New Opportunities

I'm currently looking for a new job. Now, if you know me from work please realize that, for the most part, I LOVE my job. I find every day a challenge and really do love being able to help build a cohesive marketing plan for all of my offices. It's a challenge that I really do look forward to every day.

BUT...

And there is always a but.. And actually in this case there are two 'buts...'

First off I find parts of my job extremely frustrating. I'm not a graphic designer, though I spent years telling people that I was. And there is a great reason for that. I really do enjoy the graphic design side of my job. I love creating. But in this position, I'm finding that graphic design is really the least I should be doing. Social Media, marketing plans, new concepts and new ideas - these are what will build businesses in the coming days. As I've said so many times before - The days of uni-directional advertising are gone. People don't want to be pushed on, they want to be a part of. Billboards are GREAT! but they don't talk back. Neither do bus benches, garbage cans, business cards and radio ads. The fact is that I spend much of my time fueling a dying marketing paradigm instead of breaking ground on new technologies and helping my agents to do the same. The marketing challenges are so much greater than ever before with so much greater chance of success.

Don't get me wrong, there is still a place for bus benches, billboards, sponsored signs at the local arena. But they are no longer the end-all be-all of advertising.

And as bad as all that is, it's not actually the main reason I'm currently looking for a job. If anything it's the most recent motivator, but even then.. just barely.

No. The fact is that I'm currently looking for a new job because everyone should be looking for a new job. So often we end up as turtles, pulled deep within our shells, dealing with our lives as we see them without ever looking up to see what's around us.

6 months ago I missed out on applying for a job as a marketing person/ graphic designer for the provincial side of Alberta Health Services. Maybe I would have gotten a job that pays (A LOT) more than what I'm making now, with better benefits, better hours, more excitement and ... wait for it- a retirement plan! Maybe I wouldn't have. Maybe all I would have gotten was an interview. Maybe just a note saying 'thanks for applying... Heck, maybe my resume would have ended up in file thirteen only to be seen by the seagulls as they wandered across it looking for scraps of food at the dump.

The thing is this. I will never know. I have no idea what that door might have lead to. There isn't any way to know. And that's fine. No use in crying about it now. But it's making me think. While I keep my head down doing the job I'm doing, what else am I missing?

When one door closes, another one opens. But that's not always how it goes. Sometime the second door opens and it's up to you to walk through it and then close the first on your own.

It doesn't matter if you're extremely happy or supremely unhappy with the job you're in. You owe it to yourself to stop, look up, see the world around you and watch out for those open doors.

And don't be afraid to walk through them.

And just as importantly - don't be afraid to close them and stay where you're at.

Opportunities aren't always right- wrong time, wrong place, wrong for you. You just need to know they are there.