I’m taking a break from the adventure writing this time around. I was going to re-cap my time at an annual weather conference, but there wouldn’t be much value in that for most of you.

Plus, I’ve written on weather conferences before. The structure is similar year after year, but I do come home with different and invaluable information every time. It’s not really worthy of another blog post, though. I went, I learned, I shook hands, and I went home.

Despite the above photo from day 0 of the conference, this blog will not take you on a journey, and it will probably be boring to most of you. Students may find this helpful, or maybe those of you who are in a little rut with your job might get a little push to explore ways to get out of it.

This year’s annual conference was in late August in St. Louis, a city I’d only briefly driven through several times before. Yes, I did go up in the arch, and it was nerve-wracking!

Attendees do have fun with evening social events, but the majority of the time is spent listening to 15 minute long presentations and study findings. I won’t bore you with the details of sitting in a conference room for hours and hours on end. I want to talk about the broader reason of why I go.

Hint: I go to learn. And to re-motivate myself to keep learning.

Maybe there’s a similarly inspiring event in your job field!

The older I get, the more and more important continuing education becomes to me. When I was fresh out of college, I was SO happy to “never have to take a class for the rest of my life.” No way was I going to grad school. No way would I have the slightest inkling to learn more. Boy, was I wrong! It may have taken a few years to realize it, but I am now a firm believer that you should never stop learning. Am I finally an adult? 🙂

In fact, I LIKE learning! Especially when it’s a topic I’m fascinated with (weather).

The longer I’m out of school, the more I want to take classes again. The more I want to learn. The more I realize that new information and studies, especially in the sciences, are constantly evolving and being published. The more I know I have to keep up with continuing my education. And the more I want to give back and pass wisdom along to others who are in the same position I was in years ago. Some of them are feeling the same way I did: burned out in school. Not able to fit any more information into their brains.

I still don’t think I’ll go back for a master’s, but now I don’t mind the thought of taking classes.

I recently gave a talk to a Fresno State physics class full of education majors and future teachers. Instead of giving my typical “this is what I do at work” talk, I incorporated more inspiration, advice, and “what I wish I knew then” tidbits. And memes. And emojis. Kids these days like those, right? 😉

I had a list of things students could be doing now to help setup their futures, in which I included getting involved with professional organizations and conferences. These are things no one stressed that I MUST do in college, and things I really knew very little about until a few years into my career. I wish I had been involved from my first year as meteorology student.

I know conferences in other fields of work differ, so maybe this wasn’t helpful advice to the future educators. But, I imagine there are some similarities. The presentations at weather conferences usually range from engagingly interesting, to eye-glazing. But if I can walk away with a few new ideas and pieces of information, it was worth my time. If you learn something, it’s worth it. Go just once and see.

In my experience, listening to others talk about what works for their weathercast and viewers is always motivating and leaves me excited to go back to work and implement these new ideas. Talking to fellow broadcasters about what they’re doing on social media inspires me to be more engaging. I see other’s graphics and it gets my creative juices flowing. Do you think I thought of the dog walking forecast on my own? Fall color maps? Running forecast? No, I saw someone across the country do these things years ago, and made some graphics at my very first job. I’ve carried them with me to each station since, and they’ve always been a hit!

I’m not much for socializing or small talk, so the networking side of things is hard for me. I don’t go to conferences with networking in mind, but I’ve “accidentally” had it happen. 4 years ago, I met someone in the shuttle back to the airport. We made small talk, then parted ways. A few months later, they reached out to me on LinkedIn about an opening within their station. I would have never guessed that it would lead me to a new job and moving to Fresno!

I’ve been on the other side of this as well. When I was still working in Michigan, I had a Central Michigan University meteorology student approach me, who recognized me from watching my old TV station. He asked about interning or job shadowing, and I took his resume. I passed it along to my boss when I got back, he later got hired as a “trainee,” then eventually brought on full-time. Networking works!

The cool thing about having a job that I’m passionate about is that I actually WANT to keep learning. It was never a huge chore to study my behind off to get certified by the American Meteorological Society. It was definitely time consuming, but I liked reviewing material I learned years before. I even learned things that weren’t in my college courses. When I have questions about a topic, I don’t mind sifting through Google Scholar to read studies. Yes, it’s work, but it’s fun and interesting work.

I’m not sure where I’m going with this post. It’s a little disorganized. Maybe someone out there will take a moment to think about where they are in their career. If you’re stagnant, bored, or unchallenged, doing something as small as meeting for coffee with someone with a similar work position can allow you to bounce ideas off of each other and get inspired.

Or maybe you’ll think to join an organization that will teach you different techniques or strategies. Poke around online and see if there’s a local chapter of an organization that relates to your field. It could be directly related, or it could be something generic that covers all sorts of jobs, like a young professionals group. Meetup, Reddit, etc., can connect you to interesting ideas.

It’s raining as I type this on a Saturday. I won’t be adventuring today, but rather, staying inside. I’ve been researching tiny houses lately, and I want to learn more about composting toilets. Invigorating? No. But I’m bound to be led down a rabbit hole of information and sidetracks and will maybe learn something about sustainability today.

Ready…set…Google!