How I Changed My Career Path: Part 1

Hi friends!

Still alive. In fact, way more so than back in February when you last heard from me. What can I say? When life finally started turning things a little more in my favor, I really just wanted to live it instead of blog about it.

But now the time has come to do just that. I didn't want to get too into it back then, being new on a job that I got partially because of this very blog. But now that my boss knows all about this, I feel I can be honest with everything I've been wanting to share with you on here.

I'm not sure how many parts this series of posts will be - in all honesty, I thought I was going to be able to wrap it up in one post. But when I started writing, it turns out there was a bit more that went into explaining how I went from being a Graphic Designer to a Marketing Coordinator.

The reason I've chosen to be so detailed about this is because I really, really, don't want it to be for nothing. I'm NOT known for being a risk-taker, and had I not been thrown into this adventure, I don't know if I'd be in it, or as happy as I am with my career right now. So I really hope that this story of mine helps a few people out there that can relate, or at least provides a bit of insight and entertainment for those that don't.

So grab a bowl of Cheerios and sit tight. Here goes the first part, and I'm going to try to keep it short because it's getting late. But I'm going to dial the hot tub time machine back over two years.

I'd been promoted to a middle-management position at my job-Assistant Creative Director to be exact. I was loving that I was given more responsibility, and that instead of designing all day, part of my job was to then schedule the rest of the design team's workload as well. As someone that's more than a little nuts about Dr.Mario and Tetris, the balancing act of fitting everything into the schedule was so much fun.

However, when I had to go back to designing, which was still the bulk of my workload, that's where the job no longer challenged me. I could go on, but I won't - it just wasn't for me anymore, and I knew it - but when the design industry grows by at least 50 Red River College graduates every year, and I was sitting on a job that gave me good benefits, a good salary, and no overtime, I enjoyed the promotion by deciding to buy a condo and stick with it.

Then came the recession. Ohhh, that lovely recession.

Ad sales were down, and middle management got cut. Including me - six months after I'd been promoted. Great.

I was on my own, with mortgage payments to make and not a clue of what I was going to do...