Career step forward

I started my current job almost exactly four years ago. I do public health communication, currently and previously in a nonprofit setting. I love what I do. And I love my current job. I know that some parents feel like they never want to return to work after they have a baby. I don't feel that way. I definitely had moments when Callum was younger of feeling like I could happily stay home with him forever and never work again. But as he got older those feelings dissipated, and when my five-month maternity leave ended I was feeling more or less ready to return to work.

It helps that I work from home. My current job is what made that possible for me, by offering me the opportunity to stay on and work remotely when I announced we were moving to Denver. I've been working remotely for two and a half years, and loving it.

Four years at this company, and for the first three and a half of them I felt like I'd found my home. Like this was the place I was going to stay for my entire career. Like I was going to be one of those people at the all-staff meetings receiving a plaque for 25 years of service.

Then... well, then a lot of things changed. My company went through a merger. A lot of my coworkers left. Some of the projects that I worked on ended, meaning my work shifted focus slightly. The atmosphere and work environment altered. I didn't write about it here, because, you know, work + blog = bad idea, but it wasn't an awesome time. I was on maternity leave for most of it, which was good in that I was sort of removed from some of the day-to-day complications, but difficult in that I was out of the loop while my coworkers relied on each other during a series of transitions.

The long and short of it is, my perspective changed, and I realized that it was a good time to explore other opportunities. So I did. And recently accepted an amazing job offer from a new firm. So even though now the merger is complete and it looks like my current company is moving in a good direction, my last day with them will be this Friday.

I'll still be doing public health communication, but the new firm is different. They're for-profit, for one thing, which will be a big change for me. They have a very different corporate culture. And I'm really excited about it. The new firm is also based in DC, and I will continue to work remotely, which I'm also really happy about.

The thing is that ultimately this feels like the right next step in my career. And my career is still really important to me. In fact, having a baby and experiencing this merger in my current job made me realize how important it is. There are a lot of things I'm good at, and I want to make a strong, lifelong career out of doing them. And I feel very lucky to have found a field in which my skill set is relevant and useful AND in which I can do work that feels meaningful and important to me. This new firm will allow me a lot of exciting professional opportunities, chances to do really interesting new work with an incredibly talented group of coworkers. Although the field is similar, a lot of the work will be very different. But in the best possible way.

So. Four years down the line, here's to the next big step.