[One-Week Job] Talk About Temporary Work

Unsure of what he wanted to be after he graduated from college, Sean Aiken decided to travel across the country, sampling one job each week for a year. He’s worked in a tattoo parlor, a bakery, an advertising agency and a hospital foundation. Recently, his travels took him to a Truly Nolen office in Hollywood, Fla.

A WEEK'S WORTH OF PESTS. Aiken, a 26-year-old native of Vancouver, British Columbia, with no previous pest control experience, spent a week working as a technician and salesman for the company. He helped Truly Nolen technicians with the tarp work on a house fumigation and inspected a church for termites with them. He also made several calls with the company’s salespeople.

Aiken said his favorite part about working at a pest control firm — something he’d never considered before — was that the industry offers many different types of work. “There’s a lot more to it than on the surface,” he said.

He said he enjoyed helping people solve problems, working outside and doing something different each day. The fumigation project got a little hairy though; the tarps proved a bit hard to handle on a windy day. The lesson there: “If it comes down to it, let the tarp go.”

And he was impressed with some of the more entomological aspects of the business: “To actually see the damage termites can do is really quite incredible,” Aiken said. “They’re like a machine. They don’t stop.”

FINDING SEAN. Barry Murray, Truly Nolen’s director of marketing and public relations, saw Aiken on CNN one Sunday, sent him an e-mail, and had him come to work the next week.

“My first thought was, ‘He’s out of his mind,’” Murray said. “He was great. He was shocked that the pest control industry was as fun as (it can be). His response to me most of the time was, ‘This is really cool. This is much neater than I thought.’”

Oh, and for the record, Aiken did get to drive the company’s trademark mouse car.

“It was very cool. People kind of give you looks left and right. It’s kind of fun, actually. It puts smiles on people’s faces,” Aiken said. “Pest control’s in the neighborhood. It gives you something to smile about even though you have termites.”

FIGHTING 40 YEARS OF ROUTINE. Aiken received his bachelor’s degree in business administration from the Capilano College School of Business in Vancouver two years ago. After graduation, he didn’t know what he wanted to do, so he put off the decision. He traveled.

He found himself depressed about facing the real world and the routine he thought that meant. He wanted to do something he enjoyed, something he loved, and wanted to choose it for himself.

“I can see my life laid out for the next 40 years, and that saddened me,” he said. “I want to do something I love doing.”

So Aiken and his videographer friend Ian MacKenzie started the One Week Job project. The idea is simple: Aiken spends one week at a job, learning about it and talking with the people there about their career choices. Then, after seven days, he moves on. His employers donate his wages for the week to charity.

MacKenzie makes movies of each job, and the men post them at www.oneweek job.com.

“I’ve found I’m passionate about the project,” Aiken said, “and taking the opportunity to be in these situations week in week out and learning as much as I can.”

A LEARNING EXPERIENCE. In his travels, he’s learned that the real world isn’t as scary as he thought it was, and that many of the people he works for and meets harbor similar feelings about work and finding a job that fulfills them.

“It’s realizing most adults still don’t know what they want to do, and it’s a continual process,” he said. “There’s no need to be scared because you are who you are, that’s where you are and people are people.”

So far, his favorite jobs have been working in a brewery and at an advertising agency. But, he said, he realizes that there is no ideal job for him.

“The job that’s going to be perfect for me at the end of 52 weeks isn’t going to be the one that makes me happy five years from now. It’s not like this is my work, this is my life.”

The project ends next month, and Aiken said he plans on writing a book about his experiences and heading out on the speaking tour.

And then? “Get a real job.”

The author is assistant editor of PCT magazine.

For more coverage of Aiken, check out his Web site and blog at www.oneweekjob.com.
 
Or, find more coverage of the project in the New York Times and on NPR. Visit www.ny times.com or www.npr.org and search for “Sean Aiken.”