The winding road to a career path

There’s no shortage of resources to help people find their best fit position. The process usually involves an understanding of one’s strengths and weaknesses matched with an organization’s needs. If not careful, it can become an unhealthy obsession with enough assessments, coaching, mentoring and self-improvement to push anyone into a mid-career crisis. Yet, one’s career path is often set long before employment.

I must ask myself, how did I get here and is communications still my path?

Over 15 years ago (gosh I feel old), I applied to many small colleges chasing my athletic dreams. When that dream died, I made the same logical and family-approved choice I made many times before – I followed my older brother to Bradley University, a short 90-minute drive from home.

Looking back, that decision pushed me into finding my career path. One last chance to follow my brother, excluding the major issue that I had no interest in his pre-law path. (Actually that’s not true. The first occupation I can remember truly pining for was a juror, until I learned it wasn’t a real job.)

So what did I do? I changed my major multiple times before I even showed up! I applied as a psychology major, but decided I didn’t want to go to school long enough to make psychology a real career. I switched to marketing, but realized I had little hope of passing a calculus class. I settled on advertising, but feared my only career option would be sales.

Somewhere in my basic communications courses I was introduced to public relations. The intersection of communications and relationship building seemed like a perfect fit! Since I did so much volunteering in college, I thought I’d end up working for a non-profit.

However, an opportunity to make decent money one summer caught my attention, and fortunately I became a communications intern at Caterpillar. Since then, I’ve formally held 5 communicator roles at Caterpillar, with only one short stint outside of communications (blog for another time perhaps).

I recently found a crossroads in my career – do I continue my communications path or do I shift gears? Many suggested a move into traditional HR, and more career opportunities certainly had appeal.

My road led me right back to communications. My track record has proven communications is a good fit for me. I’m new to formally leading another communicator, which has been rewarding so far.

I plan to enjoy this ride as long as I’m on it, while staying open to new journeys out there.

If you did it all over again, do you think you’d find the same career path? Did your road take an unexpected turn?