Taking Charge of My Career!

In order to be successful, I feel I need to help make others successful. But I also have a career to think about, and food to put on the table. Fortunately, I think I have made a solid step towards the latter in the past few weeks.

I want to be sure I am being proactive in my main career within in the IT industry, and am gaining the skills and experience necessary to grow. To this regard, I feel I need to be a bit more strategic. I like the company I’m working for, but I feel there is more growth in other IT groups within the firm than the one I’m in now. Once I realized this, I decided it was time to to talk to my manager.

One interesting thing about me is that I find it really difficult to talk to my bosses about my career growth and direction. And it’s been this way for every company I’ve worked for. In fact, I find it is easier to talk to recruiters and managers of other companies than my own! I just really loathe the awkwardness of telling them I want to make a change. What if they don’t like what I have to say? What if they instead decide to hold me back from growth and development? These seemingly irrationalthoughts make me sick to my stomach. In any case, I finally worked up the nerve to talk to her about my intentions. To my relief, she was extremely supportive! She listened to my thoughts and concerns, and provided me some perspective on who I should talk to in order to network and make my intentions known.

It was great to receive such positive feedback. And I’m glad I built up the courage to have the talk. Even though I was nervous, I did not let my fear hold me back. I manned up and did it! Now, my next step is to talk to these contacts and determine which department makes the most sense for me.

I understand that in order for my career to go anywhere, I need to be proactive, to take the reins and drive my career. No one is going to do it for me, and no one has their best interests at heart quite like me. It may be challenging and uncomfortable, but that’s really what growth is. It’s like eating your veggies; they may not always taste great, but in the long run they are good for you.

Moral of the story: It’s time to eat my veggies and achieve success!