Solutions Architect vs Project Manager.
To become super expert at a special skill, or to become really good at a broad set of skills.
At one point in my career, I had the option to choose.
Little Ms Ego who sat on my shoulder said, “Choose the one that gets a lot respect. And money. Whichever one that gets us lots of money.”
While the prospect of being a Jedi something was incredibly appealing, I thought that being a Project Manager would allow me the freedom to move about a bit.
Also, I felt that there weren’t that many good Project Managers about at that time, which meant that I had an opportunity to make a difference when the market isn’t quite so crowded!
In addition – I discovered that I wasn’t too bad at getting the team to work together.
I never really had a dream job or a lifelong ambition that I worked towards for years and years and years.
Getting to where I am now have been an incredible adventure, a process of discovery by
– trying something new
– learning from mistakes
– discovering what I like (and doing more of that)
– or moving away from what I didn’t
I’ll be telling my kids that it’s ok for them not to know what they want to do / be when they grow up.
Just experiment, make mistakes and take the time to really get to know yourself which I believe, is the only way to get better at making decisions that “feel right” and align with who you are.
That way, when you’re in the wrong job, you’ll just know it.
Just like you know it’s wrong to have anchovies on pizza 😬
#careerchoices
#onthepeiroll
#projectmanagement