When I was choosing a career, I didn't give much thought to work-life balance. I was 21 years old and couldn't wait to give 100 percent of myself to the working world. Fortunately, I lucked into a field - journalism - with a wide range of job intensity. You can be a breaking news reporter trying to beat the world to a hot story, a book writer with an annual deadline or anything in between.
To me, this is the key factor in the best jobs for moms and dads: scalability. Can you work intensely when you're at a demanding point in your career? Can you phase down work and still stay in the game? Or do you have to step completely out of the workplace in order to start and raise a family?
While I believe that every worker should carve out space for a personal life, parents face a unique challenge: children can't be set aside for weeks or months during a big project or the busy season at work. If you blink, they're grown. That's why so many moms and dads reduce their work hours or negotiate a flexible schedule during the years they're raising children.
Every profession has its own unique rhythm, part of which is changeable and part is set in stone. For instance, physicians have an intense period of training -- over a decade for some specialties. It's especially difficult to start a family during those medical school and residency years, though not impossible. The same can be said for lawyers or financial services executives. The question is, when you've made a name for yourself in your field, are there options for dialing back without quitting work altogether?
If your answer is no, that might not be the field for you. On the other hand, maybe you can create one of the best jobs for moms and dads by forging a new path in your chosen profession. Ask your colleagues, classmates and mentors about the opportunities that are more flexible. Someone has to be the trailblazer -- it might as well be you!
This blog post is part of the Fem 2.0 campaign to encourage discussion of work-life. To participate, email me your blog post on work in your life or community by Feb. 5 and I'll include it in the blog carnival on Feb. 8. Make sure to include "Blog Carnival" in the subject line and paste the permalink to your blog post in the body of the email.
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