May your
life unfold
smoothly,
with ease.
– Buddhist Prayer –
I had an interesting conversation with my manager today about my next career step. Yes world, I’m on the journey to find my next job!
To this point in my life, I have pretty much “fallen” into roles, companies, projects. I have not really intentionally owned the path I was on. Don’t get me wrong, I was making choices, agreements and commitments to organizations and people. I guess I would say it was more going down the path of least resistance and letting the universe unfold before me.
I’m making a change this time around.
It is incredibly uncomfortable for me.
I’m used to having a plan. Goals and milestones. Knowing when I am on or off track. I’m a control freak. I do not deal well with ambiguity or indecision (although my performance review indicates I do very well with ambiguity in the job)
This time around, I want to find the right fit. I want to join a team or company because I’m passionate about the subject matter. Or the team I would work with is such a stellar group of individuals, they would make work fun (most days). I saw a job description online today titled “Supreme Cat Herder” and I thought – OMG that is ME! I want that on a business card!!
My manager’s feedback is to just accept being uncomfortable. To go on as many informationals as I possibly can in the next few weeks (Microsoftie term to go explore other organizations just to hear about what they do) He said I could go talk to 15 people and may find 3 organizations that I’m attracted to. That I should be open to them being ones I never in my life considered something I would want to be involved with on a day-to-day basis. I should allow the journey to evolve and not consider having an end-state in mind.
Holy fucking shit are you kidding me?!
No – I didn’t say that to him.
I thought about it a hour later. Which prompted me into this post.
I’m uncomfortable. Things are uncertain. I don’t know where I’m going next. I don’t like it. At all.
Yet – in that hour of realization, I felt glimmers of being OK with it. That being uncomfortable may be just what I need right now. A way to stretch myself professionally and personally that may not seem like much to the average bear.
To me, it is feeling like a huge accomplishment! So here I go….
Collective Fabric 