Has the Camino helped your career?

[Anonymous]

...i suppose what I mean is, you are in your 50's, quit your job, (or was laid off) took 3 months off to do the walk, returned home to look for work, and added a new line to your resume, indicating what you did.

Have you been questioned by prospective employers on this in interviews?

Do you feel it has helped you get the job? In a way, you are listing it as an accomplishment, and I am hoping that when I do the same, it will demonstrate resolve and commitment...

it can't hurt, right?

 

[lanval]

I think that will will help with some and not with others. I figure you may prefer to work for a company that finds endevour a positive event, so it will most likely be in your favour!

It depends on the business culture and the individuals you deal with as well. My company was so enthusiastic about my Camino that they went our of their way to make it easy. Even HR was excited and they called me to suggest several things that would help, such as taking a small amount from each pay cheque in the year leading up to my Camino so that my cheques would continue during my unpaid leave. That continuation of funds helped.

 

[lynnejohn]

Realistically, just as has been suggested.
You have to be very deft at refashioning the experience into something that YOU can offer THEM.
It's the way of the world, after all.
If you're good at it, it can work to your benefit. If you can't manage that, well then, you have to revert to Plan B.

 

[Telluridewalker]

Nope.

 

[Whalleyranger]

I can't say whether or not it's helped, but it's certainly on my CV, and is a good fallback if you ever get asked about a proud achievement in an interview.

 

[Deleted member 3000]

I personally would put this lighted candle under a bushel. There is enough insanity in walking a camino that I would save it for the cocktail hour, not the curriculum vitae. Employers want to know what you can do for them, not what you do for yourself. For the employers who know something about the Camino, they know a lot of pilgrims return to make life changes, one of which is quitting! Human resources folks are a soulless lot. They start by eliminating people -- skin color, ethnic name, accent, etc., most of which are illegal under U.S. law. Then they eliminate the ones that might not fit in -- smokers, non-drinkers, obese, religious, individualist, etc. Then they see who might be qualified. With hundreds of applicants, personnel departments are too lazy to look past the superficial, and I would not take a chance that, on a particular day, you are evaluated by a fat atheist that has no use for someone fit enough to walk a 450 mile religious trail.

Just sayin'

 

[JohnnieWalker]

I have to say Falcon that your unbiased and objective analysis provoked huge laughter here.

Thanks

 

[+@^^]

say Falcon...
you must be from HR then ?
.
this would have made for a riveting ending the the movie The Way
unemployable Sheen
bwah ha ha

 

[johnnyman]

The Camino (last summer) hasn't necessarily helped my career, but I'm sure it has helped me. I'm a public school teacher, and not the most patient, tolerant and nurturing-type person, but a lot of people have remarked this year how much I have changed. Calmer is one description ...

 

[Rebekah Scott]

This is a loaded question for me.

As a travel journalist, I discovered the camino while "on the job." I got my first look at the Camino, and at Spain, as a guest of the Tourist Office of Spain, back in 1993 they were promoting the next Holy Year on this "camino de santiago" thing.
OMG, we both got so much more than we bargained for!

I fell in love with the whole modern pilgrimage idea. I sold stories about the camino to publications all over North America. I kept coming back to Spain, kept writing about it, and finally walked the camino myself in 2001. Then became a hospitalera. Then slowly sent the most important people of my life out to do the camino too...

And then chucked the whole journo business in 2006 to move to Spain and join the scene permanently. So I guess, yeah, it helped me on the career. Helped me OFF the career, too! And helped me find a much more peaceful and satisfying way to make my living.

Book due sometime this year. Soon to be a Major Motion Picture! :wink:

 

[peregrino_tom]

Alan, quite simply - yes.
I've always been a bit frayed and useless in interviews and before the camino my CV was going downhill with a year of bits and pieces. Returning from the camino kind of brought that chapter to a close with something I could sell as a really positive challenge well met.
There wasn't much work around when I got back three years ago. But my whole tired, low-horizoned middle-aged pessimism had dissolved after the camino and been replaced with an unstoppable enthusiasm. And I think that in my first interview that must have come through, as I got the job (and am still there). I can't say the camino has led to career advancement but I'm a much better person for it and some of that has to rub off in the place I spend around 9 hours a day earning a crust.
The impact isn't going to be as dramatic for everyone, but the camino is what you make of it - and what you allow it to make of you.

 

[KiwiNomad06]

Book due sometime this year. Soon to be a Major Motion Picture! :wink:

Glad to hear it.... been looking out for this book! Margaret

 

[nellpilgrim]

I personally would put this lighted candle under a bushel. There is enough insanity in walking a camino that I would save it for the cocktail hour, not the curriculum vitae. Employers want to know what you can do for them, not what you do for yourself. For the employers who know something about the Camino, they know a lot of pilgrims return to make life changes, one of which is quitting! Human resources folks are a soulless lot......
Just sayin'

Well it was a case of Veni ego ambularem (and eventually) abdicavit for me.......so once again you're on the money Falcon :lol:

 

[mmm042]

Congrats, Rebekah! Make sure to let us know when your book and movie come out. I appear to be following in your footsteps, only I was a guest of the Office of Tourism in 2009 to prepare for the 2010 Holy Year and began walking the Camino immediately. I, too, fell in love with it and began obsessively selling stories on it all over the U.S., plus created my app. And while I've spent way more money making the app than I'll likely ever recoup, I feel like I was meant to do it, and there's something more coming down the pike. I just have to wait and see what it is! I don't think I'll be moving to Spain in the near future, though, as I'm trying to get three kids through college right now. Melanie

 

[robertt]

Aged sixty-two and living on acres some distance from a country town, I've ditched my vehicle and I take three months off each year to go hiking on pilgrim trails. I've let people know I intend to keep doing this.

Why won't prospective employers take me seriously?

 

[+@^^]

there is not a straight line between 2 dots
the camino dot and the job dot are just 2 dots
of millions
dont force the connection
.
just breath
and be open to possibilities
.
btw
how to make god laugh?
tell her your career plans

 

[Jeff Stys]

Did the Camino help my career? Yes. Is it on my resume? No.

Like many people, one of the results of my Camino was to make a career tranisition. After returning, I took 6 months to do a "career exploration". I spoke to many people in my field and, as a result, decided to start my own consulting practice.

That was almost four years ago. It was a good decision and being my own boss allows me to take six weeks off this spring and walk another Camino.

One of the beautiful things about the Camino experience is that you never know where it will lead you!

Jeff

 

[tyrrek]

Don't forget to add to your CV/resume that you participate on this forum in order to put something back by sharing your experiences and guiding others where you led.

 

[Alan Pearce]

After it became clear that I had been bitten by the camino bug, my wife gently suggested that it would be good were I to find a part-time job in order to pay for them. Otherwise the cost would have to come out of our joint supeannuation funds, which would not be quite fair, and as I was retired there was no income stream to replenish outgoings. I had to agree with her but held out little hope of any such jobs becoming available. Three weeks later I had a call from a firm wishing to employ me each Australian summer [European winter]. I have so far put enough aside to cover my next three caminos, and am working on the 4th.
So in this case it was my career which helped my caminos!

Alan

Be brave. Life is joyous.