Occupational therapy

Mind games
A few days later, Acks shows up at Craig McCall’s office sporting a tidy buzz cut (shorter on the sides) and a neat, trimmed beard, ready to figure out what kind of job he should focus on. McCall is a corporate psychologist who assists with career placement (mostly on the executive level), and in this case, he’s here to help Acks land not just any job, but the right job (career assessment, $400–$700; assesscorporatetalent.com).

Across a corner-office desk, McCall holds a few personality assessments he’s already received from Acks via e-mail. McCall starts out with a few personal questions about Acks’s family and where he’s from before he comes around to the NASA question. But McCall gives Acks’s answer a different spin. “You’re a unique commodity: an analytic and a creative. Do you want a 9-to-5 [job] to feed your creative production, or do you want a creative job?”

“I would like to have a job where I use my brain the same way I use it in the studio,” Acks says. “I don’t know if that exists. But I definitely want to be self-motivated at my job.”

In an attempt to tell Acks exactly what that job could look like, McCall lobs a series of questions: What’s comforting about a 9-to-5 job? (Painting in the evenings.) How do you spend your days now that you’re unemployed? (Meticulous job searches on the computer.) Do you need strict guidelines or do you want to make the rules? (A little of both.) Does it appeal to you to be an idea generator? (Yes.)

“You have two sides of you, and you need to balance the scales,” McCall says. “Let me ask you this: What’s ideal?”

Surprisingly, Acks has a specific example: “I really wanted a gallery job I recently interviewed for, because I would’ve done the mailing, taken initiative and met maybe four really interesting art-world people a month,” Acks laments about the well-balanced analytical and creative job that slipped through his fingers. “But they hired a more experienced person than me.”

McCall encourages Acks to look for similar jobs at other galleries, network and pay attention to his strengths listed on the personality tests. “I want you to know you. That’s value number one. Now that you do, you’re in a better position than when you came in.”

NEXT>>