My Journey from Dead End Job to Success

[passit1]

Looking back at my first post in this online diary...er, I mean....accountability thread, there were 3 actions to achieve my career goals and it's time for a status check. Here's what they were and where I am now with them:

1) get a bachelor's degree and research what other certifications would get me into the "maybe" pile instead of the "no dice" pile

-Bachelors degree was conferred from TESU Sept 2015. Applied for my dream operations job with Amazon and now work for them! I was unable to get an interview prior to my degree because Amazon require a bachelors for management positions. I am not stopping with the bachelors to ensure I can be a marketable entity in the future for promotion. My years of experience enabled me to come in to Amazon a tier higher than the new college graduates. A graduate degree will set me up for continued advancement.

-Started working on an online green belt certification last year but did not finish. My dads health declined and he passed so that took up my time (as it should). Also, the self study green belt did not give me the depth and breadth of understanding of lean operations that my in person white belt certification did. If I am going to become a green belt, I've decided to take an in person course.

-An MBA will get me further in my chosen field at this point than a green belt and I can always obtain the green belt certification later; I am now halfway through an accredited MBA program

2) expand my operations knowledge and experience outside of healthcare - although operations skills are transferable anywhere, having something else on the resume will help get me past the initial screen

-To gain different experience I took a position as a category manager for the last year. My year of category manager experience did not help me get the position with Amazon but it did market me to recruiters outside of operations. Problem was...I didn't like it. It was boring compared to operations and the office environment was not for me. It taught me what I do not care for, expanded my knowledge of logistics and allowed me to field phone calls from my mom during a difficult time, so it was not a waste. Just not something I could do for more than a year without my brain turning to oatmeal.

-Working for Amazon is providing operations experience outside of healthcare and is a solid addition to my resume.

3) get a network

-LinkedIn connections are over 200 now, a minor miracle for me. Asked the CEO and Director of Operations as my last place to give me LinkedIn recommendations and they agreed! But they aren't very active on LinkedIn and haven't put up their recommendations yet. I offered to write one for both of them and will do so by the end of this month to prompt them to do mine.

-Attended TESU alumni networking event and recorded a spot for TESU Youtube page. And I've been invited to do a lunch and meet with the new Foundation board members at TESU this month.

-Working to maintain connections from my previous companies.

-Joined a Lean group on LinkedIn and am actually somewhat active on it instead of simply lurking.

-Amazon provides plenty of opportunity for connecting with many different people. Need to develop those relationships and figure out who would make good go to folks for questions and development.

It looks like I've made progress but still have more to go. It's tempting to think "I'm done! Out of the dead end job and into Amazon, don't worry about this any more", but I'm not going to get stuck in the rut I was in before. Besides, I'm getting better at the networking thing and am not so self conscious about asking for others to recommend me or connect.