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1 Forging a Path: Career Vision A vision is a big purpose—a daring and inspiring image of a future that you want to create. —Thomas (2009, p. 98) Joy is the manager of a public library branch in a medium-sized city. In addition to managing a budget, overseeing operations, and supervising staff, she gets to take on special projects related to areas of particular inter- est to her—for instance, putting together a summer program designed to encourage girls’ interest in technology and design. She is very proud of what she and her staff have accomplished, has built a network of collegial relationships with other professionals, and really looks forward to going to work every day. She honestly can’t imagine herself anywhere else. But Joy is a second-career librarian, having taken a long path through two very dif- ferent landscapes. After graduating from college, she was happy to leave academia behind but wasn’t really sure where she wanted to go. She took a position doing digital design work with the firm where she had completed her senior internship. Joy more or less “fell into” this opportunity, finding the work fast paced and enjoyable. For a little over ten years, she moved from project to project garnering both personal satisfaction and the respect of colleagues. Unfortunately, the company didn’t survive in the long run, and she found herself at loose ends once again. 7