Walter Mitty's Resume

20th Century Fox

I recently stumbled upon the story of Walter Mitty. Not the original 1939 story I read in high school, but the 2013 interpretation portrayed by Ben Stiller in the movie, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.” The movie was not a box office hit, but I watched it anyway when it came out on DVD. I’ve watched it several times since then and it’s caused me to ponder several things about my career. Why?

There was something about Stiller’s character that I identified with. Maybe it’s because Walter Mitty was going through not just a career change, but a life change. Many of us go through career changes that are really life changes. I am going through one right now. I was unexpectedly laid off this summer due to reorganization not long after I took the position. 

Maybe it was the beautiful music or the cinematography of faraway places many of us will never see. I’ve greatly enjoyed the oil & gas industry because it allowed me the chance to travel to beautiful faraway places around the world that were off the beaten path.

Maybe it was the way Walter Mitty’s potential was locked away in his daydreams about a more exciting imaginary life.  We've all been dreamers. I started my career living one of my dreams as a newspaper reporter. I always wanted to be in the middle of the action. I did it for a while, but children and responsibilities took priority and dreams took a backseat.

I really can’t put my finger on just one thing that endeared me to the story. I’m definitely not a movie critic, but I do know there are some life lessons Walter Mitty can teach us all – especially about our careers. Take a look at the 2013 version of Walter Mitty’s story.

Who is Walter Mitty (spoiler alert)

20th Century Fox

In this (very loosely) adaptation of a once popular story by James Thurber, Walter Mitty is a daydreamer working as the negative assets manager for Life Magazine. He is portrayed as a simple man with a simple, yet responsible and safe life. Although he takes pride in his job of 16 years, he often imagines a much more exciting and adventurous life where he isn’t afraid to put himself out there.

In the movie, Walter also develops a crush on a coworker, who begins to show up in many of his farfetched daydreams. This is something else he can’t seem to attain in real life. As his company begins to transform into an online publication, Walter is entrusted with famed photographer Sean O’Connell’s negative for the magazine’s last printed cover. Unfortunately, the negative is nowhere to be found. As a trustworthy employee, Walter feels he has no choice but to track down the photographer so he can find the negative. From there, his life becomes much more interesting as he takes on various adventures around the world to retrieve the lost negative that he had all along, but threw it away.

Taking a leap of faith

20th Century Fox

Walter does something he hasn't done in 16 years. I think this takes a lot of courage. He takes a leap of faith to go after the negative and inadvertently begins living his dreams. He can no longer resist the calling to be the person he always wanted to be. He breaks out of his comfort zone hidden away in windowless archives of his office building and he is suddenly living his dreams. He is beginning to find that lost potential. 

About the third time I watched the movie, I hit pause after Walter is inevitably laid off and he is shown posting his resume on a career site. 

This is Walter Mitty’s resume:

• Life Magazine – Negative Asset Manager, 16 years
• Reference: Sean O’Connell (address upon request)
•  One of 3 known non-Navy Seals to helicopter “free release” into gale-force waters (North Sea)
•  In a single day: Biked, ran and long-boarded over 17 kilometers to Eyjafjallajokull volcanic eruption
•  Scaled highest peak of Noshaq Mountain (northwestern Afghanistan face)
•  On Icelandic fishing trawler, earned keep as a boar swain (unpaid deckhand) for one day.

Are we like Walter Mitty?

I’ll admit that this is probably a resume that most companies’ applicant tracking systems would spit out for lack of relevant keywords. A recruiter would probably never find your applications. However, I do see the symbolic nature of his resume. The first line of the resume is an example of the typical employee who is comfortable with their career track. How many people can identify with this? You might be that person who just wants a job with stability. There is nothing wrong with that if you are happy or if that’s your life’s dream.  

20th Century Fox

The first line could also be representative of those of us who find ourselves stuck in a career track because it is safe. We never apply for anything outside of our relevant job titles. 

Is this where professionals tend to get a little off track when it comes to attaining career dreams and goals? Maybe. The job title is descriptive, but it’s not who you are as an employee. Somewhere along the way many of our career aspirations and even our self worth got very tangled up in our job titles. This is something I have been evaluating all summer. To help me identify my next career move, I’m mentally trying to break up with my old job titles so I can focus more on my experiences, skills and attributes. It’s still a work in progress.

The unexpected side of Walter Mitty

The rest of Walter’s resume shows a different and unexpected side of him than the first 16 years of his career. Notice there are no job titles on the next four bullets. It’s really about experiences. Do you exist in your career or are you having experiences? I’ve had some really exciting experiences over the course of my career, but I rarely talk about them in a resume or job interviews, yet these are important to me and make me who I am as an employee and a person. 

20th Century Fox

In Walter Mitty’s case, I see someone who realized his experiences were dreams tucked away in his mind. They were only allowed to surface in his reoccurring daydreams. Only in the midst of a potential and unforeseen career change did those dreams become real experiences.

I think we all have a little part of Walter Mitty inside of us. Are you on the comfortable career track or do you seek experiences that sometimes takes a leap of faith? Are you the daydreamer or living the dream? As I strip away past job titles, I am starting to see that I have been living the dream. It’s just much clearer to me now.

STEM Starts at Home for Girls

Oh, the Places She Will Go!

When my oldest daughter was little she was a perfect mix of tomboy and princess. Whenever Jessica played outside, you could find her in a ruffled little dress while digging holes in the yard in search of bugs and other treasures. She loved to take summer afternoon walks to pick the East Texas wildflowers, but she could never pass up an interesting rock.

Rocks in my pockets

Jessica, age 5

These little treasures found their way into the house and many times, into our washer machine. I can still remember finding rocks she put in her pockets, my pockets, in the vacuum cleaner and hearing them clanking around in the dryer.  In her room you could find jars of captured bugs she found while digging in the yard and dirt was always spilling out of her shoes when she took them off.  I cherish those summer memories because little did I know they would soon be coming to an end.

My first summer as a single mom in East Texas was tough but one of my biggest concerns was what to do with Jessica now that school was out. Sure, she could go back to daycare, but it was really too expensive on a newspaper reporter’s salary to have two kids in daycare. A new children’s science museum had just opened and they were offering summer camp at a 50 percent discount for the children of newspaper employees. It was an easy decision. She loved the Discovery Science Place in Tyler and I loved discounts.

She did love those camps, especially ones that involved dinosaurs, rocks and anything that allowed her to, of course, dig in the dirt. That was the start of a summer tradition until she became too old to participate.

Lost and found

It is not surprising that a lot happened between her last elementary school science camp and college. I remarried, moved to Houston and Jessica lost a little bit of something I never realized she had. There wasn't a lot of focus on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) for girls and while I wanted to expose her to many different interests it never occurred to me to continue to push STEM at home.

Our focus soon turned to cheerleading, band, shopping, hair, makeup and other typical things that are interests of most preteen and teenage girls. None of this was necessarily bad. She had great experiences in both cheerleading and band, but it was years before I thought again about those rocks in my pockets. It never crossed my mind to expose her to more math and science than what was required at school. In high school, math became a huge obstacle and nearly got in her way of graduating on time. Most of her grades in those classes were mediocre at best. At that point, I was a little concerned about how she was going to get through college and what she would do with her life.

That answer came shortly after Jessica headed back to East Texas and started Tyler Junior College. She rediscovered her love of rocks through a very passionate geology teacher at TJC. She got involved in geology club and became the president. She enjoyed digs, field trips and she even worked in the labs to help other students.

What do you want to do when you grow up?

One night she called me from her dorm room. “I think this is what I want to do,” she said. “I want to be geologist.”

My first response was not as supportive as it should have been. It caught me completely by surprise due to her high school struggles with math and science. “Really? Are you sure? Do you realize that requires a lot of math and science?”

Thank goodness she was completely undeterred by my comments. Of course I was going to be supportive, but where did this come from? I reached back to my memories of rocks in my pockets and it all suddenly came back to me. She knew math would again challenge her in achieving her goals, but the passion and determination was there. I realized that the interest was there at an early age, but I enabled her (and me) to fall into stereotypes and maybe I even helped to push the ideology that girls aren't good at math and science.

Moms and STEM

Since then, I have learned my lesson and I have changed my ways. I seek out and support programs aimed at girls who are interested in STEM careers. I fully support my daughters and their interests and I do my best to reject the stereotypes. Jessica went on to get her geology degree from Sam Houston State University and recently celebrated her first year as a geologist in her new career. I am so happy she found her way back to something she really loves despite the challenges.  

STEM starts at home for girls, not at school. There are little missed opportunities when we moms tell our princesses that girls don’t play with rocks or dig in the dirt. There are missed opportunities when we don’t recognize the interest our girls have in something related to math or science. There are missed opportunities when we impose our stereotypes on girls by what we say and do without realizing we are doing it.

This summer, I challenge you to search out something different for your daughters. It is not too late. It doesn't matter where you live. There are still many summer camps that fall into STEM categories – robotics, science camps, zoo camps, math camps, etc. They are interesting, fun and who knows, there may be a career in your daughter’s future that you never imagined.

Below are just a few of the STEM related summer camps I know about in Houston. I’m sure there are many more in Houston and all over the globe. Please feel free to share other summer camps you know about in your location in the comments section:

• Camp Invention - http://www.campinvention.org/
• Robotics Camps - http://www.roboticsacademy.com/
• Brick 4 Kids - http://www.bricks4kidz.com/texas-houston-memorial/
• Nature camps - http://www.houstonarboretum.org/
• Houston Zoofari - http://www.houstonzoo.org/camp
• Houston Space Center - Call (281) 244-2100
• Kids Robotic Summer Camp - Call (281) 739-8632
• Houston Museum of Natural Science Camps - http://www.hmns.org/files/Xplorations_2014.pdf

Five Reasons It's a Great Time to be a Woman in the Oil & Gas Industry

By Jaymie Massey - celebrating 10
years in the oil & gas industry

This year I will celebrate two exciting anniversaries. Of course, the biggest and most important one is my 10-year wedding anniversary to the man of my dreams. But, there’s another life event that has altered who I am today and even the role model I am for my daughters.

After getting married, I moved from a small East Texas town to be with my new husband who was working as an engineer in Houston.  I remember thinking maybe this was my chance to live a lifelong dream of being a reporter for a big city newspaper.  Joining the oil & gas industry was never considered in those early days of looking for jobs in Houston.  Our realtor, who was trying to help us find a home in time for the start of the school year, had coincidentally been a recruiter for oil & gas companies. When she offered to help me find a job, I thought why not. I soon landed a job as a publications editor for a big oil & gas service company. One of the first things I did was apply for my first passport and trade designer heels for my first pair of steel toed boots. Soon I was on a plane traveling around the world gathering stories about people working on oilrigs in the middle of nowhere.  Nothing pulls you into another world faster than hearing people talk about what they do and why they love it.

Although we were outnumbered by men, I realized I was observing a phenomenon back in 2004.  Women were starting to enter the industry. More women than ever were bravely stepping into nontraditional roles to work alongside men who, for the most part, had never had to share space with a woman on a rig. From what I was observing, it wasn’t always easy for them. I decided to do a story about women in the oilfield for the company publication so I could meet more of these remarkable women and tell their stories. I remember visiting a base in outback Australia that you could only get to by air. From the air, it looked like a small desolate city and not how I imagined a more romantic version of Australia in my mind. On the ground, it was kind of like a desert. It was hot, dusty and I had to wear a net to keep the flies out of my mouth and nose. I wondered what woman in her right mind would want to work in these conditions for a month at a time.  I met not one, but two young women starting their engineering careers there. They told me how they wanted to break through barriers and achieve their dreams. I get that. They were pioneers. I had a desire to break through barriers too, only I was using words on paper to do it, w

hich suddenly didn’t seem as cool anymore.

I continue to meet women in this industry who I admire and who often amaze me. I meet them at work and through organizations like the Women’s Energy Network (WEN) in Houston. Women in this organization are some of the brightest professionals in the industry and membership is growing with chapters all over the country. They are a valuable support system to advocate for women and to help advance their careers in the energy industry. They also encourage hundreds of high school girls each year to make careers in the energy industry through the Young Women Energize program. This is why I’m a member.

Why do women need organizations like WEN? According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics data compiled by Rigzone in September of 2013, almost 50 percent of the U.S. oil & gas industry workforce is now made up of women.  Is this a trend? I think so. These are all signs pointing to why it’s a great time to be a woman in the oil & gas industry. Here are my five reasons why. What are yours?

1. Adventure – You can travel the world and get paid to do it. You may even find yourself in places tourists will never see. For me, I remember places like Songkhla, Thailand and Moomba, Australia where I met some of the most memorable people and had the most unique experiences.
2. Opportunity – It isn’t uncommon to see people entering the industry doing one job and following a path into something completely different and unexpected. I’ve even seen field engineers work their way up to become CEOs of billion dollar companies. And most importantly, I’ve seen women taking on more and more executive roles. Rigzone also reported there were 78,400 women working in America’s oilfields in 2012. That number was 48,899 +1 (me) in 2004.
3.  The people – Ask any oil & gas company what makes their company great and I am guessing that 99.9 percent will say it’s the people. They say it because it’s true. People in this industry are also very loyal. It’s an industry where people make lifelong friends and connections even among competitors. It makes for a small world where people are always passionate about what they do and share a camaraderie.
4.  Perspective – Women definitely bring a different perspective. I saw this many times when I would write articles for industry publications. I saw how women engineers not only helped solve problems, but they made their environment a better place. One man told me in a very remote location that the conditions at the base where they lived were almost unbearable. But, when women engineers entered the picture, the company renovated living quarters and recreation areas.
5. You are in demand and salaries are competitive – In the oil & gas industry you can sometimes earn a better paycheck than if you were doing the same job in other industries. According the U.S. Bureau of Labor in 2011, the median salary for a journalist was around $40,000. According to Rigzone’s salary tracker, the median salary for someone in the oil industry is around $90,000.

Follow me on Twitter @justjaymie 

A Message to My Daughters - You Can't Have it All!

Jaymie Massey, trying to have it all 2013

(originally published 2013) I left the dishwasher wide open, leftovers on the stove, lights were on and the TV was blaring in the background. I had planned to clean the kitchen after my son's homework but we
moved on to bath time followed by the usual bedtime routine.

I meant to get him in bed earlier so I could wash my hair before bed. I meant to catch up on bills, fold towels or make a grocery list. I meant to do a lot of things but instead my evening was filled with making a quick dinner, driving lessons for my daughter and a quick trip to Lowe’s with my husband followed by the usual after dinner duties.

I sat down on the couch around 9:30 p.m. to relax for just a moment. What did I do after work between the hours of 6 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.? Nothing. I feel like I did nothing. And when I feel like I’ve done nothing I usually try to stay up and do something and that’s most nights.

Before I knew it, I couldn't resist the urge to stretch out on the couch. I could relax my body for just a minute while nobody was looking and nobody was around. That’s when I saw it. There on the coffee table was the remote control. It had previously been in my husband's hand flipping between news and sports. Yes! What should I watch? It’s only 9:30. I can watch 30 minutes of something. How about a little HGTV? Food Network? Or what about ...

Hours later something brought me back to consciousness. Maybe it was the cramp in my neck from the hard arm of the couch. Maybe it was the bright lights from the kitchen beckoning me to take care of the ruined leftovers on the stove. Maybe it was the infomercial of something I really needed blaring in the background. Whatever it was, my heart was now racing and I’m on the move again because I definitely didn't mean to fall asleep on the couch (again).

Disgusted and disappointed in myself, I finished cleaning the kitchen at 2 a.m., brushed my teeth and crawled into bed for a few more hours of sleep. But, now I can’t sleep. I’m wide awake and I’m going through the list of things I didn't get done (again) in my head. It is a long list of nothingness.

This is a vicious cycle and it hasn't changed through divorce, marriage, babies, teenagers, kids in college or career changes. I've beat myself up countless times for not having a perfectly clean home or because I didn't volunteer for homeroom mom or band booster again this year. During the day I love my life. At the end of the day I’m beating myself up. So this is really a message to my daughters. This is really a message I want them to know because out of the 23 years I've been a mother, I still have yet to accept it for myself. Here it is. Ready?

Jordin (left) and Jessica 2015

To my sweet, sweet daughters, I have some hard news to tell you. You can’t have it all. It is 2013 and I am telling you that women can’t have it all! Someone told us years ago we could vote, have careers and truly have it all. I believed it when I was younger, but now I don’t. Whoever said it must have been a woman excited by hard earned freedoms and I realize we shouldn't take that for granted. But women tend to be optimistic thinkers when it comes to how much we can actually take on in our lives.

It seems no matter how much positive energy we throw at something it’s just not enough to do everything we want to do and guilt sets in. Many of us are never satisfied with what we have achieved and we can’t see our lists of nothingness are actually pages and pages of things we've accomplished. We acknowledge sometimes that our plates are too full, but we really don’t accept that adding one more thing might make the whole thing topple over.

My precious daughters, you are now seated at the buffet of life, plates in hand. At 17 and 23 years old, you are surveying everything that is spread out before you and I’m here encouraging you both and telling you your options are limitless. I believe in you and you can and will achieve wonderful things in your life. But as you begin chasing your own dreams, I wanted to let you know I may have let a few things topple off my plate. There’s a mess in my kitchen and wrinkled clothes are being fluffed in the dryer for the third time. But, I don't regret trying to have it all. I can't help but to keep trying to have it all even though I've proven it's not possible.

Sweet daughters, if you are anything like your mother you will always be making deals with yourself about what you are OK with letting go of today so that you can finally let your mind and body rest. When your plate is too full, don't be afraid to just dump some of it to make room for more. Adding one more thing to a full plate usually creates quite a mess. And if you do make a mess, don't apologize for it or beat yourself up. It's never too late to dump it and start over.

UPDATE 2017

I originally wrote this exactly four years ago on November 7, 2013. My daughters are now 21 and 27. I am a little older and a little wiser and I have a beautiful 1-year-old grandson. Life goes on, but the battle is the same. Women still try to have it all. I am still trying to have it all. I still wake up on the sofa sometimes in the middle of the night with the kitchen light on. My heart still sinks when I realize it's tomorrow and there are things I didn't get to finish.

Sometimes I am better at letting it go and I give myself permission to move on and start again. Sometimes I don't. The funny thing is that I'm OK with living life this way because it's what drives me to keep pushing for the things I want to achieve. I can now tell my daughters it's worth it because having it all isn't what makes you happy. My dear daughters, never lose your passion and drive to have it all because that's how you get the most out of life.

Stories about Stories

On Sunday I gassed up my car to make yet another trek from Houston to Centerville, Texas and then back to Houston. It's more or less an every other weekend thing we've been doing for 5 years.

I'm sure there are a lot of divorced parents who can relate to the "midway" meeting place. I've seen many of you at the same gas station where I meet my ex. I see your weary looks and quick exchanges to hurry and get back on the road. But let me give you another perspective on these tiresome journeys. One that might brighten up your next weekend exchange.

About the time we moved to Houston, my then 14-year-old decided to metamorphose into some alien child I didn't know. Technically, it's called puberty, but in my house it is called "hell." For the next several years, I just prayed I would someday get my sweet little girl back. Well, that never happened, but when she emerged from the grips of adolescence she became a beautiful, sweet and opinionated young lady.

Let me clarify on her behalf. She was never a "bad" girl. She didn't do drugs, she didn't lie, cheat, steal, drink or get into trouble with the boys. As she would say, she was not a "bad girl" and I should have been happy with that fact alone. I was thankful she was a good girl, but the constant arguing and fighting made me want take an extended leave of absence and find the nearest mountain and jump. She was argumentative, failing classes and I didn't believe she was trying her hardest. She was stubborn, hard-headed and manipulative. We had screaming matches that I'm sure was heard miles away. Taking her phone away sometimes came close to blows and even some small pushing matches.

The girl is taller and stronger than me and she could have easily taken me down if she wanted. But, she didn't because I held the key ... actually, I held the keys to the Jeep, the service for the cell phone and there was the final threat of living without anything that required electricity.

Although I believe my consistent disciplining helped, it was really a suggestion made by her dad that was the breakthrough. I thought he was an idiot when he told me to just "listen' to her. Well, I thought I was listening to her and I was tired of that strategy because I still wasn't going to give into her demands.

It was during one of our many 2-hour drives to Centerville that taught me how to listen. I told her she could plead her case and I was going to listen and not say a word until she was completely finished and then she would have to give me the same courtesy. I also told her that I still didn't have to agree wtih her and she didn't have to agree with me.

It's a little known fact that road trips create an atmosphere conducive to getting kids to talk to you. Get them in a car alone for a couple of hours and they will spill the beans on just about any subject. So, she talked and I listened. She kept talking and I kept listening and she talked some more and I listened some more. The longer I let her talk the the more insight she gave about what was really going on in her life. With girls there's always a story and then there's the story about the story.

Everytime things got heated between us, I looked forward to getting her in the car and hashing it out because it was these sessions that finally settled down the atmosphere at home. There's a lot more to the story, but she did emerge from her volatile years a little sooner than most and just in time for us to really enjoy the last year and a half of high school before she graduated.

During my most recent trip to Centerville, my 19-year-old daughter had to work, but would be seeing her dad when she drives up for the start of school. I missed having her in the car and my mind started to wander about all our little talks on the road.

I can't believe how fast those years went by. I'm going to miss our bi-weekly, 2-hour gab sessions. But, just as I was getting sentimental, I was shocked back to reality. My 13-year-old daughter was looking at me and (fake) sighing because she wanted me to put in her favorite CD.

This time I'm ready ... bring on the road trips!