Making a Career Change: My How & Why

I recently made a fairly huge decision that resulted in a major life change. Drum roll please…

I left my job after 15 years in that organization…took a hard left turn…and started an expected journey in a whole new field. Ta da!!!!

What. In. The. World.

As a person that had allowed my place of employment to become a large chunk of my identity, this was a huge decision that took me a lot of time and a lot of thought. And I wanted to share a little behind how I made that decision and, more importantly, why.

Let me back up just a bit and provide a little context. Very soon after college graduation, I started working for my alma mater. I was a fairly involved student leader so making the move to professional staff was a natural and exciting next step. I wanted to continue serving an institution I loved and I wanted to help enhance the student experience. Over the next few years, I transferred roles and departments within the institution and my mission shifted. While I still wanted to contribute to the enhancement of the student experience, I also became passionate about enhancing the staff experience. This led to my service on the institution’s staff senate, including a tenure as president, as well as my enrollment in the Leadership & Human Resource Development graduate program. The challenge became that the more involved I became in the institution or the more times I represented the institution externally, the more my identity was becoming consumed.

And then 2020…

I recognize that I’m not alone when I state that 2020 completely rocked my perspective…but man oh man, did it ever. When I moved from a traditional work setting to working remotely from home, I experienced a calming balance that I didn’t even know was possible. Despite being surrounded by the chaos of a pandemic, I felt less stressed and more intentional with my time. As we slowly returned back to the office, I found myself returning to the hustle and bustle…and I hated it. At the same time, the institution was in the midst of organizational leadership changes while also being knocked sideways by a very public and very negative Title IX investigation that shook its entire foundation. I was recognizing that the core values I held so deeply were becoming more defined and were no longer in line with the place that had consumed my identity. It was clearly time for a change.

Speaking of Core Values…

If you have not done any exercises to define your core values, I highly encourage you check out these resources from my dear friend, Anna Dearmon Kornick. She is an incredible time management coach that curates and hosts a beautiful podcast, It’s About Time. She has several episodes and deep dives into discovering your core values…which she describes as 5-7 words or phrases that represent and encompass what matters most to you. When I was trying to decide what my next step would look like, I needed to understand what my core values were before I could make any big decisions. I followed Anna’s advice and put in the fun work to re-discover my core values, which are…

Family | Intention | Inclusive | Sustainable | Gratitude | Growth | Adventure

So how on earth did I use these random words to help me decide what to do next professionally. Well, glad you asked! 🙂

Family: My favorite people in the whole wide world are my husband and two kiddos. My priority is to support them and love them above all else so when deciding what my next step would be, I wanted to make sure it would allow me to continue putting them first.

Intention: I hate wasting my time. I purposefully plan as much as I can to ensure that I’m spending my time wisely, efficiently, and effectively. One of my favorite Leslie Knope quotes…which I now have framed in my new office…is work hard at work worth doing. Whatever my next step was, I needed the work being done to matter.

Inclusive: I tell my kids all the time that I want them, above all else, to be kind. I want to raise kind humans and I think the best way I can do that is to demonstrate inclusivity and expose us to different perspectives, cultures, beliefs, and lived experiences. But, in terms of a professional next step, finding a truly inclusive working environment that not only respects but honors the differences of all contributors is incredibly important to me.

Sustainable: While I do love holding the “green defender” title in our household, I don’t only mean “earth-friendly” when I mention sustainability. Yes, I want us to partake in things like recycling, repurposing, composting, etc. But, slightly more importantly, is creating a life that is sustainable over time. For me, this includes setting realistic goals and expectations, establishing safe boundaries, budgeting quality items over a high quantity of items, and prioritizing activities that fill our cups and support our mental/physical health. I needed to make sure my next step supported a sustainable life that wouldn’t quickly turn into stress and burnout.

Gratitude: I have a lot to be thankful for and I just want to live a life rooted in appreciation for those blessings. However, it terms of a next professional step, it would be nice to work in a place that showed appreciation for hard work! 😉

Growth: I love learning new things, developing new skills, and discovering new hobbies. If there is an opportunity for professional development, I’m signing up. And… the more opportunities the better! And, don’t get me started on career progression mapping. So wherever I landed next, there needed to be opportunities for personal growth but also clear opportunities for career growth.

Adventure: Whatever was next, I wanted it to be a fun adventure. Life is too short to not have fun!

So the search began to find a place that better fit or could better support my core values.

After several careful months of searching on various online databases and checking out referrals from friends, I ended up interviewing at three organizations, two local and one remote. After two rounds of interviews at the first local organization, I was on the fence and the organization must have been as well because they went with another candidate. After three interviews with the second local organization, I received a beautiful offer. However, I wasn’t sure. After lots of prayer and many, many frank conversations with my personal board of directors (another great Anna Kornick tool!), it was clear that this place wasn’t it. I kept getting the feeling (perhaps the Lord) it would only be a change of scenery and wouldn’t provide the true balance I was craving. So despite not having a backup plan, I turned it down.

Though nervous, I knew God had a plan. And then…finally, the organization that..

• I secretly wanted from the beginning,
• I was already familiar with because I was a user of the product first,
• I was referred to by a friend that worked there and didn’t just happen upon,
• proudly advertised its core values as diversity, customer focus, innovation, community, open-mindedness and respect WITH it’s mission that states pillars such as helping those that help others, constantly learning/improving, being an integral part of the communities they serve, and getting the job done right takes a village.

THAT organization finally pushed me to the next step of their interview process. With each interview I asked a TON of questions and left each meeting feeling more and more confident that this was IT. The remote work environment would allow me to better support my family while offering me a sustainable balance. The work clearly mattered. Everyone I met mentioned how important inclusivity was to the organizational culture. There were tons of opportunities for growth. And, it would definitely be an adventure. I was so grateful for the opportunity. So, I prayed…my people prayed…and God said done and done. 🙂

After 15 years in higher education, this past Monday I started as a Solutions Engineer with an emergency management & business continuity software. Three days in and though slightly overwhelmed by the amount of information coming at me, I’m filled with the peace I prayed for.

Why on earth did I share this?

Easy. I was inspired by Anna’s vulnerability as she recently shared about her decision making process linked in this episode and I had to “retweet” since my story is so similar. If you are struggling as I was, let me encourage you to take the following steps:

1. Confirm your own core values.
2. Check to see if where you are currently aligns with those core values.
3. If they don’t, begin the search for a place that does. Look critically and ask the important questions to get to the core of the organization.
4. Establish your board of directors because TRUST, no one achieves anything alone.
5. Pray, pray, pray.

I’m so thankful for the incredible people that supported me in this move and continue to support me through this transition. It’s definitely been an adventure.