I had training again this weekend, and during a casual conversation that two of my colleagues were having amongst themselves, I realized that I am behind the power curve careerwise. One of them works for GE and the other works for Coca-Cola, both are in IT in some fashion. The conversation started when one of them began talking about a certification that is good to have (one that I’d never heard of), and they began talking about different skills that they needed to learn for their jobs. While I am not directly in the IT field, I work for a technology company, and I was almost embarrassed that I didn’t have at the minimum a working knowledge of what they were discussing.
When they were done talking I told them how I felt; listening to them speak made me realize how far behind the curve I was and how I may need to leave my current job if I wanted to learn new skills (and actually use them). We then discussed the comparison between working for smaller companies versus more prominent organizations; explaining how you can get “lost” in a larger company compared to how you can shine in a smaller one. While the points raised were valid, I still felt as though I would need to move on. I will have to educate myself first because the skills I think I need are not going to be practiced or used at my current organization. I speak with my supervisor about my career regularly, and he understands how I feel so he knows that I’m going to start looking soon, but I think he is just holding his breath at this point because he doesn’t know when I’m going to pull the trigger.
I am not even sure myself.
I know that I need to do more and I know that I need to do better, but I don’t understand what I’m holding on to or what is stopping me from moving forward. Whatever it is, it’s my issue, and this is something I need to work on. I need to figure out why I keep procrastinating and holding myself back. I like to say that I don’t always have time, but I think I need to learn to get better at managing my time. Sometimes I stress myself about having a career when all I really want to do write. It’s the only thing I think about during the day; taking writing courses, going to conferences, publishing my first book. I still don’t know what my book will be about but it’s in my head somewhere, I just need to get it out.
I will have to stop saying “someday” and “one day” and make it TODAY.
Everyday Patrice 