Time for a career change.

My last proper career change took place in September 2007. Before that I thought that I would embark on a career in IT but then I discovered that it wasn't for me. Just like I knew that teaching wasn't for me way back in 2001. It started off as a secondment opportunity but I never thought for one second that I would stay in the profession for three years, let alone thirteen. 

I never thought much of the profession before I joined it. I thought Human Resources was a department that got involved when an employee was disciplined or dismissed. I had limited knowledge about the functions of HR. The longer I stayed, the more I understood and the more I began to like working in HR. At the end of the day, it would provide me with useful skills and knowledge, as well as experience, to help me in my future career. 

But something changed. Although it became clear to me in 2010 that I would never be a great fit for the HR profession if my personality was anything to go by, I resolved to prove myself wrong. I then found myself stuck in the same job as HR Officer for eight years. Career progression eluded me and I was tempted to give up but no. I would not move on from yet another profession. I also survived numerous restructures but I knew that one day my luck would run out. 

Over the years HR evolved and I realised that I would have a difficult time keeping up with it. HR had an ambition and that was to become a business partner as well as to be an equal with organisations and to take on a strategic approach. That type of work was alien to me. With HR becoming less operational, my job was at risk. Come the restructure of 2020, my post of HR Officer would be deleted.

In March 2021, after failing to get a job in the new HR structure, I was told I would no longer be in my organisation's HR department and was handed a notice of redundancy.  I did a lot of soul-searching and came to the conclusion that my future career aspirations would not include HR. If I was to go up the career ladder and earn more money it would have to be in another profession. I never intended to stay in HR forever, so it suited me fine. However, I enjoyed working in the profession and it was a pleasure working with my colleagues. I knew that there was a field I had always wanted to work in and it gave rise to a growing profession with brilliant and perhaps lucrative career prospects. 

Before I joined my current organisation, I expressed a desire in getting a job as a database administrator as I liked working with databases and data in general. I had worked in data entry and I would read reports that resulted from data, with great interest. My time in HR compounded that interest as there were data analysts that worked in HR and I was afforded opportunities to run reports and carry out data cleansing exercises. It was that experience that got me a job as Data Quality Officer in a different department, subject to successfully completing a 28-day trial period due to the fact that I was a redeployee.

I hope that this new job will open doors for me and it will lead to a successful career as a Data Analyst. The skills in data analytics and insight would help me as a future entrepreneur who wants to launch an online translation business so that I can study the data to enable me to make informed decisions and provide better services to customers and clients. I am currently undergoing training as a board member so that I can join a board in the future as there are very few board members who are minority ethnic people. I am looking forward to a new chapter in my employment life.

That's all for now. Bye.

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