Q&A With Sean Aiken Whose Jobs Are One Week Long
Sean Aiken is on week 43 of his One Week Job project. For one year “any company or individual anywhere in the world can offer me a job for one week. The job can be absolutely anything, anywhere - garbage collection, actor, working the family farm, a suit and tie corporate position.”
Perhaps it’s not too late to offer him a job for one of his remaining weeks!
Sean took a few minutes to answer some questions about his resourceful career finding project that I think is a stroke of brilliance:
What one-week job have you liked best?
“I liked working as a Cancer Fundraiser the best. I really enjoyed working in an environment where you know what you are doing is having a positive impact on those around you.”
Which jobs turned out to be totally different than you would have imagined, had you not actually performed the jobs?
“Advertising Executive, Yoga Instructor, Radio DJ - I always thought that Radio DJ’s just had to show up and talk on the radio for a couple hours and that was it, though I realized how much preparation goes into it.”
Any idea what you’re going to end up doing when the 52 weeks are over?
“After I finish the 52 weeks, I will be writing a book about my experience that will be published in Spring 2009 by Random House. It will be about my journey and all that I learned throughout the year making the transition from College into the professional world.”
Is this helping you plan your whole lifetime, where you might pursue a number of these careers over the years or simultaneously?
“It is helping me plan my career. Though I have realized that I will most likely have many different careers in my life. The career that will make me most happy at the end of 52 weeks, most likely won’t be the same that will make me happy 5 years from now when my life circumstances may have changed.”
Has experiencing all of these different career/life options made you re-evaluate your conception of “working for a living?”
“Yes. They say, find something that you love doing and you will never work a day in your life. Well, my goal is to never work a day in my life.”
