This example was submitted by a person who used the InstaGENII Method to realize her dream career.

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The early years of my career were filled with low-level jobs; primarily Receptionist positions that included ancillary duties such as bookkeeping, bank clerical work, switchboard operation, making travel arrangements for staff, volunteer work, and stock brokerage clerical work.

I had only completed two of four years at a major university when I met and married a military man who had plans of eventually becoming an airline pilot. Whee! Free travel! And, travel we did…all over the country. I picked-up jobs at each station but we were never in one town—or at one job—long enough for me to move up the ladder.

When the marriage ended, I decided to find a career that satisfied all my desires: working for an ethical, solid company that offered room to learn and grow into a salaried position—and included travel.

I began by reviewing my background, and realized the menial jobs had served a purpose; I understood the basic skills necessary for success in the business world.

• • How to dress for business
  • How to process a business phone call
  • How to record business transactions
  • How business works
  • How to interact with teammates
  • How to interact with customers
  • How to interact with clients
  • The basics of small business
  • The basics of corporate business
  • The basics of commercial real estate
  • The basics of banking
  • The basics of how the stock market works
  • The basics of volunteering

At the time, I was working for a small stock brokerage firm and soon realized that the Branch Manager preferred to focus his time on his clients’ stock portfolios instead of handling his management duties. I decided that I did not want to do the Manager’s job for clerical pay.

I decided to focus on the elements of my ideal position. I created a brief description of the desired elements, ranked them by importance and concentrated on reminding myself of these elements every night and every morning.

Then opportunity struck!

One Saturday, while I was sitting under a hair dryer in my hairdresser’s salon, in walked some hippy guy with a very expensive 35mm camera hanging on a strap around his neck. [My hairdresser was taking a photography class with the hippy, and had offered to connect the photographer with a model for a project designed to show his company’s Corporate H.Q. what his division produced, via a slide show.]

The hippy approached me and explained his project. Would I like to be a (free) model for his slide show that will display me positioned around the computer equipment? He offered to buy me dinner if I accepted… I was mostly intrigued by visiting a company that manufactured computers, so I agreed.

I met him at his company that Saturday afternoon, and he showed me around while explaining what the company did. He took lots of photos of me sitting at a console that sported toggle switches to manually-interact with the program (both to launch and troubleshoot the code); standing next to a 6-foot-tall cabinet with the door open so people could see how large the cabinets were and how many circuit boards they could hold; and simply pointing at various peripheral items like 5MB disk drives (5 platters, 24″ wide!)

After the photo shoot, I met him for dinner at a nice restaurant. We had dinner and then went our separate ways…

But wait! There’s more!

About three weeks later, I up-and-resigned from the stock brokerage firm, due to the lack of management responsibility over an ongoing issue that threatened my credibility. I simply walked into the Manager’s office, explained the situation and told him I was quitting. Now.

I realized that I wanted to work at a company that was ethical, had a future, offered opportunity for my growth (possibly in computer work) and maybe some travel.

I searched the classified section of the local paper for a position that sounded interesting and…behold! The computer company I had recently-visited was looking for a Receptionist! I applied for the job and was hired. During the interview, the Office Services Manager asked me if I knew anyone at the branch. I said that I did. Then I told her about the hippy, and she freaked-out! He was apparently the office lech! I then explained how he had approached me and what had transpired, all of which was confirmed by the branch’s Marketing Department Manager. Then the O.S. Manager hired me.

The Receptionist portion of the job was my primary responsibility but additional tasks included arranging travel and airline reservations for programmers, engineers, and sales & marketing folks; staffing the manual telephone switchboard; staffing the in-house technical library; and processing security clearances for employees, as necessary for government contracts.

I learned the names and phone extension numbers of most of the 400 branch employees; how to book airline and hotel reservations; how to catalog library books; how to process FBI security clearance forms; and how to network with everyone! I became part of a work family!

Working at a branch of a large and growing company offered many benefits. During my tenure at the company, I formed great friendships and made lots of technical connections; traveled a bit; learned to draft stellar, award-winning flowcharts that earned me recognition; learned to program [via after-hours in-house classes taught by the programmers]; learned how to write technical manuals; and how to do technical sales support. And, since the company offered a tuition reimbursement program, I was able to take some courses at a local college, with an emphasis on computers.

I eventually moved on to other companies as I learned new products—and completed my Bachelor’s Degree. As time passed, I incorporated volunteer activities into my schedule by joining a group of young adults who were involved in fundraising activities for an upcoming performing arts center in my area; there I made contact with a diverse group of people from all echelons of life. I displayed my technical skill set to members of the group by helping to manage membership activities, and producing, maintaining, and publishing a membership directory in the form of a booklet that was distributed to all members.

One of my associates suggested that I might benefit from learning more about my aptitudes, in order to provide a more-focused approach to my career path. I agreed. This project involved two days of testing, followed by a session that explained the results. This was similar to taking an I.Q. Test; however, the key factor was that the testing company also provided specific areas that required the combination of aptitudes in which I excelled. It also pointed-out areas that might not be a good fit, so I didn’t have to waste time researching those aras. Armed with this outline, I began to focus on projects that fit my aptitudes and developed the associated abilities with each assignment.

I eventually assessed my progress and created an updated version of my goal in order to move to the next level of my career.

I soon realized that I had acquired the confidence to go out on my own, and travel around the country for short-term contracts (3 months to 2 years) in order to design and develop custom software for companies of all sizes.

Each temporary gig presented challenges—in the form of new or innovative technical requests, interpersonal issues with all levels of staff involved in the project, and schedule issues that impacted life. I worked to teach myself how to handle all these issues with aplomb, considering them opportunities for growth. That phase of my career lasted until retirement.