My 3 Possible Futures:
#1. My current plan for my life is to continue to pursue a degree in accounting.
Description: Based on my interest in accounting, I think I would be satisfied and happy with this life. I would like to think that pursuing this career will give me a relatively financially stable life. I don’t need to be rich, but it would be nice to not have to constantly stress about money and live paycheck to paycheck. If I am successful in this path, I hope to be able to have the life I’ve envisioned.
5 Year Plan:
| Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 |
| – Join Accounting Society and Beta Alpha Psi | – Apply for internship at Grant Thornton | – Graduate with 4 + 1 Program (get Bachelor’s & Master’s at the same time)
– CPA exam |
– Apply for full-time position at Grant Thornton
|
– Get married
– work toward promotion |
Evaluation: Confidence: 7; Resources: 7; Impact: 5; Satisfaction: 8
Rapid Prototyping: I talked to my uncle who is a partner at Grant Thornton. He also went to CSULB and told me that a great way to build your resume, get access to resources, and differentiate yourself is to join The Accounting Society and Beta Alpha Psi. He got two great job offers after he graduated and has worked hard ever since and has worked his way up to partner at his current firm. He’s very satisfied with his job and his life and often gets to travel for work.
#2. If accounting were to disappear tomorrow, my plan would shift to working with kids.
Description: I’ve always enjoyed working with kids, I’ve just never been sure if it’s what I want to do for a living. I work every summer as a day camp counselor and do a lot of babysitting as well. I know for sure that if this were to be my job I would be good at it, and even though it’s not my first choice I know I would be satisfied. I would likely try to continue working with kids in recreation.
5 Year Plan:
| Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 |
| – continue working in Parks and Rec for the City of Long Beach | – apply for a level 7 job with the city and do more coaching | – work as a level 7 (camp director & after-school program director) | – get married
– complete portfolio to submit to become a park supervisor |
– work as a park supervisor
– have a kid |
Evaluation: Confidence: 10; Resources: 9; Impact: 8; Satisfaction: 8
Rapid Prototyping: I already have years of experience working with kids and know about the process of working your way up the chain of command in the Parks and Recreation Department for the City of Long Beach. I also talked to my boss (a current park supervisor) about it to get a little more information. He told me that all the different jobs you at any level of recreation specialist can be included in your portfolio when you apply for a top-level position. So, it’s important to keep track of and log different responsibilities as you go along.
#3. If I were financially secure and could do absolutely anything, I would become a travel blogger.
Description: I think that this would be such an amazing job. To get to travel the world and share your experiences with people sounds so incredible. To me, this definitely doesn’t seem possible unless I were to somehow come into a lot of money and not have to worry about being able to pay for the costs of living when I wasn’t traveling. I would love to be able to say that my job is just to travel places and share my experiences. It would be awesome to be able to do this someday and if it’s not possible, I hope to at least be able to do a little bit of traveling on my off-time of whatever job I do have.
5 Year Plan:
| Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 |
| – finish school
– do other work on the side to save up money |
– establish myself as a travel blogger
– create a team for filming and editing |
– start off with smaller destinations before reaching out to more popular places | – get married
-continue travel blogging – bring husband along on adventures |
– take a break from traveling to start a family |
Evaluation: Confidence: 6; Resources: 4; Impact: 4; Satisfaction: 8
Rapid Prototyping: I did some research on travel blogging, both about the job in general and by looking at actual travel blogger sites like Kate McCulley’s blog. I learned that the funds part of the actual travel isn’t as hard once you’ve established yourself as a well-known travel blogger. Once you do that, some places might ask you to come stay at their hotels and such for free to get themselves some publicity. Also, my friend was home from school this weekend so three of us made a trip up to Santa Monica and went to a bunch of different places. Obviously, I’d hope to be able to travel to places much farther away and more exotic than Santa Monica, but it’s still a tourist type of destination and that’s the type of thing I would get to do all the time if I became a travel blogger. That would be awesome.
Overall:
There’s no way to what my future will turn out to be. It could be a variation of one the futures I described above, or something totally different. No matter what future I end up with, I don’t care what my job is as long as I’m happy with my life.
Delaney McCombs 