White collar/blue collar: a perfect career match

In a black silk blouse with skinny jeans and stylish black boots, Jessica DuLong doesn't look like she spends her days in the bowels of a 78-year-old fireboat. That's because I met her on a day when she was inhabiting her other job, that of the author of a newly released book. A former dotcom executive and freelance journalist, DuLong had an accidental career change after spending some time volunteering on The the John J. Harvey, a retired 1931 New York City fireboat that has become a living museum. Now one of few female fireboat engineers in the world, DuLong's newly published book, "My River Chronicles," is both a tale of career transformation and a compelling narrative about a time when working boats and industry played a large role in America's economic and civic life.

DuLong never left the world of words. And she is using her new book as a vehicle to get white-collar and blue-collar folks to talk to one another. DuLong isn't the only one thinking about this subject. Another book praising the virtues of making and fixing things, "Shop Class as Soulcraft," has been getting a lot of buzz lately.

I had tea with DuLong to talk about class divisions surrounding work, why she left her dot com job to work in the engine room of an old boat, and why she thinks the perfect career is one that mixes brains and brawn.
Here is a condensed version of our chat:

Q: I often recommend volunteering as a way to make a career change. That was your path, right?

A: Yes. I was working in the Empire State Building and one of my colleagues invited me to attend a volunteer day on the John J. Harvey, a retired New York City fireboat that he and some friends had bought at a scrap auction and hoped to repair. I'd been driving a desk for so long that the invitation to "Come down and get dirty" was too appealing to pass up. Before long I found myself perched on top of this monster diesel engine, where I was using a power saw to cut out unused heating pipe. I was absolutely hooked. Someone snapped a picture and gave it to one of the boat's investors.

This was the realest thing I had done in ages. I had been spending my days building something -- Web sites -- that you can't even hold in your hands. Stumbling onto that fireboat provided a taste of home I didn't even know I was missing. It was visceral. I had blisters by the end of the day, and I smiled even at the idea of it. I kept coming to volunteer days and eventually met the investor who recognized me from the photo. He told me there was an opening in the engine room and asked if I'd like to try out. I didn't think I had enough experience and I warned him that I didn't know anything, but he reassured me that a trained monkey could do it. Though that turned out to be far from the truth, that's all he needed to say to calm me down. It helped me muster up the courage to try out. Soon my volunteering turned into a job.

Q: Let's talk about discrimination. As a woman in a field dominated by men, you must have experienced some.

A: I'm really fortunate in that my crew has been incredibly respectful and nonchalant about gender. And I feel fortunate because I've spoken to a lot of women in nontraditional occupations and that is not usually the case. But things got a little trickier when I stepped outside my family group, which is how I think of our crew. Curious looks, weird and inappropriate comments, even physical contact. I've experienced it all. But the worst harassment happened at a course I took to prepare for my Coast Guard license tests where the instructor singled me out for some nasty attention. I could tell the whole story but that would spoil it for anyone who wants to read the book. (DuLong writes about the incident in Chapter 13, "Are You Licensed?") Despite all this, I'm excited for girls coming up today. I think the country is changing and they'll have more and more choices about how they want to make their lives and their livings.

Q: It's interesting that you call your fireboat work manual labor since it seems to involve a lot of on-the-spot decision-making.

A: The reality is that most blue-collar work or work in the trades involves an incredible amount of mental energy and split- second decision-making as well as manual dexterity and a certain kind of body memory that comes from being a craftsperson. My dad's a car mechanic and growing up I saw the diagnostic challenges he faced. I was in awe of the work he did and never imagined it was something I could do. I didn't think I had it in me to do the physical parts of the job. As a kid I was good at school and that's where I focused my energy. But I think a lot of people might have skills in these areas and just haven't given themselves a chance to figure it out.

Q: Still you're not the typical manual laborer, are you? You have an undergraduate degree from Stanford and worked as a writer even before you became a fireboat engineer.

A: It's hard to say. We're trained, even in this day and age, to believe that you need to find your one job. Though more and more people are doing the slash thing, some people are still closeted about it. As I was. For years I didn't tell my journalism colleagues about this side of me. It's kind of like you're a space alien. I just didn't have the language to describe why this work mattered so much to me. I had to find the stories to make it vivid for other people. That's where the book comes from-the need to explain my own hands-on work, and to remind people about the crucial role craftsmanship and making things have played in the development of our country, which is a piece of American heritage we need to get back to.

Q: Having lived in both worlds, what do you think the two groups misunderstand about each other?

A: Everything. The biggest misconception, which is tragic both for individuals and for our country is the myth that if you work with your hands you don't use your brain. We are teaching this to our children and not allowing them to express their full potential because we've created this false hierarchy of the kinds of work that matter. The default setting in this country right now is to debase hands-on, manual work. Meanwhile, the misconception from the other side I learned from my dad, who told me that people who work in offices only push papers, and don't really do anything all day. And that's not the truth either. I've experienced both kinds of fatigue. One kind is where you've taxed your muscles by pushing yourself physically. The other kind is where you have to sit still all day in an office in front of a computer, maintaining focus and mental dexterity while juggling the constant influx of information, which is also extremely taxing. It's no more useful to diminish the really important contributions to society and our country that happen at desk than it is to diminish the blood, sweat and physical toil that built the nation long before we had this false idea that a solely "knowledge-" or service-based economy was a sustainable model. We need to strike a better balance because both kinds of work are crucial to our self-sufficiency as a nation. I think getting blue- and white-collar people talking about the meaning and value of work is an important first step.

(DuLong invites people with ideas about how to foster this kind of communication to post them on her blog:)

I'm also interested in hearing what you think of all this. What do you think about the way our country values blue- and white-collar work? Are any of you you straddling the blue- and white-collar worlds in your work?