This spring, SCS is helping students jumpstart their career development by offering a series of events focused on resources, interview tips, and networking opportunities that leverage Georgetown’s considerable alumni network. These events demonstrate the holistic commitment at SCS to live out its unique mission to “improve employability and develop workforces” for a “diverse array of communities and individuals throughout their academic and professional careers.” In addition to the practical knowledge, skills, and networking potential that students may develop by participating, this career series presents a valuable opportunity to consider how the resources of discernment in the Jesuit tradition can assist students in their vocational decisions while at SCS and beyond.
At its core, a Jesuit discernment framework for a career is about making professional development choices that align most closely with an individual’s most authentic and truest self. In this worldview, every human person has a unique calling or vocation in work, but realizing this calling takes lots of self-reflection and conversation with trusted guides and mentors. In Jesuit discernment, the idea is that God has specially implanted in each person a distinct vocation that can be uncovered by paying close attention to interior movements and following the direction of these movements. Ultimately, the hope is that discernment in this style will lead individuals to career opportunities that maximize one’s gifts and talents and promote greater generosity and justice in the world. It is very possible to do work that is both personally meaningful and socially good. But we must always enter into this choice by considering the practicality of our context (e.g., family obligations, skills required for certain fields, etc.) and the hopeful possibilities of realizing our deepest desires and flourishing as human beings.
Jesuit Fr. Kevin O’Brien, S.J., in his book The Ignatian Adventure, describes how making discerning choices requires getting in touch with both our own desires for our careers and God’s desires for us. Gaining such awareness necessitates regular practices of prayer or meditation to pay attention to the various interior movements when we consider different choices along the path of professional development. For example, we might consider reaching out for an informational interview at an employer we’ve long considered as a dream job. In discernment, we will spend some time quietly reflecting on how this possibility of having an informational interview makes us feel. Does the possibility fill us with excitement, joy, pride, contentment, challenge? Or does the prospect of an informational interview, and imagining ourselves working at this organization, fill us with uncertainty, doubt, and desolation?
The questions we ask, according to Fr. O’Brien, are ultimately practical, but require vulnerability on our part in order to honestly listen to the answers. He offers the following:
“As we’ve seen, the Election [a Jesuit term that refers to the process of making a significant choice] can be an exercise in determining what your vocation in life is. Frederick Buechner, a popular theologian, writer, and Presbyterian minister, offers one of the most quoted definitions of vocation: ‘The place God Calls you to is where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.’
“Similarly, Rev. Michael Himes of Boston College distills discernment about vocation to the following three questions: What gives me joy? Am I good at it? Does the world need it? This kind of discernment requires us to dig deep inside us, to be honest about our gifts and limitations, and to be generous with what we have.”
Jesuit Fr. Kevin O’Brien, S.J., in his book The Ignatian Adventure,
As you engage with the SCS Spring Series on careers and continue to pursue your professional aspirations at Georgetown, I encourage you to consider the deeper dimensions of career discernment. Our University mission invites us to this depth as we are about forming “reflective lifelong learners” to be “responsible and active participants in civic life and to live generously in service to others.”
Regis University offers a helpful definition of Personal Discernment. Please reach out to Jamie Kralovec, SCS Associate Director for Mission Integration, at pjk34@georgetown.edu if you would like to discuss the role of discernment in your career development.