Jobs will always be a hot topic. You might hate or love your job or you’re struggling to find a job, you despise your job’s commute, you loathe your boss—or maybe you actually think highly of your boss, you have a crush on a colleague, you’re frustrated with HR, you need someone to look at your resume/cover letter, you got a referral—see, so many thing to talk about! And it starts when we’re young, when your elementary school teacher asks what you want to be when you grow up. Suzanne Skees, journalist, entrepreneur, editor and author, was able to merge her childhood hobby of writing fairy-tales to professionally writing about real people who are inspiring and making a difference in her MY JOB book series.
“I would write all this make-believe and fairy-tales about heroes,” Skees told So Booking Cool. “And what I found in my work in international development with Skees Family foundation is that there are real-life heroes all around us, and no one would hear their stories if we didn’t give them a platform for which to tell.”
For the MY JOB book series, Skees travels the world and interviews people about their employment experiences and entrepreneurial endeavors. The proceeds of the book go to the Skees Family Foundation. The foundation, founded in 2004, works to end poverty by collaborating with social entrepreneurs to build self-help models in education and job creation. It is truly a family business; Skees gets to work with her family, as well as other families, with the goal to improve the lives of additional families in the world. The business supports organizations in the United States and countries in Africa, Asia, Central and South America, to name a few.
While Skees says her company is the absolute joy of her life, next to being a mother, she doesn’t think her philanthropy is enough.
“Life gave me this huge gift in that, I was working as a theological journalist in the interface realm, and had the chance to start our family foundation in 2003,” the 56-year-old said. “In that way, I’m still not doing the work of intervening or helping people or ending poverty, but my family and I are working together in this really beautiful, super privileged way to be able to support those who do.”
Listen to the interview to learn more about MY JOB: Real People at Work Around the World and MY JOB: More People at Work Around the World, the Skees Family Foundation, Skees’ thoughts on whether privileged people should start foundations like hers, her views on philanthropy, regular jobs vs. dream jobs, job automation, and more! For more information, visit Skees’ official website.