Sep
4
If you have ever thought about venturing out to seek new career opportunities, here is a story that may inspire you…
According to the Redwood City Daily News story 50 jobs, 50 states, 50 weeks by Kristina Peterson…
“July 31, 2008 - Los Altos, CA - Los Altos native Daniel Seddiqui is either a guidance counselor’s worst nightmare or dream student.
Starting in September, Seddiqui, 26, is going to spend 50 weeks working 50 jobs in all 50 states.
“I’m going to try and do every single career out there,” Seddiqui said in an interview Wednesday at the Los Altos home where he was raised.
Seddiqui plans to work one week each as a movie director in Los Angeles, a border patrol officer in Arizona, a rodeo announcer in South Dakota and a high school football coach in Alabama, to name just a few jobs.
The jobs were picked to represent each state “in a meaningful way,” Seddiqui said, noting he relied on Google searches and “visualization” to select the jobs.
“They just popped into my head,” he said.
Seddiqui has already confirmed the first 20 jobs, including his first week working with Hollywood director Brian Spitz, followed by a week of logging in Eugene, Ore., then a week as an oceanographer in Washington’s Puget Sound.
“A lot of people have said a week’s not sufficient, but I always understand the job pretty well on the first day,” said Seddiqui, who has already spent time working as a shoe salesman, YMCA receptionist, grocery bagger, dishwasher and cafeteria worker, a position from which he was fired twice for eating too much of the free food.
“I have a high metabolism,” he explained.
Seddiqui acknowledges that in large part, the year-long journey - which he plans to document with a daily blog, documentary and ultimately a book - stems from past career failures.
When applying to colleges, he was offered track scholarships at several “top-notch” universities, but lost them when he failed an English class, he said. After attending the University of Oregon for three years, he transferred to the University of Southern California on a track scholarship and graduated in 2005 with a degree in economics. But when he tried to get a job as a financial analyst after college, he found himself still unemployed after 40 interviews.
After finally securing a one-year position as a soccer coach at a high school in Berkeley, Seddiqui found a book listing the name of every single college coach in every sport and e-mailed them all.
“I sent 18,000 e-mails and got 250 offers,” some of which were paid, some voluntary, he said.
He spent a year coaching cross-country at Northwestern University, then a year working as a strength and conditioning coach for the University of Virginia football team, and later as an accountant in Palo Alto working for his father.
“I was like, ‘This is not what I want to do with my life,’” he said.
Then, when he was offered a job in March while on a train in Florida, Seddiqui told a friend he wished he had 50 lives to spend working in every state. Five months later, he is preparing to condense that dream into one very employed year.
Armed with a single suitcase, Seddiqui plans to work Monday through Saturday and drive each Sunday to the next destination, though he plans to fly between the weeks of lobster fishing in Maine, working on a cruise in Alaska and teaching surfing lessons in Hawaii.
The fact that Seddiqui does not know how to surf does not trouble him. Nor do the exact logistics of where he will sleep on the trip.
“That’s a good question,” he said. “I’ve been doing some networking through Facebook.”
He is hoping to find a corporate sponsor, though not one that would try to control his every move.
“I don’t want it to be like a reality show that’s fake behind the scenes,” he said.
The point of the journey is to inspire those stuck in jobs they’re unhappy with to seize other opportunities, and to find out what he himself likes to do, Seddiqui said.
Along the way, he might learn exactly what some of his planned jobs entail.
“I’ll be a boilermaker in Missouri,” he said. “I have no idea what it’s about.”"
