Everything I do has to have a purpose. I've never been a "just to pay the bills" guy.
When I look at my career path(s), and when I know what awaited me as a JW had I stayed there, and also the path of my JW siblings (most of them), I feel like a spoiled brat.
First, I come from poverty. My parents had nothing and built what they had from the ground up. Their level of education wasn't past 4th grade.
I never worked for minimum wage, from my very first job I worked in/used high tech, had my first PC in 1985 and my first cell phone in 1987 (I call myself "the original millennial"). Without finishing college I was the vice president, assistant to the CEO of an Engineering technology company, giving training about CAD to the same Engineers that were still teaching me at night in college.
Sent Engineering to hell since my decision to be in that field was one I made at 13, thinking of what I wanted to be and the reasons for it, and since I've had different career paths in different industries.
Most of my career paths and choices have been very rewarding in different ways. I've worked in:
The nonprofit sector in various aspects, from being in boards, to case management, to outreach, to philanthropy, to teaching, to fundraising, to protesting by showing myself and my coworkers naked in the White House.
Education and training, my presentation skills acquired as a JW came very handy at the time of working in training and education, and my technology background has given me a great career in education technology.
Doing volunteer work I have provided services, computer equipment, negotiation skills to acquire properties, relationship building for fundraising, and thinking out of the box to start programs and offer help to several neglected underserved communities.
In technology itself, I had several jobs in tech support, being smart enough to make the move out of that field before the gazillions of programmers and network support engineers became obsolete by the ever changing nature of the IT beast.
Today I'm working on my second Masters Degree, and started putting things together to start doing independent work in my current line of work.
The pros are all the rewards that come from being successful and good at what I do. The cons are the same cons of everything else in my life. I've done it all with support of random, casual or accidental people and things that happen. Because of my upbringing, I don't have strong roots anywhere. Been with my now husband for 15 years, married 10 years this September, and that's the most time I've ever been part of a community, a family, anything.
There's a con that turned into a pro. I didn't have the remotest idea of anything related to career management, job search, career paths, didn't know that careers are to be managed and the role of relationships in your career advancement. I learned it all the very hard way. Burned a few bridges behind me, and did quite a few unprofessional (not illegal, nor unethical) things. Later it turned to be a pro because I was able to design a complete curriculum on job search and job readiness, so good that it became a standard in the city where I created it. I designed keeping in mind all the things that I went through that (to my surprise) they don't teach anywhere.
All my accomplishments have come directly as a result of my strength, no handouts, no shortcuts. However, not a lot of love either.