Last week I contacted four former professors and, providing them with a description of my skills, asked what they thought a good career direction would be. The results were pretty interesting.

Let me start by articulating what exactly my skills are.

Long version:
I’ve come to realize that my “gift”, as it were, is language. For instance, I was able to teach myself Korean by translating song lyrics with a dictionary; furthermore, I got so far using just this method that I was able to bypass 3 full university-level courses. This shows that I was able to not only learn vocabulary, but to pick up on the patterns within the dictionary’s example sentences and figure out structures such as subject/object markers and tense, all without it ever being expressly taught to me. This also demonstrates a high level of analytical thinking and an ability to draw from a wide area of knowledge to form conclusions. I am able to see patterns and connections in language (both within a language and between languages) that many people cannot. It is worth noting, however, that my talent extends only to written language; although I am able to quickly pick up language when I can see it in writing, I have a very difficult time with listening comprehension and speaking. I am not interested in translation or teaching, and although Korean was my primary language interest, I am interested in language as a whole, and not necessarily just one particular language.

Short version:
I am exceptionally talented at finding patterns, seeing connections, analysis, and written language acquisition. I have a very analytical mind and, although this is seen most strongly in language acquisition, it can be applied to pretty much everything.

And, even though I am not interested in programming, I am still interested in high tech in general. So I’d like something that incorporates my skills and interests.

Luckily, the people I contacted were eager to be helpful. Among the things they suggested were cryptography, government language analysis, and linguistics.

One reminded me that computer science isn’t always about programming, which is a point well taken.

Interestingly, even though I specifically contacted people with a wide variety of backgrounds to get as many viewpoints as possible, each of them suggested government work with various agencies. A couple of them were kind enough to offer to introduce me to their contacts (government workers or recruiters) who might be interested in me, or who might be able to further guide me.

I do have a bit of reservation about applying for a government job again, though. Last time I didn’t make it through the security clearance process (and of course they don’t tell you why). Since I had decided just minutes before I got the letter that I didn’t want the job (I made the decision while driving home), it wasn’t devastating, but it was still a bit of a blow to be rejected. I’m somewhat hesitant to apply for a position that I really, really want, only to be denied.

There is also the issue that most of these jobs aren’t in Hawaii. One thing I considered that would keep us here is going into research, and trying to get a job at UH or something. I considered studying linguistics, cognitive science, natural language processing, neuroscience, psychology. NLP/computational linguistics in particular is an area that would make heavy use of my tech background. Buuuuut it’s not something I’m very sure about just yet.

In any case, I really appreciate the fact that my former professors took time out of their day to offer their insights to me. I sent off the emails half-expecting to get no replies, so I’m really thrilled that they not only replied, but replied thoughtfully. Their answers do offer a new area to explore.

I’m also thankful that Toby’s been so patient, especially since I know he doesn’t understand my need to find a career that makes best use of my talents. Thank you, Toby. ♥