Hello Boss Humans!

Kali Kardas

October 11,2021 at 2:59PM UTC

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Hello Boss Humans! I found this site over the weekend and am excited to see what's happening.

I was let go from my job on Friday. There was a mix of factors, but basically, it boiled down to me struggling to prioritize and align with my manager's expectations. It was a huge blow, it was the most money I'd ever made and I was feeling so good about that.

I have been working as a marketing and communications professional for 10 years and have produced some great work, but keeping a job has not been in the cards for me. I've been through acquisitions, restructuring, emotional abuse, and taken some shiny opportunities that didn't pan out. At this point, I think I need to do something different. Something with a bit more structure and something that involves more interaction with people. Oddly marketing doesn't provide that as much as I expected it to.

I'm interested in organizational development and company training. I've taught business and marketing classes before and really enjoyed them. I love having conversations so that makes me think sales might not be a bad fit for me, although I hate the idea! I'm also interested in project management and volunteer coordination, also things I am experienced in.

I welcome any thoughts, thanks for reading this!

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AnonymousOctober 11,2021 at 3:37PM UTC
Have you considered some sort of client management or facilitation role? Stakeholder/customer engagement? Strategic communications? Your enthusiasm for communication and your people skills are in high demand and can go a long way.
I would make a list of potential tasks you enjoy and spend some time searching job listings for those tasks. See if anything pops up that excites you.
Kali KardasOctober 11,2021 at 11:05PM UTC
Great advice, thank you!!
Ann B.October 11,2021 at 4:47PM UTC
I would recommend getting a certificate in project management (or whatever you decide on) before you try applying for jobs. Unless you actually had the title of project manager it might be hard to get considered for it.
AnonymousOctober 11,2021 at 9:36PM UTC
You might be able to get a CAPM. A PMP will require more specific job experience, I believe.
Sarah BeckwithOctober 11,2021 at 5:20PM UTC
I've worked with Project Managers and the best Project Managers are ones that can talk to people to keep their clients updated, but also iron out any issues. I should also add if you're good with administration/paperwork it makes a difference too. I think there's something called a PMP (at least in NZ) that you can do? Would you find Sales a bit draining i wonder?
Kali KardasOctober 11,2021 at 10:50PM UTC
All the rejection in sales worries me, yes. I have definitely considered the PMP before!
AnonymousOctober 12,2021 at 1:49AM UTC
Explore the category of Design Thinking. I’m a mentor in the space.
It includes a person-first mindset and collaboration techniques that can be used to solve a wide array of the worlds problems. Google has a methodology called “Google Sprints”
And they travel the world using this approach.
The work I involves bringing a group of people, structuring a workshop and facilitating discussions with those folks.
I love it.
Kali KardasOctober 12,2021 at 8:31PM UTC
Oh, that sounds AMAZING!
AnonymousOctober 13,2021 at 1:41AM UTC
People from
Every discipline use this approach. It’s something that you can incorporate into your field of choice as a value-add. Google it. :)
AnonymousOctober 12,2021 at 2:42AM UTC
So as someone who was once in a similar situation, I would encourage you, before you do a lot of work (and possibly retrain) to change careers, to do some "inner work" and ask yourself some hard questions about what's happened in the jobs you've left or been terminated from. I was given some "tough love" advice at one point, which was that the only common denominator across the different jobs I'd had was me. Is it the field that you're in that's a bad fit, and a different field would help you create different results for yourself? Or are the same problems going to follow you into any field/career/job because they are "you" problems, and they're going unaddressed? One thing I had to do a lot of work on was that I had outsized and outlandish expectations for jobs - I kept thinking the "perfect job" was out there, and the bottom line is that there are no perfect jobs. When things didn't work out exactly the way I thought they should, I would become disillusioned and detach and end up doing subpar work. That was a "me" problem, not an "everyone else" problem, and I was the only person who could solve that. You might consider talking to a career coach who can help you pinpoint what may be happening with the series of situations you've been in that haven't worked out, and also help you narrow down your interests so that you can target your next job search appropriately. I also recommend the book What Color is Your Parachute to help you zero in on careers that may be a good match for your skills and interests. Good luck to you!
Kali KardasOctober 12,2021 at 8:30PM UTC
Very good advice and definitely something I am chewing on at the moment. I do think I have some "me" problems that I am taking some time to work on in this next chapter.
Erin Thomas, Career + Leadership CoachOctober 12,2021 at 3:18PM UTC
Agree with the comments below encouraging you to do some self discovery work. You have a solid 10 years worth of data to mine from and make sense out of, to ensure your next 10 years are the best yet l. Investing in this type of work will pay out for the rest of your career, I guarantee it.
Happy to help if this is something you’re interested in.
Feel free to book a free consultation and I’ll customize a road map of actions steps to take.
Www.careerandleadershipcoaching.com