
Our relationship with work is all over the place these days. It would be unrecognizable to the fresh-faced, shaggy-haired me who entered the full-time workforce in the 1980s. Like all my peers, I embraced the established college degree/office job/get an apartment/buy a car pathway to adult independence and success.
Work is a bit different today, to say the least. You can work from your bedroom and never see the inside of an office. You can participate in meetings with dozens of people on your smartphone. You can stay busy as a gig worker and never have an actual “job.” It’s much easier-and more accepted, even celebrated-to be an entrepreneur and launch your own products, brand, or business. And it’s almost expected that you’ll try a second or third career before your professional life runs its course, either by choice or by force.
In this month’s issue we interview a handful of Cincinnatians who have taken huge left turns with second careers for “Choose Your Own (Career) Adventure.” There’s the mechanical engineer who launched his own chocolate candy line. The ex-Secret Service agent who owns a wine and coffee shop. The stay-at-home mom who became a firefighter. And then there’s Yvette Simpson, perched on our cover, who’s one of those people involved in about 20 overlapping careers.
Another work approach, of course, is holding multiple jobs simultaneously. This issue highlights two of those overachievers: D. Lynn Meyers, artistic leader and movie casting director, and Steve Seifried, software developer and cymbalsmith. No 9-5 for them.
I’m one of the few people I know who’s still working in the career field I studied in college. Not that I haven’t changed jobs or journeyed down roads less traveled by, including a move to Cincinnati, but I’ve been a journalist for most of my work life. Which makes me a little jealous of the fascinating people featured in this issue. But there’s always time for a second career, right?
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