Please help me find a new direction
November 16, 2006 4:19 PM   Subscribe

Career direction help? Can the mefites help me discover a new path for my professional life?

A bit of background. I was school teacher for 10 years. During those 10 years I also developed websites for municipalities, personalities, businesses and political campaigns. I also created, funded, and wrote the full curriculum for the first elementary level computer lab in our city. A few years ago I opened a small retail business. Earlier this year, I sold that business and opened another. I am preparing to sell the current business and am finding that I would like to step out of small enterprise into a more "stable" career. After speaking with some friends, they think that my experience in business and education would make for a decent career in Project Management. Seems good to me. Does anyone here have anything to add to this idea, (path to take, certifications to get) or another direction that my skill set might be used for? Folks tell me I am friendly, creative, intuitive and a quick learner. I am not afraid of hard work. For what it is worth, I would like to avoid re-entering classroom education.
posted by BrodieShadeTree to Work & Money (1 answer total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: Have you thought about doing curriculum development for corporate training? Many big companies have training departments and, if you got in a writing position, you wouldn't have to actually do the training. Also, it would be as stable as you could expect, nowadays.

IMO, project mgt. would be extremely different from what you're used to. (This may not be a negative thing.) It involves working with all departments but being the heavy ("have you done this?", etc.) and can be rather monotonous ("Worker A is scheduled for 35% of his time for skill 4; worker B is scheduled for 10% of his time for skill 4 and 30% on skill 6"; etc.).

Going back to corporate training: you have to talk to everyone (good), but are not necessarily on their case (good, and bad: because you might not get the info you need since it's not necessary for them). However, from what I know via friends in the industry, it can be a pretty rewarding gig.
posted by sfkiddo at 7:21 PM on November 16, 2006


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