[quote]ActivitiesGuy wrote:
[quote]Babypowerlifter wrote:
Somewhat unrelated to training, I’ve recently been applying for a lot of jobs. I’m trying to decide career wise if I want to stick with personal training or get a more normal 8-5 job. It’s tough because I have an extensive background in the office world and know that I could be making good money going back to that. My husband and I switched jobs trying to do what makes us happy. My husband is training special forces and is picking up more shifts this winter, which means I’ll be home alone more. We don’t actually need the money from me working, but I just don’t have a lot of clients right now which leaves my days somewhat empty. I read, train people, workout, take care of the house, but still end up feeling like I should be contributing more. I’ve applied for some social work type jobs, but it’s tough because most good jobs that are meaningful are full time. I kind of want to do both. I still want to train people while having a regular job during the day, but I’m finding that I can’t be everywhere at once and getting a full time job necessarily means that I won’t be available to train people who want to train during the day. Ugh. Decisions, decisions…[/quote]
I want to thank you for your candor in sharing this; my fiancee may find herself in a similar position next year. Our wedding will be in August 2016, and after several years of carrying on as a long-distance couple, we will actually live in the same city once married.
Unfortunately, this likely means her career (may) take a temporary backseat. She has been on faculty at Central Michigan University for the last couple of years, but in a non-tenure-track position, and seeing little room for advancement there, it is likely that we will begin married life here in Pittsburgh for a number of reasons (more city to live in vs. Central Michigan, closer proximity to family, and my good-enough-to-get-us-by-financially job, which also likely has some advancement potential within).
We have discussed a number of other options - for example, if a major faculty position opens that she wants to apply for, in a city that I am open to living and can find a gainful opportunity, I would absolutely pursue that - but I’m putting most of my eggs in the Pittsburgh basket for now. I have a good solid job here, in a city that we both love, that’s within an easy weekend’s drive of both families, and the odds of her landing THE ONE DREAM FACULTY JOB in the right city where we are still near family and could both find work…are probably a little long at this moment.
With that preamble aside, she - like you - has a very interesting skill set that lends itself to a freelancing existence. She is a classically trained opera singer, with a doctorate in music, so musical performance and teaching is an option; she also went to yoga-teacher-training this summer (with my encouragement, as I believe the skill may come in handy for both personal satisfaction as well as giving her another option to pursue as a career).
It’s been percolating in my mind that it really wouldn’t be so bad if I retain my job here and she cobbles together some combination of teaching yoga (we live within 2 miles of AT LEAST five different yoga studios), singing, and teaching music - but it has not been lost on me that, for a high achiever like her, it will likely be jarring to go from full time, consistently-engaged work to maybe teaching a handful of yoga classes a week and cobbling together whatever musical activity she’s able.
I mean, to me it sounds great - I can work and make enough money to support us while she could basically do whatever she wanted in the yoga/music realm, and the money she makes could be a nice bonus - but your post was/is a good insight to remind me that it’s not really that simple.[/quote]
Yeah, it is tough. I’m learning more about myself through this experience. I’ve always been the type to get good grades, follow the rules, do what is generally expected of you by society, etc. My husband is completely the opposite. He hates having bosses, doesn’t like being told what to do and is extremely independent. I can be independent too, but up to a point. I generally need direction from time to time and being my own boss has it’s own set of challenges for me. See, my thing is, I’m not sure if I should go with my natural inclination of being the “employee type” or if this is good for my personal growth to be my own boss. If I do the personal training thing, in order to get more clients, I actually have to advertise and put myself out there regularly. I’m not a huge fan of the sales aspect of personal training. I love training people, I just don’t like the hustle. So that’s tough for me.
As far as your fiancee is concerned, it’s hard to say without really knowing her personality. Some people do really well being self-employed. She could always give it a shot and go back to work if she doesn’t like it. Either way, once and a while a reset can be nice. Having a break from full-time work has been really good for me. I think I needed it. I went directly from high school to college to full time work and never really took more than a month off at any given time.
Also, I think that having the skill set that I have now will be useful in the future. My husband and I eventually want kids so it will be nice to have something that I can do part-time just to get out of the house from time to time while raising kids. So, it definitely wasn’t wasted time.
Anyway, thanks for your thoughts. Good luck with your future decisions. Lots to think about. I’m sure you guys will figure it out. 
I’m sure I’ll figure my stuff out too.
You can’t have abs and boobs unless you are genetically gifted. If this is you, I hate you, haha.
