Help my figure out my career path
May 20, 2012 4:20 PM Subscribe
I really need help figuring out my new career track. I want to take "the next step" and don't know where to start.
I got passed over for a promotion at work, so I'm trying to figure out a new career path so that I can effectively promote myself. I'm pretty flexible in this regard - I don't have any particular preferences in terms of the field I want to go into. What I want is a job that pays well while at the same time utilizes my main strengths - efficiency, optimizing processes, and training others. Based on this, I think I'm looking for a manager-level position, even though I've never been a manager before.
The main jobs on my resume includes two years of programming experience, a nine-month contract providing technical support in French and German, and three years doing customer service in French for a biotech company. I also have approximately six years of experience doing purchasing and collections (simultaneously) at my current job, and run the department when my manager is out (including one several month period of maternity), being responsible for about twenty million dollars of spending annually.
Taken altogether, I think I have a strong foundation for a managerial role, but I haven't the faintest idea of what types of jobs or companies I should be looking for or how to "sell" myself. One particular difficulty is that I've never held a manager title, even though I have experience managing others.
I'm looking for advice about how to optimize my job search - ie, what job titles I should be looking for, what keywords I need in my search results, and most importantly, how to sell myself for a management role (or alternatively, get a job which will be a good stepping stone towards that path) despite my lack of a title. It's also been several years since I was last looking for a job, so I could also use some advice on average salaries for people with my skillset should be.
There's no particular urgency for this and I don't mind taking a year to find the right opportunity: my issue is simply that I don't even know where to begin.
I got passed over for a promotion at work, so I'm trying to figure out a new career path so that I can effectively promote myself. I'm pretty flexible in this regard - I don't have any particular preferences in terms of the field I want to go into. What I want is a job that pays well while at the same time utilizes my main strengths - efficiency, optimizing processes, and training others. Based on this, I think I'm looking for a manager-level position, even though I've never been a manager before.
The main jobs on my resume includes two years of programming experience, a nine-month contract providing technical support in French and German, and three years doing customer service in French for a biotech company. I also have approximately six years of experience doing purchasing and collections (simultaneously) at my current job, and run the department when my manager is out (including one several month period of maternity), being responsible for about twenty million dollars of spending annually.
Taken altogether, I think I have a strong foundation for a managerial role, but I haven't the faintest idea of what types of jobs or companies I should be looking for or how to "sell" myself. One particular difficulty is that I've never held a manager title, even though I have experience managing others.
I'm looking for advice about how to optimize my job search - ie, what job titles I should be looking for, what keywords I need in my search results, and most importantly, how to sell myself for a management role (or alternatively, get a job which will be a good stepping stone towards that path) despite my lack of a title. It's also been several years since I was last looking for a job, so I could also use some advice on average salaries for people with my skillset should be.
There's no particular urgency for this and I don't mind taking a year to find the right opportunity: my issue is simply that I don't even know where to begin.
Look into project management -- which is not necessarily the same as being a manager.
posted by croutonsupafreak at 1:16 PM on August 7, 2012
posted by croutonsupafreak at 1:16 PM on August 7, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
It is not clear from your list of previous jobs how long ago some of them are, but your most recent experience is what will be of greatest interest to potential new employers.
Don't sweat the lack of manager title; if you can show management experience on your resume and describe it in your interview, you can still convince someone that you are right for their manager position.
Something else to keep in mind is that management is a lot of people-wrangling. It is more people-wrangling than optimizing processes or even training. That doesn't mean you won't be good at it, but new managers often are surprised how much time they spend dealing with people, conflicts and communication.
Finally, this will be a lot easier if you figure out what you want to do and go from there. Being "flexible" about your career path is a good way to get nowhere quickly. Pick a direction and then focus on what skills and attributes you already have and figure out how to get what you're lacking. You can really start marketing yourself and searching for jobs very effectively is you don't know what your target is.
posted by jeoc at 7:23 PM on May 20, 2012 [1 favorite]