So. Work.
Sure I'm still in the "honeymoon period", but I'm liking things so far. If I'm going to pause my "career progression" for a few years and pursue convenience and fit with my family needs & lifestyle, this is the sort of job I'd want...
Location: tick (within walking distance of home and son's childcare centre)
Salary: tick (high enough to be worthwhile)
Boss: organised, high flying, with shit together, seem to get along with her, sympathetic to people with families.
Greater office/colleagues: nice people, already invited me to a girls night out, great cake at staff meetings, good systems in place
As C-chan was saying the other day, you learn from people who are better/smarter than you, or more experienced than you. So even though I don't see a future for me in the area of work I'm working in (although it is a noble cause in the big scheme of things), I can absorb certain things - how and what my boss delegates, how she accumulates contacts and networks for example. But every so often, working where I do raises questions in my mind.
(I'm suprised I have the time to think about it, but I do).
I've done the opposite to what I think you're supposed to do, and that is that I've started of specialised and am becoming more generalised in what I do. This is a trend that was deliberate initially, as I worried about job transportability - I wanted to make sure that if my position was cut or I was restructured out of my fairly specific job role, I could take my skills elsewhere easily. But now becoming more generalist is starting to concern me, as I get further and further away from the areas of research I care about. In order to get more interesting again, I need to actively seek work in interesting areas and/or study again. Where? What? I know what areas I find important generally, but I haven't thought deeply about which direction I might want to head in the future, where I might make a difference, where I might be driven enough to maybe end up working at the level my high flying boss does, 20 years down the track.
I suspect I need to back track a few years of my "career" and take another fork in the road that I didn't explore all those years ago. Because when it comes down to it, what I wrote I wanted to be in my Yr12 school year book wasn't that far off the mark, conceptually (don't ask me to tell you - high school year books are just EMBARRASSING all round). Not that I have any regrets on my career up until now, I've learned a LOT, I know what sort of work I'm not suited to, what I wouldn't want to do, and what I'd need to work hard at. But for now, it's not high enough up the priority list for me to focus on it. I just have to take the next few years one year at a time.
-------------------
Yesterday I was pleased to find one part of my new job that is engaging. My institute as has all these Associates - that is, people with various related expertise who advise the institute on direction, high level projects etc etc. Most of them come along to a meeting every 4 weeks, to discuss matters, while us lowly staff sit in the background and eat cake*. The ensuing discussion, I was pleased to find out, was very interesting. Associates noted how (our Institutes' area of research/governance) received almost zero attention in federal budget as (causes I actually care more about, but dont tell them that) seem to be 1st tier election issues this year. Some of the experts who work in communications or political party policy development then discussed how and if (our Institutes' area of research/governance) would be used by the current government as issues that are no brainers for the public to agree with in the election campaign. They also discussed how they might put (our Institutes' area of research/governance) on the agenda, including Today Tonight style heartache stories, backed up with "here's what to do about it" policy papers to thrust at relevant ministers or shadow ministers.
Very interesting!!
* yesterdays cake was this Yummy cake with zucchini in it. Might have to get the recipe...
No comments:
Post a Comment