Having tried 44 other occupations in search of the perfect job, vocational-tourist Sean Aiken made a stop in Meridian last week to investigate the professional appeal of early childhood education.
Fifty-two jobs in 52 weeks may sound like the temp-assignment from hell to some, but that's Aiken's goal - and he has only six more careers to try before he reaches it.
Week 44 (Jan. 28 through Feb. 1), brought Aiken, the 26-year-old self-described idealist from Port Moody, British Columbia, to Meridian's Nature's Childcare.
Heather Mortensen, owner of Nature's Childcare - a preschool and day care serving 150 children with a staff of 26 women and four men - says she contacted Aiken after seeing a national wire story in the Statesman in November.
"I figured early childhood education is just as exciting as fashion design, and I thought it would be a great way to highlight the need for men to enter the field," Mortensen said.
GETTING STARTED
Aiken's job-shopping odyssey began in February 2007, after he graduated from Capilano College in British Columbia as a class valedictorian with an undergrad degree, but no idea what to do for a living.
He believed if he found work he was passionate about, the money would follow. He just didn't have a specific passion.
Aiken's solution? To direct his passion into his job search by creating a personal employment agency on the Web. On his site, www.oneweekjob.com, he solicits weeklong job offers and documents the experience.
Aiken doesn't accept wages for the work he does. He asks his employers to donate the money he earns to the Make Poverty History/ONE Campaign. He financed the project with a sponsorship from a Canadian employment firm.
Aiken's first job was at a bungee jumping concession in British Columbia.
Since then, he has commuted across the continent from Quebec to Manhattan, N.Y., given dairy farming and fashion buying a try, and taken buses and planes back across North America to L.A. where he spent time in show business and real estate.
"In Week 18, I was working in a general store in Ontario. A lady was looking at some flowers and I told her, 'Those are star gazing lilies,' " Aiken said. "She was amazed that I could tell. 'How do you know that?' she asked. Well, I was a florist in week six."
WEEK 44
Tuesday, Jan. 29:
Aiken's first assignment at Nature's Child is storytime for a class of 4-year-olds. The kids are fascinated by the novelty of someone new, especially a 6-foot-2-inch, dreadlocked Canadian.
As Aiken folds himself into a beanbag chair, the kids crowd close around, but they are as anxious to have his attention as they are interested in the book "Barbie Showtime."
Mortensen assures Aiken his week in Idaho will be busy, offering him the chance to work in the classroom teaching math and reading, and in management interviewing job applicants
"And changing diapers?" suggests a nearby teacher.
"I've shoveled manure, I'll do diapers," Aiken said.
He gets a reprieve though, because the daily dance party is getting started.
Aiken gamely joins a flock of 2-year-olds in a wing-flapping chicken dance. Then they dance an interpretive number, "Bear Hunt," followed by a romper-room-style stretching song. The tiny dancers know all the steps and lyrics, and eagerly show off their skills.
"He'll sleep really well on the plane outta here," Mortensen said.
"I think I'd be happy being a teacher," Aiken muses after dance class.
In Vancouver, he taught martial arts classes and coached a girls' volleyball team. Of course, summer vacation is an easily recognizable incentive, he laughs. Even an idealist can see the holistic value of built-in vacation time.
LOOKING AHEAD
One job a week doesn't mean eight hours a day. At the end of a shift Aiken has a Web site to maintain. The next gig must be found, travel and lodging arrangements made.
Sometimes it comes down to the wire.
One Sunday in the Atlanta airport he was being interviewed by CNN, and his next job had fallen through. He had to admit that he had no idea where he was going to work next.
"But Monday morning, I was an exterminator in Miami," he said.
Aiken thinks living with uncertainty may be the most valuable skill he has gained in the past year.
"It's like building a bridge as I'm walking across it," he said, adding that the most rewarding thing he has done was a job raising money for cancer research. (The worst was picking cattails in a swamp. "Too many bugs and too much mud.")
The final six weeks of the journey are almost arranged. He'll leave Idaho and spend two weeks in Hawaii working first at an observatory and then at a national park. He will spend Week 51 back in New York on the syndicated "Rachael Ray" show, and finish up working for the mayor of his hometown of Port Moody.
Looking long-term though, Aiken is only a little less uncertain than he was when he began his quest 11 months ago.
"I don't want to be defined by my job ... I am looking for a win-win, something that is fulfilling for me and contributes to a larger cause.
"As long as it's not an office job, or in a swamp."
Brad Talbutt: 672-6737
