My Graduate Success: The Journey Continues

I’m going to sound like a broken record as I’m always beginning a new blog post with a phrase about how quickly time has passed, but it’s true, time really is flying by for me! It has been months since my previous blog post. For those who haven’t been keeping up with the diary entries thus far, in my previous post ‘My Graduate Success: The Next Chapter’, I wrote all about my career change as I eagerly awaited the start of my new role as a CRM Executive at Time Inc UK - my fourth role at the company can you believe! It has been quite a journey for me since I started back in June 2012, and luckily it’s still continuing.

I started my new role a few months ago and it has been testing to say the least. Anyone who has been through a change in career might find familiarity in what I’m about to say, because I never envisaged how much of a challenge that a change in career could be. The transition of moving from one job role that you’re comfortable in and know all the ropes, to something that’s completely new and a bit alien, was something I found disconcerting.  It was a feeling that I had never experienced in the workplace before. 

It has been a challenging quarter, and at times I’ve felt like I was on a crash course, trying to learn an abundance of new skills, new software and working with new people. It took a long time to settle down. I would say about two months in total. Honestly, in those first couple of months, I received a lot of feedback that was around development and I was set some challenging objectives. It wasn’t an easy time for me and on reflection, I think I probably put a lot of pressure on myself. There were times where I could have easily thrown the towel in. However, I chose to work hard and to change my perspective, because the feedback I got, although it wasn't best received at first, it has played a crucial role in my development, which I can only be thankful for. Feedback that is positive or not so positive, I now see as a real learning mechanism, and a vehicle for development and progression. 

So over the past few months, despite the challenging moments, I've continued to work hard. I've adjusted my perspective and most of all, I have learnt a lot. A few months in, and I can honestly say that I’m very much settled in my new team. I’m exited for the prospect of more challenges in 2015. Company wise, role wise, career wise - I’m satisfied that I’m exactly where I want to be.