Changing my Job?

Changing my Job?

Do you know the feeling of being fed up after working more than ten years in the same area? I have it and I'm more and more thinking what I may do for a living with having the enthusiasm I had when I started my current job.
The problem is that I'm stucked in my area when it comes to experience and almost all employers ask for experienced staff and are not hiring newbies.
But am I really stucked or is it only my mind?
I spent the last couples of weeks more and more with thinking about what to do instead of my current job. And what I realized is that there is always another possibility.
Our experience is never only job based, it's cumulative experience of what you did at work, how you grew as human, what you experienced in life and how you are going on with others.
The school of life is a never ending one and we went through class after class, some realize it and think about it, others just take it as it is.
What am I currently?
I'm a project manager in the clinical research area, I'm a thirty five year old woman who is finally planning a life together with my love like a grown up, I'm interested in several topics like music, art, writing, personality, traveling, psychology, and so on.
A previous blog post which I wrote myself just brought me on the next idea. If I wouldn't see a reason in writing posts up to now, that is the moment where I appreciate at least for myself. I'm sure if I would never have pinned it down somewhere I wouldn't had realized.
It was about the training I attended in Madrid and just opened my eyes once again.
If I am a project manager, what does it mean? It means I'm able to handle project and in the best case bring them to a successful end.
So why am I stucked in the research area? I'm not, I just have to find out thoroughly what area could be handled by me.
My goal is to change in near future into the travel planning area. But not the planning for typical tourists who go into an agency and book the two week all-inclusive holidays once per year. that would be boring, at least for me.
I want challenges and contact and real planning instead of typing dates into a system which delivers me a certain choice of offers to book.
When I travelled with my best friend to the Caribbean a luxury travel agency was handling everything for us. These agencies are consulted by people with enough money to spend. Persons who don't care if the costs are more than expected when the result is fulfilling their expectations.
Why do I think that I'm able to do it?
One of my strengths is communication, if I communicate with clients, doctors or heads of hospitals or if I communicate with airlines, hotels, guides or restaurant, there is not a big difference, in the end the result has to be fine.
If I go through my strengths I can see the parallels, I just have to switch them to another area.
Scheduling appointments with different persons in my current job or scheduling when which of my clients in traveling would like his breakfast, lunch or dinner is nearly the same.
Planning and organizing is my day to day work since more than ten years, instead of planning my business trip I am sure to be able to plan leisure trips for others. I've been in many different hotels in my life so far and checking somebody into a three star hotel instead of the five star he wants is something which wouldn't happen as I know the differences in standard. But I also know that five stars aren't the same all over the world.
What else? English fluently and in writing as well as handling different computer systems is not a real challenge.
So what am I waiting for? Honestly, my fixed salary at the moment as I know we need it to plan the next two years. But this means also that I have the next two years time for research in traveling. Where are the agencies I would love to work for, how is the range of salaries for people stepping in from the side without the typical education, what do I need to have on my CV before applying and many more.
Anyone who has experience is very welcome to comment and send me some tips or website links, I would love to learn as much as I can upfront!
Thanks and never lose the faith, we are more than we think and not limited just because we chose something years ago.
Miss Faith

How I Went From Shy to Less Shy

How I Went From Shy to Less Shy

I was pushed to it mainly when I started my job. Before, I wouldn't say I was too shy but unsure, uncertain in many things. Still like being the teenager and not an adult so how to argue with them about something which they should know better just because they live longer. Also when meeting new people, it's not that I was totally quiet but I was holding back with my opinion in first place and even more with private stories. You never know if they may talk you over or try to use it against you. The lack of self esteem is something normal at an younger age I believe, at least it was it for me, but when I had to take ownership for my work I was quickly getting more and more confident. Not only in business where you develop a kind of knowledge about your business but also for me as private person. Part of my job was and still is to work with people around the world and its not a fixed team for the next ten years, no, it's changing, sometimes very quickly. New team members, new staff hired, new clients, things and people are moving and to adapt to this world you need to develop a style of getting along with all these changes and cultural differences. I can never expect that one client is working as the other and for my internal staff I realize that the e.g. hungarian team member is not working exactly in the same way as the israelian even if it is exactly the same job. To be honest, I like it, it's sometimes driving me crazy but most of the time I'm happy to be in the position to meet so many different persons. I learned a lot for my life even if some tasks like holding a speech in front of several persons was scaring me in the beginning. Learning while doing is the best as you have to go through it and I can say that it was always a lesson learned for me and I was proud when it went good. So no reason to be scared, you will be proud afterwards when it went fine and if not you will have learned what to change for the next time. Another important part for me was to get used to write and talk English as this is the main language in my business. When I started I had my school English plus a few books I read, nowadays I'm talking as if I never did anything else, this may not be perfect and there may be mistakes but I'm neither an English teacher nor a native speaker, as long as the main part is ok and people are able to understand what I'm saying or writing I'm fine. Ad why do I title this post "...from shy to less shy" - am I only less shy? You could assume I'm not shy at all now but the truth is, I'm still a bit shy and it's good that way. But it's something I know, I'm pretty good in hiding it so that most of the people are not realizing that part. It's not visible, it's like my inner shield telling me to be cautious or careful. I'm not the one talking about every single moment of my life as long as I don't know the person in front of me. Sometimes not even when I knew them better for good reasons, as we all know not all people are nice just because they act in a nice way and I never was the person who wants to be topic during lunch for others. The less I talk about me, the less they have to talk about me. Only a well picked small circle of friends knows how I am really and they don't even know everything - that's enough. I learned to never arm people with information to use it against me one day. But what counts the most as always is to stay yourself and to be authentic.
Keep the faith and take care!