Navigating Career Change
“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” -Abraham Lincoln
This quote describes so many aspects of our lives. Whether it is in our personal or professional lives, change can be scary. Not knowing what the future holds is even scarier. However, Lincoln said it best when he said: We are in charge of our futures. Every step we take, every decision we make, molds our future. Yes, it is scary, but knowing that we are in charge makes it a little less scary.
Until this year I never really understood the full meaning of this quote. When I graduated college, I thought I had created my future—I was going to be a graphic designer. Well, life had different plans for me as about six years into this career, I realized something was missing and it was on longer fulfilling me. I decided to take a complete leap of faith and jump from the creative world to the business world.
I spent two-and-a-half years working in business development which was great, but something was still missing. As much as I loved the business side of things, I was missing some of the creative side. Eight months ago I took a job as an events planner for my company. I was in love! I found something that melded my two worlds together as it took everything I loved about business and the arts world and formed my dream job. Once again I thought I was set; I found my passion.
I learned so much throughout those eight months: I made some great connections, got to work with a great team, and made some lifelong friends. However, I also learned that while I LOVED the planning and strategy behind the events, what I didn’t love so much was the execution and sometimes the travel that came with it.
Lucky for me, life decided to surprise me once again when my company went through an acquisition, which brought another great opportunity that I knew I had to jump on. I was offered my first management position and decided to take another leap of faith. I accepted the job and could not be happier. My new job as sales operations manager takes all of the planning and strategy that I loved about the events side and applies it to the business side. For now, it's perfect!
But do I think this is it? I have learned by now, that not everything has to be set in stone. The change is all part of the process.
Maybe someday I will find my forever job, or maybe I won’t and that’s ok too. As hard and scary as change can be, if I didn’t embrace it I wouldn’t be where I am today at such a young age. We all have the ability to create our own futures; how we do that is completely up to us.