Career Challenges and Satisfactions

Participants who selected helping careers were far more likely to express the enjoyment they experienced in their work than other participants. Most of them realize that they are not going to “get rich” in education or social work but believe the trade off in job satisfaction is worth it. Anna explains:

Gerontology, that was my first love in working with the seniors. I loved working with seniors. I worked with the hospital with adult daycare. I worked for Respite Care Services with Alzheimer’s patients. I really liked that. My last intern was with [a] Nursing Home with a diverse AIDS population and younger AIDS and paraplegic population. I liked working with that. … I’m not in social work to get rich and I know that. I picked the wrong profession if I was going to get rich. I like my work and I like working with students. I love the joy on their face when they achieve some personal goal that they have set for themselves.

Pamela started working toward an education certificate but decided to switch to social work because:

I am the sort of person that just likes helping everybody so I figured I might as well just go ahead with Social Work... There is no money in Social Work. A lot of people have said that to me. I think there is enough money for me to live a good life. I am not looking to be rich.

At 63, Nina looks forward to retiring in a few years but still is deeply involved in the domestic violence counseling she has been doing for the past 17 years.

I enjoy what I’m doing. I work with the women. I work within the Hispanic community dealing with domestic violence. … seeing the changes in the women that I work with in the battered women house. Some of them with barely any self-esteem whatever, the attitude changes completely, there are things that they can do. The satisfaction from even a few cases is sufficient for me to say that what I’m doing is worthwhile.

Sophie found her work as a high school teacher helping troubled teens a solace at a time of personal tragedy.

I lost a son 10 years ago due to drugs and he committed suicide. That kind of set me back, but then at the same time, I was working with what we called SACK team at school. Students in this program had problems in growing up. At that time, I was doing that. It just makes me want to deal with more people more and more.

Teaching others the basic skills she learned gives Marcia a sense of importance.

I’m able to feel good to see that what I’m teaching them, I already know. I feel like: ‘Wow, I’m so important.’ I don’t want to forget that I was there too. I don’t want to make myself look as though I am that important. I want other people to get the reward of learning how to read.

Agnes works with women in the correctional system as a way of giving back to others the gift of learning she received.

… I volunteer with the women at the Correctional institute. We encourage them to achieve their goals even though they are incarcerated and prepare them for when they get out. I tell them my story. There have been a lot of changes in my life. I do a lot of giving because some one gave to me.”