Allie Meyer

Career Genogram Summary

CNS 220
Due: 10/28/14

When I look at the paternal side of my family, both my dad and his parents had degrees
in the Arts. Then, looking at the maternal side of my family, everyone had degrees in the
Sciences. This paradox is interesting to me, because I have always enjoyed the arts more, but
have always tested evenly in both areas of study. This might suggest a culmination of both
sides of my family in me. However, if you look at the careers of my paternal family, they are
mostly business and finance related, which are all career paths presently associated with
degrees in the sciences. I have always felt as though my personality and interests take after my
dads, so I think the connection is there, rather than in me being a blend of my parents.
I decided to ask my dad about the curious flip in interests of educations to careers that
occurred multiple times on his side of the family. What he said is that both him and his father,
Maurice Meyer III, knew they would go work at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), which
you didnt need a college degree for. However, they wanted to attend college, so they studied
what they were most interested in, rather than something that could forge a career path for
them. They decided not to continue with the interest areas after college because they wanted to
be financially secure and successful so that they could provide for their families, and there was
a lot of money to be made on Wall Street, which they were already exposed to through my
great-grandfather, Maurice Meyer, Jr. Therefore, it just seemed natural for them to follow in
those footsteps. They risked the financial security that could be provided by more predictable
jobs by working at the NYSE because they wanted great financial success and because they
enjoyed working there. Luckily, it paid off for all of them because they knew what they were
doing and they understood the market and how it worked very well.
Until my parents generation, none of the women on both sides of my family had
attended college, save for my great-grandmother Carolyn on my dads side, who studied
education. None of my great-grandmothers worked any paying jobs, but were mostly stay at


home mothers. This being a common theme at that time for women, norms were starting to
change several years later for their daughters, my grandmothers. My dads mom attended
college, but my moms mom did not. They both worked for a little while for business companies,
but at lower levels in the companies and left to be full-time mothers without being promoted.
They were motivated to work these jobs to promote their independence, not because they were
overly interested in the fields. What is interesting to note about my dads mother, is that she
studied Sociology in college, but then went to secretarial school because she thought that
degree was more practical and would help her find a better job. Similar to the men on my dads
side of the family, she studied the arts but then went into an industry where she thought she
would make a better profit.
My moms family did not have as much growing up as my dads family did. Her father
was the first person on both sides of her family to go to college. Before him, a high school
education was the most anyone had received. My maternal grandfather studied mechanical
engineering, and went into business after he served in the United States Navy, because he
found a job in that industry that paid well. He married my grandmother at a young age, and
wanted to be able to provide for her, even declining potentially prosperous, but risky,
opportunities in order to keep his job and ensure that he could pay for his childrens college
educations. He valued financial security for his family very highly.
My mom, who studied business management in college, is the first woman in her family
to have attended college. On another note, she is the only person besides her father whose
degree seems to closely match with her career. Her ambitions were a little greater than those in
her family before her. She wanted more luxuries than she had grown up with, which is why she
decided to go to college, work in business and why she married my dad, who had those same
ambitions. She worked full time until I was born, and then returned to work for the same
business company when my younger brother and I reached middle school. One can see her
familys influence on her in the decision to return to work, because my father was self-employed
at the time, still trading in the stock market but for himself, and the recession had just begun.


Therefore, she went back to work in order to provide a sure income for my family, thus appears
the value on financial security.
Taking in all of this information, I still see how I am my fathers daughter in regards to
educational interests. However, like my parents, I have higher ambitions for my future career
than pure financial security. I have grown up with a very blessed life, and would like to afford
those luxuries, and even more, to my children as well. Im not sure exactly what field I would like
to have a career in, but I know the more potentially prosperous areas I could see myself going
into are politics, business or the government. College degrees are more important for finding a
job than they were for my parents and those before them, which is why I am majoring in
economics and political science, instead of history, where my interest is most piqued. However,
I dont want to discredit my choice, as I immensely enjoy both subject areas. I get a piece of my
interest in world history with political science by focusing in international politics, in which history
plays a great role. As I plan in raising a family one day, I would like a career that would
accommodate this. Like the women in my family before me, I want to be able to raise my
children myself and will probably not be able to work full time to do this.
I am currently researching career options in the political and business worlds. As of now,
I am specifically interested in lobbying. I dont know what the future holds for me, and I know
need to do some more research on potential careers to change this, which is why I am in this
class in the first place. Who knows, maybe my children will have me on their Career Genogram
as switching my interests between what I studied and what industry I work in? Or, maybe I will
find a career I can directly apply my degree to. Either way, Im not going to let my degree limit
me after college, and I will be open to all career possibilities that will provide me the type of life I
desire as well as some personal enjoyment, just like my dad, his family and my mom did.