Career motion and progress

"They change their climate, not their soul, who rush across the sea."
-- Horace


Straightforward blog today - what's happening with me.

I don't often worry too much about my career, I'm in a good position with a good company that pays well. I could have had significantly higher earnings, but I gave up a shot at partnership in my firm to scale down my responsibilities a bit and take that different definition of "success". So as long as I'm happy with my job, I don't have to worry much, and I'm well aware that puts me in an enviable position.

But I'm in indecisive mode, which is difficult as there is a big decision ahead of me. My current role within my company only lasts a year, officially. There are a few possibilities
- it might continue on exactly as it is, but that is probably the least likely. That would be a shame as I've liked my current role.
- there might be a new role in my current group doing different things but still in the same area. Some of those opportunities would be great, but other aspects might not be - a lot more paperwork and less actual training design or delivery.
- there might be a new role within training elsewhere in the organization, but still in Toronto. Interesting, but one of my biggest advantages right now is that I leverage a huge amount of experience in my field, and if I move around, I lose a lot of that.
- I could do what I'm currently doing, but for external training of our clients, rather than internal training of our people. Also interesting, but clients are more demanding and painful to work with than our staff. And I'd be working with people I didn't enjoy working with the last time I had to. But still, more interesting than many other options.
- I have been asked to think about applying to the UK on secondment for at least a year. Would be work similar to my current work, at least designing training, probably not nearly so much delivery. That would be ok, and certainly less draining, but the location change is a big deal.

So this last one is interesting to me. For those that don't know, I'm originally from the UK, but I've been in Canada for 9 years. I have roots here, but at the same time, I'm missing the development of my nephews and niece. My significant other has a standing offer to go work in Europe, that he is very interested in, so we could both move together.

It's just, I have a life here, and even though I still have lots of friends back in the UK, it would be tough to move back there, even if it is only short term. I'm also worried that if I come back here after a year, the job opportunities might not be as flexible as the number of things open to me right now.

I have to apply for the UK posting before the end of the month, and then, annoyingly missing the right timing completely, I am back in the UK for a holiday for 10 days in June. Then I'd be back to Canada for a few short weeks if I got the job, before returning to the UK in July. So all very rushed, from thinking I had a lot of time. Not to say there wouldn't be more opportunities, but it is definitely a tough decision.

Right now, I'm leaning towards going for it, but I need to talk it over with my boss here, she will be supportive of whatever I want to do, but I need to get her guidance on the various options out there. Obviously if I got offered the job, I still have the chance to back out, but I want to have a little more information before I apply.

Good old Horace, from the 1st century BC, put it quite well though, if I decide to travel, it shouldn't be to change me. One of the things that I thought when I moved to Canada was that it was a great opportunity for a fresh start. Well, it would have been, but I brought myself along for the journey...


What currently has my attention?

My work of course. No seriously...The UK election finally finished today, with a new Prime Minister being declared, after Gordon Brown resigned.

What is currently annoying me?

Somehow I managed to forget to move things over to my other bag on the way out the door this morning. So I'm at work without a bunch of stuff I need, including all my money and cards...

What am I looking forward to?

Lost tonight :) Getting close to the end, and it's getting exciting.

What did I learn today?

I learnt a bunch of (fairly) boring stuff that is all job related, but you don't want to hear that. What I did learn is that the busiest stations in the world are all in Japan, and some of them average 3 million people plus through them per day. I can't even imagine that number of people streaming through one place - the busiest airport in the world doesn't have a tenth of that number of people per day.