Career advice from the Almighty

If I had known I'd be working in a call center five years after college, I might have skipped Arkansas State University all together. Better pay than any newspaper job, without the tuition and lame people that God decided to put in my life for one reason or another.

It's a constant struggle in my brain, wondering how God allowed me to get a degree that is not being utilized fully (print journalism in a digital world), until I remember that I was the dope who decided to stop listening to God from 2002 to 2008.

It's a frustration that I've had off and on, and how can you blame me? With all the layoffs that newspapers seem to go through nowadays, focusing on another major seemed like it would have been a good idea. Regardless, I always try to remember that God has a plan. Perhaps the whole reason for getting that degree was to give me enough knowledge about page design to help Fr. Jim Chern with the weekly Newman Center Bulletin, and to eventually work for a diocese communications department.

But for now, I'm doing the call center thing, focusing on helping people with student loans. And after a handful of phone calls, maybe this is what God wants from me. For instance, I spent an hour and five minutes on the phone with a guy tonight (avg time is five min per call) explaining every repayment plan we offered, along with setting up deferments on his loans, getting information about said loans sent to him.

He seemed pretty happy. Another day I helped someone unlock their online account. Simple stuff, but it allowed him to pay his loan off. "God puts people in your life for a reason," the caller said, "and I'm thankful for you and I pray God blesses you today." Calls like that aren't a common occurrence, but they happen with some sort of frequency that it confirms in my head that this is what God wants of me.

Perhaps, instead of page layout, God needs a nice person answering phones.

What is heartbreaking is hearing people call in with really rough stories. Deaths, surgeries, losing jobs. And being able to help these people, even on the small things, really makes me feel great about what I do for a living.

Do I want to work in a call center for the rest of my life? Not really, but I don't hate my job either. It's rewarding to hear someone say, "God bless you" or thank you for offering kind words of support.

While I answer phones now, I patiently await that phone call from God, giving me the next step in my life. Thankfully, he knows what he's doing.

Perhaps there's something to letting him take over in your life.