The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:
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Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.
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Updates to let us know how you are doing. This provides valuable feedback on past advice / encouragement and will hopefully make people feel a little more motivated to follow through. If you want to be reminded to post your update, see the post titled 'update reminders', below.
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Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.
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Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).
Jump in the discussion.
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Can you help me find new direction in 2025? I’m feeling a little lost in my career currently – US based. My core issue at bottom is that I never really developed a passion for anything. Broadly, I’ve been in “administrative” roles for 20+ years. As you can imagine, it hasn’t been super lucrative. I’ve never had much drive or ambition, but I do need to start thinking long term and how I can earn sufficient income to pay all my bills. (Full disclosure: bills include a somewhat pricey private school for my kid. I understand that choice has financial consequences. I’m not open to changing my mind about it. I’m doing a side gig as supplemental income but I can only manage about 10 hours/week.)
I was at a nonprofit a couple of years right out of college and then moved into a commercial real estate firm where I stayed for 15 years. The interesting thing about “administrative” roles is that you get to wear all the hats. At the real estate company I dipped into marketing and took a few graphic design courses. I liked that okay except I really am not that creative. I can execute others’ ideas but I’m lousy at coming up with my own.
I could have parlayed my real estate experience into a better opportunity. But when COVID hit I was unemployed for almost two years before taking an administrative role at another nonprofit because I was happy to get anything. Part of my “marketing” role at the real estate firm included helping set up trade shows, so I got a bit into operations and logistics, and I played up those skills to get the nonprofit gig. Here I do about half operational (supply ordering, workstation setup, equipment inventory), half HR-adjacent functions, and a sprinkling of IT support. (I got halfway to a COMPTIA A+ cert before I gave up.)
Where I’m at now is working for me in a lot of ways, including the flexibility which is a godsend as a single parent. But that’s not going to be quite so important in another year or two. As you can imagine the role doesn’t pay very well and not much chance for advancement. So let’s consider my options from least to most likely:
Web/graphic design: I don’t see myself pursuing it as I’ve let the skills get quite stale and my web design knowledge is 10 years old or more, and anyway isn’t AI going to take all those jobs?
Real estate: eh, I was never passionate about it at all, just something I fell into. Unless I wanted to become licensed or throw myself into Autocad maybe, I just don’t see it. And I’d have to explain the now 5-year break from it I’ve had.
IT: I actually do enjoy the helpdesk stuff I’ve been able to do, but I think I’m in the absolute perfect setup for it right now. The company environment means I’m not getting yelled at by end users and having to chase people down for payment, but there’s also no expectation of certain metrics/reporting or CSR scripts. And my knowledge would have to get a lot deeper if I wanted to find somewhere else.
And here is really where I’m torn:
Operations/logistics: from what I can tell I’m quite good at it. I have a head for details and patience for working through bureaucracy to get permits signed, make sure insurance is in line, all the tricky things that “idea people” don’t understand what it takes to actually execute on something. But where’s the advancement? Either I guess I supervise other people (which I’ve never done) or I help manage a larger site (10x the headaches). Only major drawback I can think of is if I get called in the middle of the night because a water main broke, or I have to be up at 5am to supervise an arriving shipment or something.
Human Resources: my current role is about 50% HR-Adjacent and it feels like it could be a good move. My HR experience is zero but I can take some independent courses at very discounted prices to bolster the educational side. But is this role susceptible to AI, or ideological capture? The ideological capture thing doesn’t concern me too much. One, I’d be more on the process side probably, and two, you can feel out organizations and get a sense for how much they buy in on the DEI-verse. One significant drawback is that it’s unclear if I’d be able to make the move internally (for funding reasons, not doubts about my ability). But an outside organization would be underwhelmed with my HR experience without having the title and education to show for it.
Either role probably gets pinned down by metrics and rigid processes more than I’d like. I like having the flexibility and autonomy to make decisions and propose common sense solutions as I see fit.
I mentioned education a bit ago. I find myself strangely excited to take HR courses. It’s an ideal subject for independent learning. I can’t imagine any operations-related courses that wouldn’t instantly make me zone out. Purchasing 101? Greening your building?
At one point I would have been interested in going further in IT. I’ve found it an incredibly difficult subject to learn independently because (1) you have to be motivated to do the hands-on work, and (2) having teachers/mentors/peers to ask questions to is incredibly valuable. Plus you need constant continuing education because it all changes so fast. To do it right costs money and time investment that I just don’t have right now.
And by the way, I do understand how HR is viewed in some circles. I’m not really interested in hearing about it. Fundamentally, I think a person of integrity in the right HR role performs a valuable and ethical function – i.e. one which businesses are willing to pay for.
Sounds like you are most excited by the possibility of switching to HR. You can:
(1) Get the SHRM-CP (Society for Human Resource Management Certified Professional) certification. You can do it on your own time and at your own pace.
(2) Ask your employer to either transfer into their HR full-time, or to take on more HR tasks. If the latter, ask that your title reflect this new responsibility.
(3) Document all the HR-adjacent tasks you have already done, and keep documenting it. Use the documentation to negotiate (2).
(4) If for some reason you look into (1) and decide against it, "Professional in Human Resources" certificate from Human Resource Standards Institute is also good.
(5) If you are working through (1) or (4): learn how to use an AI to help you learn. I recommend Claude. Don't let it do your thinking for you, but do use it as a broadly knowledgeable tutor who sometimes goes off the rocker (so validate any concrete piece of info you absolutely need to rely on).
Good luck!
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