Once a year, every year, in my annual review, I’m asked something that always wrong foots me. It’s not as though I’m not expecting it, I know it’s coming up, I just don’t have a satisfactory answer to the question. The phrasing varies, but the same underlying issue – future career development, promotion and plans. What, in other words, do you want to do next?
I strongly suspect that it’s not just me that struggles with this issue. I’m willing to bet that there are lots of fence sitting, undecided mid-career professionals just like me who are pretty happy with what they do but feel that this somehow sounds a bit – you know – lame.
The thing about being mid-career is that most of us have less flexibility in life than we had in our mid-20’s. The things that give us structure and stability (family and mortgages for example), might prevent us from taking the risks with our careers that perhaps we might have done when we were just starting out, or did we just find our niche? I suspect that’s the way it is for me – I totally acknowledge that it might not be that way for you.
This very occasional and erratic blog is going to look at some of the issues that affect us mid-career and (self-indulgently), other aspects of my professional life, including my approach to learning and teaching and reflections on development activities. I’m going to talk to friends about their experiences and make no apology for the fact that this is very much a personal project. I should also stress that none of this is endorsed by my employer, it’s just a spare time blog to help me to reflect.
Besides this erratic blog, you can also find me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/angelajnewton where you’ll find more politics, increased cat content and occasional mild language. I’m also online at Angela Newton (@edwardangelasimonjack) • Instagram photos and videos where you can see my artwork.
The mid career blog 