Has that proverbial question finally smacked me in the face? I'm in the midst of looking for a new position and there have been a few signs that point to that question and suggestions that I should have a plan. To what extent should I have a plan?
When I was in elementary school, I wanted to be an astronaut. I wanted to be able to look down on the planet and see the clouds swirling as the planet rotated in the universe. I wanted to be among the clouds of dust and particles in space and witness the miracles of the universe. But then I found out that most astronauts have scientific backgrounds. Science was fun for a while but never really my forte since I grew to learn that scientists spend most of their time in labs and don't really interact with people, which is what I'm more inclined to do.
As I became older, I found my leadership skills. I took on various student leadership positions that allowed me to interact with students, teachers, administrators and other school district officials. I really loved to see the whole school policy process take place. With all of that came the understanding of politics and lobbying.
College hit and I took a backseat to all the "leadership activities" that I did in high school. It didn't take very long until I was at it again. I was extremly active in the AS organization as well as various other related activities on campus and off campus. All the while, maintaining decent grades in my business program. I event attempted to get an ethnic studies certificate but it would have taken me another semester and more money, which was not an option. Along the way, I gained experience in the human resources field and marketing. Through all my experience in college, I gravitated towards marketing but if I ever had to, I could work in a human resources field but again...not really something I want to completely pursue.
Today, I find myself in LA, foreign territory. As I drove to work today, I started to recount my years spent at Kaplan. How many significant things did I really learn there? I learned how NOT to run a company, especially one the size of Kaplan, Inc. - an international conglomerate. I remember getting the opportunity to look at demographic and sales data and being a part of the planning process for classes and other test prep products and I remember how excited I was. It was finally something that allowed me to use my brain a bit more. Up to that point, I was droning away at the computer, performing tasks on Quark that required minimal knowledge of the program. I found so many ways to create shortcuts that I accomplished tasks in no time. Since I was among the two people who knew that program inside and out, I managed to survive four or five re-structures of the company, at least in the region I helped to manage.
During my last two years at Kaplan, I startd to get involved with community activities again. I started to re-build my network outside of work. Most of my community activities have been spent with the Pilipino American community, one that's still very young in getting politically and socially organized. All the while, I've tried to stick to the field that I have the most expertise in - marketing/public relations/promotions/event planning. So I guess that's what I want to be when I grow up. It'd be even better if I get into a company that will help offset some of my costs to get an MBA but again, how much value will an MBA add to my abilities? That's another question that I haven't quite been able to answer yet.
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