Market-oriented artist examines forks-in-the-road - is there a tradeoff between sexual identity and money?Career coach and "market-oriented liberal" (gasp!), Michael Melcher, wonders aloud whether an early life lesson of 'coming out' preps people for better handling "career changes".
Perhaps one has to draw a distinction between life changes and career changes. There are all kinds of emotional events in people's lives, gay or non-gay, that cause them to reassess their job choices, particularly those strapped to the proverbial corporate ladder (or treadmill). Did you ever hear a story of a successful entrepreneur who gave it all up to go back to being, say, a staff attorney?
I wonder how many people feel that "gayness" has influenced their choice about what to do. Probably a lot.
Myself, I'm what career psychologists call a "lifer". Amazingly, I'd still be with the same company I started with out of school, other things being equal. In fact, there is no job that I've done that I couldn't have seen doing for 15, at least. (Well, except that one time ...)
[an aside: my favorite public story of a gay job changer comes from author Paul Monette, who at one time went into interior designing to avoid coming out or something.]
