfect story.

I have actively spent the last decade pursuing fulfilling roles, but nothing that fully aligned with my interest in career coaching. I would dip my toe in water and do some resume reviews, and the minute someone would ask if they could refer me to their friend, I’d say “no, I just do this for fun” and I would move on. I played it safe, and didn’t want to take a risk.

When I think about all the years, I brushed off the joy this work brought me and discounted it as just something I do for fun, it makes me feel a bit sad. Not just for me but thinking about how many of us ignore the glimmers and signs that give us energy and purpose and how many of us push things off for the “right time”. It took a fraternity house president, 15 years, a husband, 3 kids and a lot of living in between to make the choice to try,

So as you reflect on your own career journey, know that no career is linear, and today may just be the perfect day to start something new.