Week 12 

I’ve been considering a career change.

As I’ve shared before, I started my journalism/writing career when I was in high school, and before I even graduated college I was burnt out and wanted nothing to do with it.

After college, I got into the communications/marketing world. And after three years, I’m already wondering – what’s next?

Writing, communication, and marketing is what I’ve always wanted to do. Even as young as elementary school. So as I sit and think about what’s next, I’m stuck. This career path is all I know, and I don’t know what else I would be good at or excel in. I’m the kind of person that is constantly learning and self-educating, so it wouldn’t be difficult to learn something. But I think where I need to start is WHY I want to move on:

• Feeling challenged: I enjoy making up work and projects for myself, even though I know I may or may not get the go ahead. Or if we get the ok to proceed, it might not move forward until a year from now. Because of the corporate culture and working for larger organizations, it’s challenging to get projects approved.
• Leadership/management styles: Anywhere you go, you’ll find that you get along with some people more than others. And I’m going to guess that any boss you have is going to be both similar to you, and radically different. This can present as a challenge when trying to launch new projects, or even get existing work done. It also sometimes presents communication challenges.
• Sitting at a desk for 8 hours a day: I hate it. Although, who doesn’t…
• Meetings upon meetings: While I think there are reasons for meetings, I believe most meetings are a waste of time. They would be much more successful if done via email, or just by picking up the phone and talking for a few minutes. In my experience, meetings often have a lot of people on the call, many of whom do not need to be on there, therefore wasting time. Also, many people who schedule meetings don’t have an agenda, so the conversation often gets off track and goals are not accomplished, needing another meeting.
• Limited creative freedom: Any project, idea or task has to be approved. Depending on the approval process (which is sometimes unnecessary but a “formality”) it could be quite a lengthy time. Often, if the idea is too “forward thinking,” it will be put on the back burner. Or, many times there isn’t budget or other resources to execute a project.
• The corporate ladder is a long and time-consuming climb: It can take years to work your way up to higher positions and earnings. Especially if you are trying to stick with one company – you’re often stuck waiting for someone above you to vacate, or be fired, or a new position to be created. Or, if you’re moving your way up form company to company, the application/interviewing/hiring process is frustrating and time consuming. You’re taking chances that the new company isn’t any better than the last, or you co-workers stink, or you don’t even like the job. Is the increased salary worth it? There are pros and cons to both, but for me, the cons outweigh the pros.

Ultimately, I’d rather have more control over all of these factors. I want to feel challenged and be able to challenge myself, to be my own boss, to decide where and when I work, who I work with, and how much or little work I take on/money I make. I want to have the freedom to create new strategies, write new content, engage with businesses and audiences, and promote different brands in new and innovative ways.

That’s why I got into freelancing. And why I’m reading a lot about consulting, freelancing and agency work. Do I want to work for an agency? I’m not sure if that’s exactly right for me. Maybe? But as a freelancer/consultant, I get the best of both words. I build my book of clients, execute the strategy and creative, work where and when I want and set my rates to improve my salary. I decide how much, or little, work I want to take on. I determine who I want to work with. I can be free with creativity and ideas.

Maybe it will take working for an agency for a few years to really understand the platform and play the field. Maybe I can grow my consulting business on my own.

All I know is I have one and five years goals of where I want to be and I’m putting everything I have into making sure I get there.