Off the beaten Tigertrack: Alumni choose odd jobs

During a Princeton Club of Kansas City reunion in 1998, a fellow alumna asked Jay Cady '78 about his profession in the middle of a noisy bar. "I'm a juggler," he answered.

"What's a 'drug lawyer'?" the woman asked, incredulous.

"Not 'drug lawyer,' " Cady said. "I'm a juggler."

Cady's experience reflects the expectation that Princeton graduates will pursue mainstream, high-powered career paths such as medicine, business or law. Yet some alumni, like Cady, have chosen less conventional jobs despite pressure and skepticism from others.

Cady, who works alongside his wife in their comedy duet "Laughing Matters," said juggling has been his passion since college.

"I had no idea what I wanted to do. When a career counselor at Princeton asked me what I would do if I could do anything I wanted, I said, 'standing on a street corner juggling.' He said, 'why don't you do just that?' and I couldn't think of a reason not to."

Cady said he 'caught the bug' of juggling from his roommate, who started the Princeton Mime Company. Now, Cady and his wife perform at fairs and theaters, specializing in curriculum-based school assembly programs.

"It all seems to suit me so well," Cady said. "It's just nice being happy."

Other alumni expressed similar contentment in choosing less conventional careers. Julia Tierney '92, a ski patroller at Breckenridge Ski Resort in Colorado, went West after graduation, loved being a ski patroller and decided to stay on. Now, she's the training coordinator and the search-and-rescue coordinator for the ski patrol.

Tierney, who spent her childhood in a town just outside of Denver, has always had a passion for skiing. "In my heart, it's what I wanted to do, and I really love it," she said.

Some alumni decide to switch to a more unusual job later in their career. Victoria Austin '75, for instance, majored in Architecture & Urban Planning and became an architect after graduation. Shortly after moving to California, however, she decided to become a Zen Buddhist priest.

"My motivation was to help the teachings of the Buddha to be transmitted from Asia to the West," Austin said.

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Austin is also a certified yoga teacher, which allows her to help people physically as well as spiritually, she said. "I'm one of the few 53-year-old women I know who can stand on her head."

Albert Barbour '64 also switched professions, becoming a furniture maker after 20 years as a civil engineer. He felt civil engineering was a corrupt and unfulfilling line of work and wanted to pursue a career he truly enjoyed, he said.

Today, Barbour describes himself as a "one-man woodworking shop." Working out of his own studio, he designs and builds custom furniture, restores antique furniture and creates sculpture.

Barbour said he has no regrets about making the switch.

"Ending up in a big company, you're on the assembly line, and you never get that satisfaction of having something you actually did yourself," he said. "It's nice to be your own boss and do your own thing from start to finish."

Not always a smooth path

Some Princeton graduates have not found the unconventional career path as rewarding. Richard Broad '68, who runs his own soccer company, American Soccer Programs, Inc., said he sometimes questions whether he made the right career choice.

"I have enjoyed what I've done, and I have a passion for athletics, but at the same time, doing something as unorthodox as I have and being a pioneer, you meet a lot of resistance," Broad said. "I think in this country, whether people say this or not, people want other people to conform to their paradigms, and when you don't, it becomes hard."

Broad said that while he has never been motivated by money, his profession does not pay very well since soccer is not a mainstream sport in the United States. He said there have been many times when he's wondered if he should have taken a more traditional job, especially with the additional pressure of being a Princeton graduate.

"Having gone to Princeton, I often think I could have done a lot better financially by following a more mainstream profession," Broad said. "Candidly, if I did it again, I would probably go to graduate school for sports management."

Tierney agrees that it is hard to resist the pressure to conform to the majority.

"You feel like you're not following the track you're supposed to when you go to a school like Princeton," she said.

'You went to Princeton and you do what?!'

Another difficulty nonconformist alumni face is the reactions of coworkers, family and friends, who are often incredulous that a Princeton graduate would pursue an unusual career.

"Almost always, people usually say, 'You went to Princeton, and you're a ski patroller?'" Tierney said.

But, Tierney added, "What other people think doesn't really bother me. My good friends who know me well understand why I do what I do."

Barbour also said he is not bothered when his neighbors, who are Harvard, Yale and Princeton alumni, seem skeptical about his career choice.

"These are people that go more on the degrees they've got in the pocket, not what they know," he said. "As I told my kids, you don't go to college for job training, you go for an education."

Though old classmates wonder why she is no longer an architect, Austin said, after they see the work she does as a Buddhist priest, they understand why she switched careers.

Likewise, Cady said that once people see his performances, they respect his profession. When he told that seemingly disapproving alumna at the Kansas City reunion where he and his wife performed, she excitedly replied, "We've seen you! My kids will be so impressed that I met you."