IT to MarketingI' ve been working in IT as an e-commerce/web BA for the past 6 years and for the last year I started to feel the pressure of being stuck in a rut. I didnt like the idea of becoming a project manager, but agencies and employers were starting to become suspicious of why I had stayed at the level I had for so long. To be honest I was a bit sick of documentation. My true passion is the web and internet communities, and I got to experience some of that by shaping the solutions I was documenting, but not to the extent that I wanted. So I started being proactive and identifying what other strategies we could put in place to complement the solution. I ended up winning over the marketing manager, who asked me to present to the director. He was won over by my enthusiasm and ended up asking me to head the online arm of a campaign for a new product we were running. That ran smoothly, and based on that success the director created a new role for me and poached me away from my project manager, raising my salary in the process ;) Now I am going to be the new online strategy manager, and get to work on totally amazing stuff like new campaigns and the company roadmap. I guess what I learned from this experience: I have been a Unix Admin for the last 15 years at my current company, not to mention the many years before that. I have reached a burnout spot in that long career. But when your making 85+ how do you go to something different without the huge pay cut. I looked inside my current company and inquired about an opening in a different area of IT. Fortunately management knew me and were very receptive to the idea of me moving to that position. I have very little experience in that area but because of my work history they felt I would be able to make the transition. So I get to change careers and not lose my current pay level. So my point is if you are in a large company now, look inside for ways to change and don't be afraid to try for something you may not have all the skills for. | |
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Career Tips
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