Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Clutch Cargo]

Do they work?

I sort of had one (5 yrs ago) which I think I have just come to the end of.
It included getting a degree and teaching O/S, among other goals (tick...tick...tick...). But some things have not come about, not from lack of trying either.

I'm a bit of a day-at-a-time kind of guy but feel that I need to make a new plan. I've just got to come up with some new goals. Maybe those events that didn't come about in the last five?(mumbling to myself).

[whatthefunk]

Ha. Five year plans suck and are a waste of time. So many things can go wrong in five years that I don't think its possible for them to work. I had one a couple years ago that put me in graduate school right now studying biochemistry...yeah that worked well.

[katydid]

Man, at my last job interview that was the worst question ever...where do you see yourself in TEN years. I had to come up with some crap answer, because I knew "I don't really have one," was not the correct answer.
I THINK in 5 years, I will be back in America, but what I will do is anyone's guess. Not stripping (furniture) not raising ferrets. But something. I always think "Oh, yeah, grad school," but really, you can not go to grad school if you don't know what you want your major to be from the get-go and I am just interested in waaaay too many things right now to specialize in one.
Sometime soon in my life, I would like to do the marriage/kids thing but I think it's ridiculous to tack an age on when I should do it.

[canuckistan]

Becoming the Donald Trumpette of Mt Tremblant, Quebec real estate.

[Hyalucent]

Year 1 to 1.5 -- Teach here and bank money
Year 2 -- Start my business back home and buy a cheap house in the country. Freelancing on the side.
Year 3 -- Grow business and hire summer students
Year 4 -- Hire two full time employees. Get married.
Year 5 -- Offload the cheap house and build a new one to spec.

Yep... got a plan. It's pretty easy to watch the time slip away here. Having a definite finish time to my stay in Korea keeps me focused and should get me set up back home in time to start a family and prepare for retirement.

[bucheon bum]

My grandfather to my dad: "You can only plan up to one year of your life at a time. More than that and its hopeless/useless."

My dad to me: "That was the only good advice my dad gave me."

As for me, yup, I only have about a year planned. Beyond that, nothing.

[VanIslander]

Plans do go awry.

Ask yourself: "What was my 5-year plan five years ago?"

In 1998 I planned on finishing my M.A., becoming a newspaper editor and marrying my highschool sweetheart. I succeeded as a journalist, only to quit a year later to chase after a woman who is now 'nearly engaged' (her words) to a diplomat in India. Then I half-wasted a semester in grad school before doing two-month stints in California and Northern Alberta.

Then I had an experience which changed my thirtysomething life. I was heading for home in a snow blizzard on the eve of the new year 2002 when my car broke down on a notoriously dangerous northern B.C. highway. Visibility was poor, so the few cars on the near empty road didn't want to stop for a tall man on a dark night. After a cold hour in grizzly bear country, one car finally stopped and a man offered to give me a ride. I accepted and ended up at a motel fifty minutes down the highway. The kind stranger wanted to give me a ride all the way to Prince George; he was an all-around nice guy. He and I talked the entire ride and I got to know him a little. He refused to accept anything for his kindness, but I felt especially grateful given the exactly 17 cars that'd passed me by as I flailed my arms in the blinking lights of my half-ditched Chrysler Dynasty on that shoulderless stretch of narrow road. It was eleven by the time I was in my motel room, and the first thing I did after phoning my family was make a New Year's Resolution: Repay the kindness with kindness. How? I didn't have the foggiest idea until months later. You see, the man was Korean

So, here I am.

Yet I still plan. Like Camus' mythical hero I push the rock of hope up the hill, only to watch it fall back down again. What am I to do? except start pushing the rock back up again (though I half-fool myself about my predicament).

I still plan on finishing my degree, though I have given up on scheduling my love life. I like the practicality of one-year plans, yet, two or more years may be necessary financially. And, to be honest, I do plan on meeting Ms. Right sometime in the next five years, fool that I am. Though tomorrow I may not admit it.

And, oh yeah, get this: I plan on writing a book

[crazylemongirl]

I'm still having trouble with what I want to be doing in 6 months time let alone 5 years.

Life seemed so much easier when you had people telling you what to do. Hey CLG don't hit your sister. CLG wake up it's time to go to school. CLG you writing is like a drunken chicken making its way across the page do it again until it's legible.

CLg

[Homer]

The "plan" extends well beyond 5-years but is not set in concrete.
It is working fine and will continue to do so.

[Hyalucent]

[Bubbliee]

Gee 5 years.....

Well I'll be 30then, YIKES!
I always thought and kinda still do think that by 30, I'llbe barefoot and pregnant. WOW what a goal eh? Actually I have other things that I would like to do, actually many of them, I'm just not totally sure how to get to them.

[waterbaby]

Don't get making a five year plan confused with making a five year plan and sticking to it!

[OiGirl]

Made a 5-year plan about a year and a half ago, thanks to a guy who said to me, "I just can't get seriously involved with you or any woman right now because I don't have a 5-year plan!"

I thought last year I was letting things slide and would not meet the plan...then a friend stepped in and got me to do the tasks set for that year. I think letting close friends in on your own plan is a good idea. Just last night another friend told me, "I can't wait until November when I can help you _____!"

And, yes, my 5-year plan does involve teaching in Korea!

[Bulsajo]

I have successfully acheived all my 5 year plans to date.
It's relatively easy- all you have to do is keep your plan simple.
Mine have always been exactly the same:
Don't die;
don't end up living in a cardboard box;
have no major regrets.

Seriously- 5 year plans are for A type personalities like Chairman Mao and Secretary General Stalin.

[Yaya]

For me, I originally had planned on living in Korea for a maximum of three years, but it turned into nine years and would've been longer had I not had the unemployment problem.

I was hoping to work for someone else until I was 40 and then start a biz in Korea, but it's funny how life plays tricks on you. I held out as long as I could before my money well dried up and forced me to move back to the US out of sheer necessity. Now I'm in real estate appraisal in Southern California, and this was NOT part of any five-year plan. There is only so much you can plan for, and perhaps a plan on the general direction you want your life to take is advisable.

Dennis Miller said it best: life is what happens AFTER you make your plans.