I am sure you know how this feels. There is a page, related to a certain subscription or the industry you belong to. Even when you apply for jobs, you need to indicate the industry you were belonging to. For me it is, most of the time, drop-down list OTHER.
There are no real industries that describe my former occupations. They make you feel like changing careers is a bad thing. On top of the fact that you have made a change already, they erase your identity on the drop-down list. Sometimes, there is no even space for comments related to your OTHER choice.
Sometimes, if you choose "education" as the industry, there is no description for languages and translation. Some other times translation is described as an art. My bachelor degree is described as being done at the University of Arts and Literature. It was a Language Institution. Then, I worked in Marketing for the Automotive industry. The automotive industry is there, but Marketing and Communications are always together. They both cover sooo much, and yet they are not separated.
If you are an expert in Internal Communications, you need to chose general communications. If you are a Marketing Strategist, there is no distinction sometimes between Social Media Manager and Digital Marketing (super huge). What a mess. I used to hate it. I hated it deeply. I freaking belonged to OTHER. I remember to have wished I was an engineer. An engineer? Me? Why would I pick a job so different from my personality? I could actually be an engineer of dreams, but I do not think that this exists. But somehow, the engineering drop-down list is super complete! All kinds of engineering are covered.
For a long time I suffered from choices that I love now. Being an expert in several things for which I invested my time and dedication and studied so hard and passed exams for. I have managed to finally say NO to the social and family pressure of having to explain exactly what I do, and if people have time to listen to me, I will describe the whole process. If not, I will have the risk to be put in the OTHER list and being not defined.
How important is definition? And description? Coaching can open new horizons in how to describe yourself and your values… Happy Wednesday!