It has been a funny few weeks here in
Adelaide. Actually, more like a funny few months.
Since our return from our UK trip in May
there has been rather a lot going on for us, both at home and (for me) at work.
I have had a lot to think about and I am feeling a little overwhelmed and
unsure of myself at the moment as a result.
Apparently a mid-life crisis for women in
their 30s is an actual thing. I am
not sure whether I find that reassuring or terrifying. A lot of the data on
this, however, relates the mid-life crisis part fundamentally with
having/balancing kids with career and that is not the situation for me at all.
So maybe I am just having a bit of a moment, a delayed reaction to the cultural
shock of moving to the other side of the world. I dunno. Something is awry and
I do not like the way it is making me feel.
Basically, every area of my life is GREAT
apart from my career. And it is not that I don’t love my colleagues (who are
amazing and have made the move to Australia pretty darn easy) or the company I
work for (which is a great place to work). It’s that I feel like I am at a
crossroads and have absolutely no idea which path I should take or where my
ultimate destination should be.
The problem is this: I am not in any way inspired or happy in my
current role. That’s not to say I am not doing well in it - I am, but it holds
no interest for me at all and I have known for a number of months that this is
the case. I feel trapped in a cul-de-sac of meh.
Unfortunately, there is probably no way out
of this role which will keep me working for the same company with the same
awesome people; so I have to start thinking about making a leap elsewhere – but
towards what?
My experiences for the last year have made
me seriously question where I want my career to be heading – and this is not
helped by the fact that I have spent the last 8 years going towards being a
‘project manager’ on paper with all the bells and whistles that it entails but
now find myself questioning why on earth I did this and whether it is even
something I want to continue with.
I do believe my current role is part of the
reason I am having a crisis of confidence in relation to being a PM. Mostly
because what I currently do is facilitate tasks through departments and a hell of a lot of basic customer service.
Neither of these things define or are even central to project management to me;
they are very much project admin and not challenging, interesting or satisfying
enough to remind me why I used to like being a qualified, experienced (proper?)
project manager with a budget, a deadline and a clear goal.
Luckily, PM skills are pretty transferable.
I am organised, a good negotiator and stakeholder manager, calm in a crisis and
able to get things from A to B even when the route is all manner of complex and
usually to an agreed deadline and budget. All those things used to give me a
buzz. Nowadays I spend more time in a perpetual face-palm stance than anything
else; getting projects from A to B still, but not really actually delivering them. More like coordinating
the various people around me to do so. Whilst talking to clients on the phone.
A lot.
I miss the strategy and the large scale
sense of achievement that come with the big projects. I miss having control
over the costs and the timescales. I miss managing multi-faceted partner
relationships that utilised my communication skills. I miss people management
(and I never thought I would say that).
But despite the things I miss, I am still
not certain that just replacing this job with a ‘proper’ PM role will be the
solution. I just keep thinking about whether I am being tempted to put an old
pair of shoes on because they felt comfortable and made me happy in a different
life when really I should be
finding the most kick ass pair of awesome shoes
for the future.
And this is where my thinking is a bit
mid-life-crisis-esque.
When I actually think about what I would do
if money was no object, it does not really involve being a straight up PM at
all. Even though some of the key skills for being a PM would likely be central
to these radical pathways anyway.
Whatever the role is that my heart and
subconscious are seeking right now, the only thing I can tell you is that I
have had crazy thoughts about:
·
Studying viticulture and
managing a cellar door
·
Studying NLP in conjunction
with applied linguistics and going more towards lifestyle/business coaching
·
Event management
·
Freelance work for UK HE
contacts
Most of these share a common theme in that
they would entail having more autonomy over my working life. I keep skirting
round the issue of being my own boss and wondering how this would work out and
why I feel that it is something I would like to do. I am also slightly
terrified at the prospect of all that responsibility and at the moment the fear
is keeping me still while I mull it over. All of these paths would pull on
skills I already have as a PM. Perhaps event management would be the most
closely matched with what I do now.
None of these would be easy pathways to
take but then nobody ever said easy was the best route. In my mind and in my
experience it never has been - the best paths have been the difficult but
exciting ones and so I think maybe I need to get ready for major change. I am
not averse to being taken wherever fate deems appropriate and am totally open
to new challenges I haven’t even thought of or mentioned here, so my plan is to
see out 2014 whilst mulling over the possibilities and then launch into 2015
with a renewed sense of purpose and a clearer idea of which direction to head
in.
