At fifteen, my first job was that of a waitress at a local truck stop. One day, back then, I happened to meet elementary principal of my past. She mentioned she had heard I was working part time and wondered at what.

Shamefacedly I mumbled, "Oh, I am just a waitress." That wise, old, stern headmistress said to me, "Teresa, any job is an honorable job. Don't you ever forget it!" And I never have.

Of course, seeing honor in our job is not always an easy task.

Societal Values Demean our Work & Worth

Our societal values make it difficult to honor so-called menial jobs. Our sick societal values esteem big bank accounts, fancy houses, new cars, extended paid vacations, prestigious jobs, beautiful, youthful looks, and perfectly cloned behaviors. These societal values wring worth from vast majority of hard-working folk.

Create your own values by looking for honor and worth in your work now. Any honest day's work is honorable and worthy. Finding honor and goodness in everything you do builds dignity and honor within you.

Even if you wanted to career change but instead returned to field you had hoped to leave, remember, there is huge honor and courage in this. Taking care of your family and responsibilities does not mean you are a failure. It means you are a responsible, caring human being.

If you cannot find any worth in your current job, that lack of worth will likely haunt your career change. Before jumping jobs, seeking fulfillment elsewhere, consider your current job as sacred work.

Your Job as Sacred Work

Monastic writers have described their day-to-day, menial work as path to holiness. Your job is much more than a means to pay bills. Try envisioning your job as your ministry.

Job offers from 17 out of 19 interviews is not a bad track record and no, I am not some kind of a technical genius that every company would want to employ simply by looking at my resume. I am a computer programmer and there are many programmers out there with better technical skills than me.

The secret, I believe is confidence. Not necessarily confidence in yourself, but creating confidence in your interviewer's mind. I once had a 4 1/2 hour interview in Sydney, Australia. Before that I could not imagine such a long interview was possible, it was for a very senior position. If, like most people, you don't like interviews in general, imagine sitting there for 4 1/2 hours. Anyway, about halfway through interview, interviewer told me that he had another 2 or 3 people that he's considering for position, but that he's got a "warm and fuzzy feeling" about me. Not something I really want to hear from another male, but when he said that, I realized that job was mine.

Your objective, then, is to create that "warm and fuzzy" feeling in your interviewer's mind.

Before an interview, I always think of what I would like to see in other person if I was on other side of table, in other words, if I was interviewing somebody else for this position. Computer programming is considered as a technical field, even on a managerial level, but technical aspect has very seldom been deciding factor, unless interviewer has poor people skills or a lack of experience. Generally anybody with a bit of experience will be more interested in your personality than your technical abilities. I am assuming, of course, that you are applying for positions which you are in some way qualified to fill. So how do you focus on your personality and what personality traits should you try to demonstrate? Let me give you some examples of what I consider as important in an interview.