Career Change Follow Up

Further thoughts and answers to questions that have been raised.

1. 'Hang the iron' refers to summer construction jobs that Hans and I worked building giant metal shelves for the inside of a refrigerated warehouse. One of the old timers refered to it as 'hanging iron.' I was only good at it in the sense that I never bolted myself to one of the shelves or plummeted 30' off the top to an early grave. It was a pretty good job, though. Lots of overtime and what seemed like a lot of money at the time.

2. The main goal of the sabaticcal is a less hectic home life for the boys. We were tired of paying people money to spend more time with our kids than we did. We were tired of constantly hustling ourselves from one activity to another. This change has been amazing and I'm truly grateful.

3. The reason I am exploring career options is because I woke up one day from the path of following opportunity to the next and realized that I hated what I was doing.

4. #2 and #3 sort of came together at the same time Mom got sick. It just seemed like the right time to make a change.

5. While I'm not looking to understand the meaning of life, I'm really interested in making some positive changes to my life and habits. Things like eating better, exercising more, reading more, writing more, etc...

6. The point of my post was really that it is a lot harder starting with a clean slate and actually deciding something than I thought it would be.

Reflections on a Career Change in Progress

While thinking about various career options today, something occurred to me. I've made very few conscious career decisions in my life. I've basically gone with the flow, from one thing to another as opportunities arose. To date, I really haven't had a plan. I've lied my ass off in a lot of reviews when it came to the 'what do you see yourself doing in 5 years' question.

After college I moved to the Twin Cities for two reasons. The first was to get the hell out of Austin. The second was that Hans was moving up here so I figured I would at least know someone. Once I got here I needed a job pretty quickly and it was a bad job market. I applied for the best sounding temp job and was hired the same day.

The temp job was at Access Management Corporation and after about 6 months as a temp I got a 'real' job there. I ended up staying for another 4 years and I really only left because the company was going under. When I decided to leave Access Management, I went to a headhunter. He lined up two interviews pretty quickly and had more on the horizon. I got offers from both places I interviewed (Wells Fargo and Select Comfort). I took the offer from Wells Fargo because it seemed to be the more stable environment.

I stayed at Wells Fargo for ten years and I resigned at the end of July. My job certainly evolved while I was there, but I never really sought out a new position. Even when I moved to management a few years ago, it was because they approached me.

Now that I've left Wells Fargo and I'm trying to decide what it is I want to do, I'm finding it pretty difficult because I've never gone through this process before. I've been fortunate throughout my career in that I have always been able to keep moving ahead. The trouble is, at some point I realized that, to use a metaphor, I was speeding down the highway of life with no one at the wheel! (I'm only talking a career here - I've made very good decisions on the family front!)

I know I'm not the only one who has gone through this experience. I'm finding it very challenging, much more so than I thought it would be. There is always a temptation to call my old boss and try to go back. Not because I miss the job, but because it would be easier to go back than to go forward. I'm fortunate that Allison is here with support and encouragement.