Slowly letting go

I’m in the process of slowly letting go of an identity that I’ve held for several years.

Back in 2014, frustrated by the pharmaceutical playing field, I decided that I was going to try and obtain some control over my career. I didn’t want to be pigeonholed as a scientist. I didn’t want to be someone trapped at the lab bench. So, taking some perfectly timed advice from a wonderful colleague, I dove into networking.

From networking, I learned how to write a resume that managers wanted to read. From there, I learned how to interview. I found that I was pretty damn good at negotiating the salary that I wanted. ;)

I job-hopped quite a bit at the beginning, and it gave me plenty of room to practice at what would eventually become my craft. I helped my colleagues land the jobs that they wanted. From there, I slowly started building a list of references for “career services” - and then, the day came when I sold my first resume package.

And now, here I am, sitting at the dining room table, typing an email to my list, and thinking about what the next step in the journey is going to look like.

I think that I’m so protective of my “story” because, for years, I didn’t have support for anything that I’m doing today. I kept the resume writing a secret for two years. (I might talk about this in a future email.) When I finally started sharing what I was doing with my colleagues and family, it wasn’t pretty. The stare that a person gives you when they think you’re doing something outrageous doesn’t leave the mind easy.

But, I think that I’m finally ready to let this story go. I want to do something new, and I really like the idea of leaning into transformation work for clients.

I still don’t know what that looks like for me yet, but I think I’m on a healthy path to figuring it out.

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