- I spent 8 years living abroad before returning to the US, and the job search back home turned out to be its own education
- Applying broadly across different fields and different states taught me just how many kinds of work exist, and how differently people feel about their jobs.
- “Life at Work” is my attempt to explore what work really means to people, one occupation at a time.
Hi, I’m Bryan. If this is your first time here, welcome. I figured the right way to start this blog is by explaining why it exists at all.
A Bit About Me
I spent eight years living abroad before moving back to the US a little over a year ago. Coming back, I expected the transition to be straightforward. It wasn’t. I started applying for jobs in my field, then widened my search across industries, then across the country, sending out application after application. It’s been a long process, and I’m still very much in the middle of it.
But somewhere in that process, something unexpected happened. I started noticing just how many different jobs exist in the world, jobs I’d never thought about, jobs with entire cultures and unwritten rules of their own. And I noticed something else: some people talk about their work with real pride and meaning, while others talk about the exact same kind of job like it’s something to endure. Same title, completely different relationship to the work.
How “Life at Work” Started
That contrast stuck with me. I realized my own view of “what a job is” had been narrow and shaped mostly by the handful of fields I’d studied and worked in. There was a much bigger, human story out there about what work means to people, and I wanted to go find it.
That’s what this project is: a documentary-style look at different occupations, told through the people doing them. Not just what the job pays or what the requirements are, but what it’s actually like to do that work every day, and what it means to the person doing it.
What You’ll Find Here
Alongside the videos, this blog is where I’ll dig deeper, things like what certain jobs pay, how different career paths work, and every so often, a bit of my own life and travel along the way.
If you’ve ever wondered what a certain job is really like, or you’re somewhere in your own career search trying to figure out what’s next, I think you’ll find something here worth reading.
If you want to see this in video form, our channel Life at Work is where the conversations happen. Come say “hi”!
Work in Progress.