A Working Girl in Transition

I am a lot of things.

I am in my late 20’s. I am a marketing major. I am an accounting minor. I am a yogi. I am daughter/only child. I am a girlfriend. I am a dog mom. I am an achiever. I am a neat freak. I am always on time. I am an ice cream lover. And the list goes on…two of the most important things right now in my life are that: I am a working girl and I am in transition. There is so much to tell, but let me start with these for now…

My mother died when I was young, leaving my father to raise me. Because of the unique situation we were in, he played many roles in my upbringing. He has played father, mother, teacher, best friend, listener, motivator and my personal favorite, hero. My father didn’t run for the door. In fact, he slammed the door hard, locked it and made sure that he was going to be there for me no matter what. My father not only won kudos for being a hands-on single parent, but he is very successful within his profession as well. I strongly value his advice in my own career. I am sure I will share some of his words of wisdom from time to time.

I was lucky enough to grow up in a small mountain town where you leave your front door unlocked. We lived in this town a majority of my 18 years growing up. I graduated from a small private high school where four years of high school I played every sport imaginable. My father was of the belief that sports instilled many values such as work ethic, integrity, teamwork and discipline. Many of which still play an important role in my life today.

My story really starts when I left for college. I thought I was leaving home to move to the big bad city. I have since been reminded that there are no big cities in the state where I attended college. I became the typical freshman, spending more time perfecting my social life than perfecting my grades. By the time my first quarter was over and I returned home for the holidays my entire summer savings was hanging in my closet, right where Carrie Bradshaw would have liked it.

Spring of sophomore year I fell in love with my business classes and declared marketing as my major. Looking back on it now, are you ever really sure what you want to do with your life at 19? I have no regrets about the major I chose, but because it’s so broad, it left me wondering “What do I really want to do with my life”.

I spent summers interning within various marketing related companies: a marketing research firm, PR firm and in-house marketing at a private country club. By senior year, I still was asking myself that same question, so I devised a plan. I decided that I would spend my last spring break in a city of my choosing, conducting 30ish informational interviews in a variety of industries from companies small to large. I am certain my peers thought I had gone nutty since they were all off enjoying one final hurrah. When I returned to college for the final ten weeks of school, I set a goal for myself of becoming an Account Executive in an agency setting.

Four days prior to graduation, I was offered my first job as a marketing coordinator. It only took me a little over a year to be promoted to an Account Executive thus achieving a goal that I thought would take a lot longer. However, about a year after my promotion, I started my first “in transition” experience, realizing the importance of being close to my father (who had since relocated to another state) and began to put my wheels in motion. I felt very lucky because within a month or two of really looking, I landed a position in an industry that I felt I could have a long career in. And then the economy crashed.

I struggled for two years in this industry before realizing it was time to get out. I was once again in transition and started utilizing my network to make my next move. Just as luck would have it, I met up with one of my very closest friends who has just starting working for a company* where they were launching a new project and needed marketing support. I was quickly offered the position and it seemed like a perfect fit/dream job. I have been at this position for about two years now, but last spring began to experience the need for a new challenge and this last summer began my latest in transition as a working girl.

My purpose for wanting to be a part of this blog is to be able to share with you a point in my life where I feel my career is a tipping point. I am not the best writer in the world, but I do know that I have experiences to share that are similar to all of you. In this economy and job market, we are all in transition all the time, there are things we need to be doing constantly to be getting ahead even when we feel our own job is secure.

Please feel free to email me at any time at intransitionworkinggirl@gmail.com. I would love to hear from others who are in transition! Thank for reading and I look forward to taking this journey with you.

*I still work at this company right now and since I am in transition feel it’s important for myself to keep this in disguise. I do have lots of great stories. As soon as am no longer in transition, I will share more about the position I currently hold. Thank you for understanding!