Leap of Faith
Happy. That's the word I can use to describe how I feel at the moment. After 8 years of working in the IT space for everything related with Operations (manufacturing, distribution, supply chain, and agronomy), I've finally been given the opportunity to change focus areas to Commercial (marketing and sales).
I'm taking the small steps from 'Where I Am' to 'Where I Want To Be'. The area of sales and marketing are at the forefront of cloud and digital technologies. Having the opportunity to work on the frontline where those technologies are most critical is exciting. And pushing design thinking (user story mapping) and creative thinking (innovation). Those are the skill sets I need to continue to grow as an IT professional and to achieve a dream of being a leader in digital and cloud, at least for the corporate enterprise I work in.
Faith. That's the word I can use to describe how I felt when I was trying to take the aforementioned steps. How do you show others that you can succeed in Commercial Systems when your professional history is in Operations Systems? By showing that you care and are interested in digital, cloud, design thinking, and creative thinking. Not just care or interested, but also showing you're doing the work and delivering results in those areas.
How do say no to an opportunity for a foreign assignment for Operations Systems? By having faith that with aforementioned work, delivering results, and mentioning in career discussion your interest, you will get the development opportunity. If you believe in something then you need to stay the course. That's something I picked up in a lot of books about successful entrepreneurs. I've just applied it to my professional corporate life because I know it is a step on a journey map I defined for myself.
Career experiences are important and, I believe, is one of the most enriching things you can have. All the leaders in PMI I look up to engrained that in me and, when they shared their career experiences, it was something that I lacked. If you're in corporate environment, the path to the top is not always a vertical ladder. It's more like a rock climbing face. If you've tried rock climbing, the path to the top can require you to take a side step or a back step. And, suddenly, you can jump two steps or find a path where the steps are easy to traverse.
Keep looking at the peak and know 'Where You Want To Be'. No matter what anyone says, the career experiences is your own path and you determine it. Have faith in yourself, deliver results, and show you're on the cutting edge of whatever step you want to take. And when you give a chance to take that step, be grateful and happy. And now, I am going to keep doing my best. I just took one leaf of faith. I still have a lot more jumps to make.