Career
Plans for 2012 – A New Challenge?
With it being a new year, I’ve come to the realization that this is my first year without school… and I’m bored! I managed to spend the better part of the last few years working a ridiculous amount of hours, to finally have it just end, which doesn’t really mesh well with my personality.
For this year, I’m trying to find a way to fill this time with things that help me build my career… A couple of the idea’s I’ve been floating around (though haven’t really decided on), include:
Start a Web Consulting Business
I’ve got both a solid background in business and online marketing, and I do this for a day job (fairly successfuly… at least I like to think!). I believe I have a lot to offer small businesses, however, I struggle with finding how to even ‘start’ it. A lot of people have done this, and my ultimate goal is to be working fully for myself in the future. I guess the question on here, is where do I even start?
Where I think I’m good, is that I know my stuff pretty well, and have a proven track record. So its not whether or not if I can do it, per se, but rather, how do I start. I keep seeing all these people starting their own small business, and slowly growing them — so why can’t I?
Some of the area’s I struggle with, is how do I even figure out how much I’m worth per hour. I can do the math on my current salary, and make about $35/hour — is this too low, too high to even charge? I’d almost want to nock out a few ‘freebie’ clients, to prove my client base.
Build a Web Business
This may be the more lofty goal, as it is all about selling an actual, tangible product online. This would be a full fledged functioning business — sites like thinkgeek.com and threadless.com come to mind, where they have a full on ‘vibe’ to them, and provides real value. The reality here, is I’ve never started/ran/operated my own business, and am at a loss for things to sell… It’s probably even outside of my scope of skills… but I like a challenge.
Conversely on this, it could even be an online service — though I don’t know if I’d fit well in a startup environment (let alone my own!)
Create an Online Resource
This would mean setting up some sort of online blog around a particular topic (probably online marketing?). Here, I could share some expertise and build a following over time, and continue to post and write new content. It’s almost similar to this site — I could even continue to grow this site into a solid resource for twenty something’s trying to figure out finances.
When I originally started TSM, that was my goal — but it almost seems far apart from expertise and skillset — but maybe that’s a good thing?
Where this could help though, is if I built a site that into a Consulting business, and use it to build my brand online, and expand it to the offline consulting world.
Flip a Website
This one has always been teetering at the back of my mind. What if I bought an out dated or stale website, and try to ‘flip’ it. Here, I’d put some investment in up front, and then through my business/online marketing skills, grow the traffic, go after some partnerships to help bolster it, and then ultimately sell it (or continue to run it).
This one is probably the most risky option, as it requires $ up front — but maybe this is the perfect tie in with my skills and interest. This could turn into that ‘business’ on the side, that generates passive income, rather than working in a traditional consulting role.
I keep toying with the idea around all this — but I know I need to do something if not for my own sanity. I like being busy, and something like above could provide that real focus on something greater than just work, sleep, eat, repeat.
Has anyone ever done any of these — what were your challenges behind it? I’m really keen on exploring these options, and stepping outside of my comfort zone.
Career Progression
Since graduating school (the first time around) about 6 years ago, I’ve been fairly focused on my career and been agressive at learning new skills to move forward. I’ve always done pretty well in terms of job and pay, but for the last year or so its been a bit stagnant. I’ve explored the idea of jumping ship, and watched job boards, but stated to realize that even though I felt a bit ‘stuck’, I had it pretty good.
It seems the hard work hasn’t go un-noticed, and several changes happened at work over the past few weeks. I’ll be picking up a few new direct reports under me, along with a couple new programs, wider control over the bigger picture of these programs, and a new title. From a career advancement point of view, its a solid move up for me, and rumor has it — though still being confirmed — it will come with a bit of a pay increase too.
Add on top of that, I’m in the early stages of running a project I’ve been waiting a solid 4 years for… and it looks like its going to come to life in no time.
The paradigm shift for me now is, going from doing work, to managing people to do the work. As a type-A control freak, this is going to be an interesting change. But I figure its something I have to learn to move ahead. And for the career path I’m on, being able to understand and manage it, is much more important then physically executing it myself. It puts me in a postion where I can lead strategy, rather than execute tactically. (which, looks to be much more financially lucrative too over time).
I’m not one to really freak out, but this does push me out of my comfort zone a bit. Having the responsibility of people, not only in terms of assigning work, but helping them with their career growth too is a big step for me. But, I think I’ve learned enough over the years to at least give some wisdom now and again.
With this change, it helps me re-focus my resume around having solid management experience, along with overseeing some pretty sizeable projects. This advancement has given me what I need to stick around for another year or two at work… and continue to build up my resume even further, making me much more competitive when it comes to competing for the ‘next level’ of jobs elsewhere.
Until then… its a welcome change, and we’ll see in time how it works out. But I’m fairly optimistic on this one, as I think it’s going to work out really well.
Professional Development
One thing I’ve been focused more on now that I’m done school, is staying up to date with whats happening in my field. I’ve always managed to go to a few conferences a year, but this year in particular, I’m trying to ramp it up even further. Largley, its exposure to new ideas (stuff that I don’t see much of at work), but as well, its also about trying to network more with those with similar interests.
I’ve been lucky for the most part, in that my company will send me to almost any conference I’m interested in. This year alone, I’ve been to probably 4, totalling upwards of $500 in total. With still 6 months left, I’m sure I’ll go to a few more before the year is out.
This is the one thing I’ve realized with working for a large corporation — there’s always money put aside for professional growth. Most of my colleague’s would never go to these types of events, so I figure I’ll just use up whatever money was put aside for them too >)
Even outside of work, I try to attend things like this — most times, they’re free or meetup type events, but they’re good for networking and learning new things at that. I find that the hour long events, or day long presentations, are the best way to learn. It cuts out all the crap of a traditional school course, and just gives you the key takeaway points. Add on top of that, everyone in the room is at least interested in the topic (something very rare to find in any type of real school) it makes for a much more useful learning experience.
Add on top of all of this, it looks like I’m “engaged” in my own career (which I am), but having my boss sign off on the expense form helps reinforce that fact even more.
I think my next step is to actually join one of these events, get on a board, to network even more and meet new people — something I think would help me even more professionally… But probably for September — Summer is my time to relax.