Slasher Through and Through

I don't really like to put myself in categories, but I must admit that the term "slasher" speaks to me a lot insofar as it describes people who have several jobs, and who therefore dedicate themselves to several professions. I say "dedicate" because unfortunately, at the beginning of my career, this propensity to be interested in many different things not viewed favourably by some employers and sometimes even ended up at my own detriment. A good CV was supposed to be linear and logical, not sprawling and unusual!

I can't help it. Ever since I was little, my passion laid in diversity and discovery. I like to learn new things, not necessarily because I want to make a career out of them, but because the experience excites me! I take great pleasure in discovering and adding strings to my bow. I have done just under 30 different jobs in the past 30 years. Some of these experiences were short, others much longer. I sometimes filled certain roles out of necessity, others out of choice, but the fact remains that when the "Career Counsellor" asked me at school what I wanted to do with my life, I had trouble make my mind up! Choosing did indeed mean renouncing and at the time it seemed like a shame to be closing so many doors.

At that time, I was predestined to work "in languages" (in view of my abilities in the field from a very young age) in the end I studied visual communication, specialising in audio-visual because I loved cinema. However, my first job just after university was as a saleswoman in a video game store in Lille, following a personal interest in the field which I shared with my friends.

Moreover, having some experience in soldering (thanks to a summer spent, during my studies, in a Dell factory soldering electronic components on motherboards), I was also put in charge of modifying consoles to turn them "multi-region”. This was to the delight of my fellow "sales guys" who not only couldn't believe that a girl should know about video games but that she could also tamper with console electronics.

Was it a conscious career choice, not at all, it was an experience, nothing more. Besides, 6 months later I was back in England as a translator for a magazine offering video game solutions. Very fun experience. 6 months later, websites began to flourish and became a must for any self-respecting company. Very intrigued by this new technology which made it possible to build pages and make them visible to everyone on a rapidly developing internet, I learned HTML and promptly became an integrator and designer in the same company. I navigated this early career according to my curiosity which had become like a compass.

Then I followed a series of fairly logical professional changes: Web producer, webmaster, web project manager, then audiovisual project manager (thinking of going back to the sources of my studies). And there I ran out of steam. I got lost in activities that no longer fed my curiosity at all. I even deployed and burned an incredible amount of energy doing what others expected of me and fulfilling the needs of others until exhaustion and a tremendous sense of disillusion ensued. I was never diagnosed as having suffered a burnout but I unfortunately think I flirted with it for several years.

Gradually I came back to my Slasher “origins” and tried to orient myself better by reconnecting with things that I actually liked. I love English and having lived in England for 11 years, I speak it fluently. So, I trained as an English teacher, and I also did some translation work. It was nice to understand what makes a good teacher but very quickly I lost interest. Something felt repetitive. Those who like the new and different, struggle with the repetitive! The same became true in my translation work. It's nice to find out as many words and expressions as possible, to discover the many nuances of a foreign language and culture, to learn its references, but perhaps not to make lengthy translations every day. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t judge translators or English teachers in anyway. It just seems that something switched in me after a while and seek change.

That is the grand dilemma of all Slasher. Because as They are interested in many things, they have trouble seeing clearly and understanding what really suits them professionally. They must therefore go about it through elimination, and operate in a funnel, starting wide and sort it out as they go. My last choices have been interesting. When I left the audio-visual and digital world, I simultaneously trained as a voice-over and as coach. Another set of important and diverse learnings. I practiced these two professions side by side for several years with great pleasure since they reintroduced diversity into my life. Miss weather-forecast as a voice- in the mornings and coach in the afternoons! Great!

Then my love for accompanying and counselling people took over. It has become obvious it is meant for me. For the first time in my life, I feel like I belong, like I am truly useful, things flow and come naturally and it makes a lot of sense to me. Gradually I moved away from the role of voice-over, even if I still record from time to time. I was ready to yield my Slasher gloves, not out of resignation, just with a sense of peace thanks to all that I had been able to accomplished in my life. I was now happy to follow a more specific main path.

Well, despite all my good intentions, despite myself, I became a Tai Chi teacher this year! Once a Slasher, always a Slasher! It was not planned at all but this opportunity presented itself to me thanks to my Tai Chi master of more than 15 years! What a gift! I therefore combine my activity as a coach/counsellor with this more educational and physical role! And unsurprisingly I think it's fantastic and stimulating!

Isn’t it great to be able to try on a multitude of hat, especially if they fit perfectly, and why not create a beautiful collection! Isn’t it the best to learn again and again, to experience new things! If these words resonate with you, stop judging yourself for being “too scattered”, congratulate yourself for being so multiple, versatile and curious! There is immense wealth to be gained right there!