6 Years

6 years ago, shortly after I started my current job, I started feeling like I wasn’t quite on the right career path. I was seeing that my college classmates and closest friends were excelling in their careers, or at least knew without a doubt they were in the right field, and I didn’t feel like I “fit” in my career in the way I was “supposed to.”

I started exploring what a different career would look like. I investigated becoming everything from a Librarian or High School Guidance Counselor to Dog Trainer and Pediatric Occupational Therapy Assistant. Then, 2 years ago, I thought I figured it out—I wanted to work in HR!

I went all in on this goal—I joined HR organizations, attended the CAHR conference, started studying for and took practice tests for the aPHR. In the meantime, I was plugging along at my current job, and my employer happily supported my newfound career direction (Shoutout to iMarket Solutions!)

I took a pause on all career-related goals around this time last year, after suffering a loss in my personal life. I was left assessing what was really important to me, in that pause, and I decided to just… “be” for awhile. As far as my professional life goes, this looked like continuing to do my current job to the best of my ability, while learning to appreciate what I had… a relatively flexible schedule and predictable workload (in other words, work/life balance), amazing coworkers and supportive managers, and opportunities that had always been there for me to say “yes” to.

And that is what I started doing in the last few months… saying “yes” to opportunities in my job… in my current field… instead of resisting them because of the misguided belief that “this isn’t the career I belong in.”

As a result, something interesting happened. I’ve found myself re-engaged in Content Marketing. Nothing changed, but everything changed. Brand strategy became fascinating to me. Customer experience, and consumer psychology piqued my interest in a way it never had before. And when I announced my interests, more new opportunities to learn and take part in interesting projects arose.

I’m ready now. I’m ready to move forward in my Content Marketing career, and I’m so excited to see what the future has in store for the next 6 years.