Career Change?

I was recently laid off so I have the luxury of taking some time to decide if a career change is in order.  I’ve been in various accounting positions since I began my career 24 years ago, but I’m not sure I want to find a new Controller or Accounting Manager position.  Can I do something different?  Can I do something that I would enjoy more?

In order to find this answer I am re-evaluating my skills, not just the skills I used at my last job, but ALL the skills that I use in my life.  Looking at my Accounting Manager position, other than accounting, what skills was I using that could lead to another career?

I was responsible for hiring and mentoring employees.  That is the aspect of that position that I loved the most.  In all of my years of hiring, I really only have made one bad hire.  I seem to have a good instinct when it comes to matching people to positions.  I also love giving people confidence in themselves and helping them to grow.  Is a Recruiter for a staffing agency an option for me?  I know I’d be good working with candidates, but how would I do with building relationships with the hiring managers in the community?  As an introvert, reaching out to potential clients in a cold call situation is not in my comfort zone.  I think some fact finding may be in order because this option definitely interests me.

I also acted as a project manager in various system implementations at my last job.  This was kind of fun and definitely an adrenaline rush.  I watched our Project Manager from Paychex closely and asked him about his job.  He really didn’t do any of the work, his job was to check in with everybody involved in the project, make sure everything was on schedule and that the client was having all questions answered and problems corrected.  I have to say that position seemed very interesting me.  Is this an option?  I definitely have the organizational skills and the energy.

Looking outside of my job and into my personal life, what skills do I have?  I obviously love cooking.   What options are available to a home cook?  Catering?  That option doesn’t really interest me because I think I would be working every weekend since that is when so many events occur.  But is there something else?  I randomly found a new service called Josephine.  Josephine is kind of like Uber, but for meals.  Home cooks sell meals out of their homes.  The home cook decides the menu, sets the price, sets the pick-up time and people order online and pick the food up at the cook’s house.  How cool is that?  The home cook has a ton of freedom.  They can cook anything they want, they can also sell items a la carte or family size portions instead of just individual.  This is an exciting option and one that I definitely want to explore more deeply.

What other skills do I have?  I love dance and I love fitness.  As a hobby, I have been teaching dance fitness and barre classes at our local dance studio in the evenings and on weekends.  Could I possibly expand this mini business?  Is opening a boutique fitness studio an option?  I would be doing something I love.  I would be able to help people achieve goals and inspire them to better fitness which would take the place of the staff mentoring that I loved so much at my last job.  But I have zero experience in marketing which I know is key to being a success.  This is probably the scariest option since a lot of capital will be invested and the success or failure of this venture will fall solely on me.

So what am I going to do?  I’m not sure today, but I know that taking any of these paths is going to take courage and a lot of hard work because I’ll be doing something outside of my comfort zone and the risk of failure definitely exists.   But if I end up doing something I love, won’t it be worth the risk?  That’s the BIG question!!