Hairdressing I Have Always Regretted

Hairdressing

I have always regretted not having been able to continue my formal education after the tenth grade, particularly because not having a high school diploma has narrowed the field of possible career choices. At the time, staying in school was not an option for me because my father was confined to the home and required round-the-clock care for his medical condition. Since my mother worked to support our four-child family, I left school to help out by staying home with my ailing father. Since then, I have held several jobs in the service industry which were not particularly fulfilling but which provided me with valuable experience in the area of professional responsibility and maturity, nevertheless. Working as a waitress was a valuable opportunity to realize that I enjoy working with people and resolving problems, but it was not challenging in the way that I would hope to be challenged continually in my eventual career. Besides serving the purpose of allowing me to care for myself and my family, a hairdressing career would provide more varied professional challenges while also emphasizing my ability to establish good rapport with customers and coworkers, but in a more professionally satisfying environment than my previous vocational experiences.

My long-term goals are simply to establish a respectable career that is both stable and that will enable me to contribute the most to my family and maintain my financial independence. While working as a waitress, I learned that I genuinely enjoy meeting different people continually and working with members of the public, especially when they appreciate my efforts. While hairdressing requires fundamentally different vocational skills than serving food, I believe that some of my greatest strengths as a server are equally applicable to my hopeful career as a hairdresser.

Specifically, my supervisors appreciated the fact that I listen actively and absorb information, which allows me to take and follow directions very well. I genuinely enjoy working with others in group situations but I also work very productively by myself when necessary. Likewise, while I also enjoy interacting with customers, I have learned how to do so without allowing it to distract me from my operational responsibilities. In many respects, I have a natural ability as a problem solver, but the context in which the opportunity to employ those skills arises in the food service industry is somewhat limited and comparatively unchallenging creatively.

Hairdressing is a field that seems to emphasize people skills and the ability to work effectively in a group as well as in one-on-one situations. It is a field that provides more opportunity for creativity; more importantly, whereas the customer's satisfaction after a well served meal lasts only minutes and rarely (if ever) beyond the point of service, hairdressing is a field in which customers typically appreciate the service provided long after the actual point-of-service.