1 man, 1 year, and 52 jobs in search of passion
Here’s the standard path of young adults today:
1. Pick a college and a major by the time you’re a senior in high school.
2. Graduate high school.
3. Go to college for four years.
4. Graduate college with a degree in the subject you’ve majored in and are passionate about.
5. Go out in the real world and find a job in your field.
6. Live happily and fulfilled…
Sounds good on paper, right? Well how many of us can choose what we want to do with the rest of our lives when we’re in our teens or early twenties? Not many. But unfortunately the system is set up for the few.
So what is one to do to keep from getting stuck in a job they hate and to find what drives them and what they’d enjoy for the rest of their life? Perhaps you could take a year and work a different job in a different field every week, for 52 weeks?
Sound unrealistic? Well Sean Aiken did just that.
In 2005, Sean Aiken graduated college with a degree in Business Administration, but he didn’t really know what he wanted to do with his life. Instead of just accepting it, getting a job in a cubicle, and “living” his life; Sean set out on a unique journey. A journey in search of passion instead of a career. He called his journey “The One Week Job Project.”
Here’s a video clip from The One Week Job Project website that describes the idea.
Sean, along with his friends, produced a documentary of the project and Sean has just released a book telling the journey entitled The One-Week Job Project: 1 Man, 1 Year, 52 Jobs.
Sean has graciously given Lyved the opportunity to ask him a few questions about this project and passion.
What advice do you have for those who can’t make a living out of their passion?
I learned that we don’t necessarily need to make a living out of our passion in order to be happy at work – there are many other factors that contribute to our job satisfaction. When I asked my coworkers what they liked most about their job, the common answer I heard was the people they worked with. It wasn’t so important what they were doing, or if it was their passion, but far more important was who they were doing it with.
Another factor I observed was that those who were the happiest in their careers were the ones who had a vision of how they were contributing to something greater than themselves. It mattered that they showed up to work each day because they contributed something valuable, and something was made better because of their work. For example, I worked on an organic dairy farm with a guy named George. The job demands long hours, very hard work, early mornings – after a couple of days I thought, “How can anyone enjoy this job?” But George seemed to love it. To George, he was providing food for thousands of people while contributing to the environment with his organic farming practices. He understood the significance of his job and that’s where he derived his job satisfaction.
I’d say if you can’t make a living out of your passion look for other ways in which you can fulfill your passion outside of work. I think it’s important to take a good look at your passion and think about different ways in which it could be fulfilled at work. For Week 22, I was a Radio DJ. On my last day I sat down with the radio station’s program director, Scott. I asked Scott, “How did you get involved in Radio. Did you always know that this is what you wanted to do?”
He said, “If you ask most people in radio where they started out, we’re all kind of failed musicians really. Truthfully we’d rather be the people making the music, but to be involved in music in some way, that’s where the passion lies.”
Even though Scott is not what he originally thought he wanted to be as a rock star, he loves his job. He still works in the same industry, deals with the same people, and is still able to cultivate his passion for music. We can’t all be rock stars, but it doesn’t mean we have to end up in a completely unrelated field – maybe we’d be just as happy being the person who hands the rock star their guitar.
The economy has changed a lot since you started this project in 2007. Do you think young people are forgetting about passion and are just finding any job that pays enough because of the current economy?
I think that a lot of young people don’t realize that it takes a lot of work to find a career you’re passionate about and still earn enough money to pay the bills, especially in today’s economy. There’s no problem with taking a job to pay the bills, the important thing is to not lose sight of where you’re heading, to continue developing your skills, and taking steps toward achieving the job that best suits you. I heard many stories over my year of people who took jobs for various reason, sometimes financial, and then 10 years later they realized that they are still in the same position that was supposed to be “temporary” and they’d lost sight of their original career goals.
Most college graduates have a ton of student loan debt, so do you have any tips on how they can find a balance where they can explore their passions but also earn some money to pay back their debts?
I think it’s more important to uncover the characteristics you need in a career to be happy then it is to uncover your passion. We do this through gaining experience, so merely by entering the work force we start to learn about the things that we like to do, the things that we are good, become more valuable to a future employer, and begin to pay back those nagging student debts.
What advice do you have for parents that aren’t too sure about their daughter or son trying to make a living out of their passion and by blazing their own trail?
Leave them alone. Support their decision. I think if someone has a genuine desire to pursue their passion, blaze their own trail, and yet they don’t go after it whole heartedly at some point in their life, they will undoubtedly experience a pang of regret. The younger we are when we do this the better.
Trying a bunch of things that seem interesting is probably one of the best ways to find a passion because of the hands-on experience. However, not everyone can try 52 jobs. So are their some other ways that people can find new passions?
Continue to develop your self-knowledge, try new things, volunteer, speak to people in different professions that interest you…
Even though you’re tried 52 different jobs, are there any more you’d like to try?
By the end of the year I had a lot of different offers, but I’m happy with the ones I chose. There was one job offer with bestselling author Seth Godin that I wish I was able to accept, but unfortunately the logistics didn’t work in my favor.
What kind of criticism have you been faced with during this project and how have you reacted and kept going?
I’ve received some cynicism towards the project but I try and remember that any unjustified criticism is likely rooted in their unhappiness with their current situation, and that it has nothing to do with me. I know why I’m doing what I’m doing and that’s all that matters – if people are able to learn as a result of me sharing my experience, great, if not, then that’s okay too.
Of the 52 jobs you did, what was the most nerve-wracking and why?
Yoga Instructor. I’d never stepped foot inside a yoga studio until that Monday morning, and then to be faced with the challenge of teaching class the Friday was extremely nerve-wracking. I attended 6 hours of classes a day, sometimes participating, sometimes taking notes about the instructor’s techniques, and then stood up and taught my first class on Friday. Very nerve-wracking, yet also very rewarding.
So Sean, what do you want to do with the rest of your life?
You’ll have to read the book to find out! 
It’s called The One-Week Job Project: 1 Man, 1 Year, 52 Jobs, published May 4, 2010 by Random House.
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The project is ambitious, exciting, and inspiring. I recommend that you please check out The One-Week Job Project book at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, IndieBound, or Random House. And please connect with Sean, on The One Week Job Facebook page and by following him on Twitter.
Book cover image courtesy of Random House
3 Responses to “1 man, 1 year, and 52 jobs in search of passion”
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i love this idea! i wish i could do it!
Great interview and amazing story. Sean is brilliant! I love it when people can take a simple idea to the extreme. That is the type of story that people love to hear about. Kudos!
Hi Priyanka,
It’s certainly tough to do 52 jobs in one year but you can certainly learn about and try a bunch of different hobbies.
Hey John,
So glad you like it John. I know! It’s such a crazy idea but in a good way. Sean has a lot of guts to do it!
-Andrew