There are times—we’ve all experienced them—where an opportunity happens so quickly that your only choice is to run into it head on. There isn’t much time to react, and you know that there will be a lot of pieces to pick up later, when the time arrives that you’re finally able to catch your breath. This has been my story of the previous five weeks, and if you listen carefully enough, you can actually hear me catching my breath right now.
In other words, the world has told me in no uncertain terms, “Welcome to your new job.”
I’ve dropped little bits of information into Facebook and Twitter, but I apologize that I haven’t been able to explain this in more detail. There simply hasn’t been time—or on the few occasions that there was time, the last thing I felt like doing was typing. No matter what type of work I’m doing, I’m always, always typing.
But enough about the why. This post is about the what, as in: what in the world am I doing now?
First of all, I’m still with the same company, United Guaranty, where I’ve worked for the last 10 1/2 years. The big change is that I’ve moved from International Operations, where business had dwindled rather severely over the past few years, to the very fast-moving world of domestic Sales. I’m finally in a position that perfectly fits my skill set.
On a general basis, my job entails central coordination of everything Sales-related, which mostly consists of supporting our seventy or so salespeople across the country. It’s an amazing group. Our responsibilities consist of technology integration, communication, organization, marketing coordination, home office representation, and pretty much anything that helps keep our sales teams running efficiently. And to top it off, I am blessed with a terrific three-person team to work with—collectively we’re called Sales Operations (hence my title of Director, Sales Operations). This is a group that largely did not exist until now, so it’s incredibly rewarding to come into a part of the organization where your work is absolutely appreciated. I won’t go into details, but this was definitely not always the case (for a number of reasons, some avoidable and some not).
The long-awaited need for my team is what has resulted in a huge onslaught of requests immediately upon our arrival. While this has resulted in long hours, I’ve loved every minute of it. I get to channel my previous ten years of experience into something meaningful and actionable. Right away. And best of all, I have an immediate means of bringing my web design and user interface skill set to our front-end technologies—something that is already starting to have an impact on our organization. It’s difficult to tell how many roadblocks lie ahead, but I’m confident that as I turn the corner in my own career, I can help—little by little—to push United Guaranty forward along with me.
That’s not to say that I could ever do any of this on my own. Not even close. Most of us work for some time hoping to find the right set of circumstances—the time when all of the gears lock into place and you just know it’s finally going to work. It takes the right teammates, the right organizational culture, and the right economic culture. But when it happens, it is nothing short of majestic.
Will it happen now? I certainly hope so. But no matter what, I know I’ve never seen better chips on the table.
So while I may seem to be disappearing to each of you (my posts, e-mails, blogging, and phone calls are all reduced a bit), that will be offset by my re-emergence in another realm: my career. So I do humbly ask for your patience, and I promise to do my very best to keep things up on both ends.
I can’t wait to see where this particular ride takes me.