Well I am a step closer to the time for change mindset that I have been considering for the past 8 or so months.
I am keen to still grow and develop in my work, I do still like working for Amex - but I am starting to feel a bit like the furniture in my current team and role...and I am really keen to get that next promotion.
It's a difficult career choice to stay and develop in your current team/role, or move around every couple of years - I feel the latter may give you a depth of experience and open your networking circles a bit, but the risk is that you never develop in one particular field. Deep down, I do believe I should have changed roles a few years ago, but the timing and job market was not ideal. In fact the right time would have been 2007-08 - but that was the time the job market simply contracted like no business! One had to simply keep ones head down, work hard and hope you get through the worst of it...luckily I did!
Since then, the market hasn't really improved, there are opportunities, but I just haven't found the right role...if the next role that I am planning to take works out, it will give me a couple of years to further grow and develop in a new region/market, whilst still shining in the skillsets that I have developed.
One of the challenges I face in my role, is that we are not specialist in a specific area of the business, e.g. we cover Card Issuance, Merchant, Servicing, Corporate, New Payments, Finance, Marketing, Operations, Technology - we touch or "govern" all of these elements, but don't specialise in one. That's the biggest concern I have. Maybe I should have gone into a business unit that focuses on one of these areas, and at least being recognised as this being my subject area of expertise. I am not sure if this is a real concern or not, it just feels like it!
If I don't go into a specialised area now, the only other area of the business to consider is a "network" role - in a the area of the business that is one group higher than my one. This is a relatively new group, but I think the opportunities are actually there - there's plenty of room to grow in those new and exciting roles, and bring the skillsets I have developed over the past several years.
The most scary thing is that I joined on 1st September 2003, and moved roles into the GNS division in October 2004, to grow, get a promotion and expand my horizons since then - but 8 years in one team seems far too much!
What do you think? |