Five Years Down the Road

Five years down the road I want to be writing more and maybe have a career in marketing and/or communications.

Not a career in sales, which is what I’m currently doing and have been doing for five years.

My primary responsibility is coordinating proposals – editing proposals and making sure they look awesome for the client. I don’t get to write – or do much creative writing – at all. I have a few side projects I’m working on, but they’re not enough to satisfy me.

At my previous job, I was responsible for the marketing and proposals. I did a lot of fun, creative brainstorming and wrote articles for our website and newsletters. I created ads and brochures. I wrote press releases. But, I also did 7-10 proposals a week. There was a great balance between the heavy technical proposal writing and the fun marketing writing.

It’s not like that at my current job.

I don’t hate my job. I love my team.  & my company has given me so many opportunities & the opportunities keep coming.

But, I’m missing something. If I know I don’t want to be in sales five years down the road, then why am I bothering being in sales now?  Shit, I don’t even want to be in sales a year from now.

It was hard to walk into my boss’ office (who I haven’t seen in 3 weeks because he was traveling to other offices) this morning. I was nervous, and I just wanted to get it out there. So I told him as blunt as possible, “I don’t want to be in sales anymore.”

Guys, that’s MY JOB. That’s why I was hired.

And here I am telling him I don’t want this job anymore.

He asked me what I want to do. I was so nervous that I avoided all eye contact and just started mumbling like “I want to do fun stuff.” And “I don’t want to do proposals anymore.” And “Well, I don’t really know….” And finally I gave him a reasonable response: “I want to do more marketing and communications kind of projects and fewer proposals.”

Luckily my boss is really relaxed and adaptable.  He just looked at me and said, “Hmm. Okay.”

He knows I’m a writer. He knows I want to do more writing projects, and he’s been giving them to me as they come along.

He told me he has to take time to come up with a response because he was not expecting to hear that.

Although I’m a little nervous about the door I just opened, I’m pretty sure I’m going to be OK, & I’m really looking forward to my boss’ response.