How to figure out your career: A reflection

I was going through some of my old posts and reading the pure chaos from my brain, when I landed on this one. I was bitter about going back to my old company. If you have followed me for a while, you will know that 2023 was the year I spent job hunting to get out. So yeah, I was mad that nothing had come from my search. Now 9 months on, my viewpoints in this post have changed (lol), so here is a reflection on what has changed since this post came in May 2023. (Best to have another tab with this post open, as I will be referencing it a lot):

The beginning of the reflection

So weirdly enough, I am now in another secondment at another company doing project management (PM). So, things haven’t changed that much in terms of me exploring the PM space and broadening my skillset in that area. Right now, I have no specific idea of what I want to do with my career. So, it still makes sense to broaden my experience within and see what happens elsewhere. Because how can I find a career path that suits me, if I stay in the same place?

I started the post with 4 questions I was asked, so it’s fair I answer those based on my position now:

1. I am joining a local non-profit organization (as a secondment from my company)
2. Project management of their assets and future planning for the local community
3. Maybe – I am still trying to figure out what I really want to do, but management experience is always handy

Question 4 was no longer “What would align to my goals” but was actually “What do you think you want to do with your career?” and to that I say “I want to see how far up (senior roles) I can go. Though I need to explore the areas right now”. And I really am. I don’t know what I want to do in my career, but I am aiming for it to involve leading/managing a team. Does this mean I have figured out my career? To me, no. But I have a level of clarity that gives me a rough direction.

Why do I not know: A reflection

Honestly, I don’t even know why this paragraph is here. But the jist of what I am trying to say is that, I was always making a decision to please my parents. Since university was when I started to make independent life choices, I haven’t had the chance to see what I really want from my career yet. Because like most adults, I am winging it, and life is hectic.

The list of what I don’t want

I went on to write a list of outcomes I have concluded from my first 18 months of working. Honestly, I think I should discount that, because it was a grad scheme. The purpose of those are to prepare me for real work. But hey, I was feeling really charged when I wrote this, so let’s see how I feel about those points now:

1. I don’t want to write reports about reports all the time.
   • Still true, it’s not fun, but also that’s not what I have done since coming back to that team (funnily enough)
2. I don’t find the topic that I am researching, interesting at all.
   • It’s not that I don’t find the topic interesting, but I hate researching as a general activity (lol)

3. I currently don’t like working in a role, that puts me in a very rural area.
   • This has changed so much. It’s cosy, quiet and I am in my bubble. Why would I change that?

4. I don’t want a role that’s very monotonous in the work and daily life.
   • That’s a general thing, that hasn’t changed. My new role, each day is a new day, and the variety is lush, so I get it. I am not a repetitive task person.

5. I don’t want to be in a role, where I am seen as an expert of a very niche area in STEM.
   • Actually, I don’t like the responsibility of being the most knowledgeable person (in the company) on a subject. It’s a level of responsibility that I think is insane, at my young age. However, it’s also kind of cool and it means new strangers get referred to me, which adds variety to my work. It’s a neutral point now.

Also, the points that did change, they changed when I officially became a full-time employee (finished the graduate scheme). So, maybe I didn’t enjoy graduate side of work, but full-time employee, job security, a nice salary? It’s not as bad as I was making it out to be, haha.

My next paragraph is a mixed bucket. I’ll admit I feel like there is better treatment now that I have taken a step back and look at these people like humans, rather than my terrible bosses. So, for what I was experiencing, this paragraph is valid, but I have since taken a breather to re-assess what I want and in the meantime, they were very patient and forgiving of that. Also, since I did make so much noise about what I liked and didn’t like, it means the team knows what to give me to keep me engaged. So, they listened and that’s ok, change won’t happen overnight. I still want to explore, but I am not trying so hard to leave. I will let change take me where it thinks I should go next.

What Next?

Weirdly enough, I still agree with everything I said. I may have been angry in that first half, but the rest still has some sense in there. I’m glad I could be rational. Actually, most of the points I mention, are similar to what I have been posting recently, so plenty of resources there.

With regards to how I got this current job, I applied for a vacancy position, and it was advertised as a secondment. So even though it’s temporary, I’m going to get valuable experience from it, much like my first one.

Those final thoughts still stand true. However, the first one doesn’t have to be followed all the way. That only makes sense if you have a dream career in mind. For those of us still figuring it out, we don’t have to have an idea of the next step when we move. This is the same for the 5^th bullet point in the moral of my story. However, I still agree with all the other bullet points.

The TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read)

Funnily enough, I started going through this post and analysing it thinking I had gone on a rant. I did go on a slight tangent, which resulted in outcomes that I have overcome now. But overall, I still said really beneficial things in that post, that can help anyone feeling concerned about their career trajectory breathe a little. I’m proud of past me. She turned it back around after letting her emotions out. Sometimes we need to do that. Just maybe not so much on the internet, where I am directing traffic to look at my content. So yeah, you can read this post, it’s still mostly relevant to me, even with my minor changes outlined above.