18 Nov A Story of A Girl in Transition
The story opens with a young girl, looking for her place in the career world. She wants nothing more than to do meaningful work that helps people, and so she chooses classes and a major that will help get her there. She has always been creative – an artist and a writer from a very young age, yet her parents convince her that in order to be successful, she must do something that earns money and a title. She works many odd jobs to gain experience and eventually ends up in Human Resources after accepting an offer to be the Assistant to the Director of HR. She is immediately drawn to the work she is able to do to help the staff and faculty in her place of business – she creates programs and committees to solve problems and address concerns. She wins awards and serves as a leader in the company. Wanting to expand her knowledge and skill set, she accepts a new position at a sister company and is tasked with starting a new department from scratch to address issues within the HR department. Eventually, she works her way up to Director. Although her parents are happy, she isn’t. ‘What’s her deal?’, you wonder, ‘Didn’t she get what she worked for all those years?’
Add You’ve probably guessed that this girl was me. I worked in HR for over 15 years, working for education, research, and manufacturing, and touching all areas of Human Resources. When I first stepped into a fresh, new HR office, I loved everything about it - I was a doe-eyed young professional planning to make every job better for every employee.
::queue Wonder Woman theme song::
Buuut, when you are a creative at heart, and someone who craves discovering new ways to do things to improve things around you, and you end up with a group of people in a field who discourage creativity or innovation, it zaps your own creativity. Eventually, it eats away at your hopes and dreams. You become bitter.
::queue Darth Vader theme song::
Wow, this got dark, didn’t it? No worries – we are coming to the light at the end of this career train wreck…
Question: what does one do when their daily job duties become uninteresting and uninspired, and one has no idea what their next move should be? Yes! One picks up a hobby or a side interest in the interim. And one did – I mean, I did.
Quick relevant fact: Recent data (2020) from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that over 6 million people decided to change occupations in 2017. But I digress…
So she went back to her creative roots and started blogging, designing her blogs and websites from scratch. She taught herself how to make hair clips and combs, creating an online marketplace and marketing for her handmade products, while using social media to highlight the beauty of her creations. To do this, she had to teach herself basic photography skills, which quickly improved as she continued taking pictures of her products, and then everything else. She created several brands for several of her interests over the years to include a small event planning business, an HR consultancy site and blog, a natural hair website, and (yes) a Star Wars information website. She created websites and social media accounts for churches, complete with logos and branding that maintained a cohesive tone. She never made enough to replace a full-time income – remember, this was her hobby. But she found herself rushing home after work every day to dive head-first into that hobby; and waking up early on weekends to create. This was how she survived the demoralizing mundane every day of her job. It’s how she kept her sanity. Well, most of it, anyway.
Eventually, she realized that all this time, she was supposed to be creating content and media that could help and inspire people, teach people, and make people laugh. She picked up a random book from her second home, Barnes & Noble, and finished it in 4 hours because it spoke to her soul. Now, she’s convinced that it’s time to make a big career change… but, as with any change, there is doubt. It feels kind of late in the game to make a pivot. Anyone who looks at her resume assumes she is just another boring HR professional, pushing paper and policies for the corporation.