Blueprints: Reflections on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Work

by Julie M. Hau

“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.” –Dr. Martin Luther King Jr

“What Is Your Life’s Blueprint?” (October 26, 1967)

Drawing a blueprint for our careers helps us have a place to start. In time, we add an adjoining room, redesign an old room and even add a staircase to a second floor. Sometimes, it is necessary to dismantle the house and build a new foundation going in a different direction with new tools. Career coaching is a path to exploring your life’s blueprint and finding new tools to build innovatively. It is a way of expressing yourself in the worlds of education and work.

Career coaching is not prescribing what you should do. There is no single test or assessment that can decide for you what you should do with your life. Instead, and beautifully, assessments help clients reflect on their interests, skills, abilities, personality, values, and strengths. Further, in conversation with your coach, you draft your career past and construct a story of your career future. You explore who you are, what’s available in the world of work, and how you might merge the two. This notion goes back to the father of career guidance, Frank Parson, in his groundbreaking 1909 book, Choosing a Vocation. Like King, he wrote in service to society with the dream of helping others find passion and purpose in their lives.

“Tell me about yourself” is one of the first guiding questions I ask in a career coaching intake. Coincidentally, it is often the first question asked in a job interview. This question is one of the most difficult and important to answer. From career exploration to job interviewing to introducing ourselves, we ask and answer this question many times in our lives, rewriting this troupe, and redrawing this blueprint.

As a career coach, my goal is to help others actualize their career potential. I believe career coaching is a path to self-discovery and career action. Ideally, clients find a job that brings joy, passion, and purpose to their work and something that serves to help them to support themselves and their families.

Each of us in our own way is working toward a life well-lived within our work, friendships, families, communities, and the world at large. King reflects not only on how we work but also how well we work. Most importantly, King stresses that we find dignity and pride in our vocation.

The King Center, for more information about Dr. King, Jr.

Bridging the Gap Year, for more writing from Julie M. Hau.