By: Sarah Young
I was ready. After 15+ years in the same position, I wanted a new role at work, so when we moved to a new house, I decided I would start working in the office again after working at home for nearly 12 years. At the time, there were limited work-from-home opportunities and I figured I would increase my likelihood of getting a new role by going into the office.
I went in full throttle, but without really knowing what I was doing. I talked with everyone trying to get myself seen. Maybe too much at times to the point that my supervisor was concerned with my ability to recognize social cues. To be true, I did not really get out much in the prior 12 years and had maintained only a few friendships through that time.
After a couple of months, I applied for my first role. I was excited and went into it knowing I would succeed. I had been reading quite a bit of material posted on the Rare Faith Facebook groups, so I “just knew” I needed to choose to believe the job was mine. But alas, I did not succeed, and it was not mine.
I felt deflated. I felt confused. But I chose to believe that it meant something better was waiting for me.
Over the next two years, I continued to apply for other internal jobs while making every effort to think right. I strive to believe it was my time only to receive another, what I would come to call, “non-selection.” I applied to over 10 jobs, and landed interviews for most of them, but somehow managed to come up short. With each non-selection, I found it increasingly more difficult to be confident in my abilities. The only thing that seemed to keep me going was knowing I needed to keep trying because I certainly would not achieve my goal if I gave up.
While I had already self-diagnosed myself the year prior, it was not until after I had received a professional diagnosis of autism that I started to recognize and accept my personal limits and boundaries. It also allowed me to take the time to really look at the job roles I had applied for and I realized: I did not really want any of them.
I took a proverbial step back and found myself looking through a new lens. When I did this, I remembered I had seen a friend from work had shared on Facebook that our company was hiring for a customer service position in the call center. In the past, I had always avoided applying for “phone jobs” considering that was where I came from and did not think I wanted to go back.
This time around though…it made sense. Instead of increasing responsibility, it was removing it. It would allow me to leave the department I was burned out in and move to one with a fresh group of people while still utilizing the knowledge I had already gained.
I decided to look at the internal job postings for this position but could not find it. My first thought was that they had already taken down the posting. The next thought, however, suggested that I look at the external job postings instead. I was thrilled to find that it was posted, but now what? I realized I needed to have a chat with my supervisor about my intentions and what I needed to do since this was clearly going to require some assistance.
In our next meeting, my supervisor was fully supportive of my decision and immediately reached out to our human resources (HR) group. I ended up applying on the external site, and HR made sure to flag my application as an internal applicant.
We were coming up to the Christmas holiday and I had the whole week off from work. On my second to last day before my vacation time, I received an email asking if I would be available the following week for an interview. When I revealed I was not, they stated they wanted to complete the interview before the holidays.
I was ultimately scheduled during the last 30 minutes of my workday on the Friday before my time off. Despite the less-than-ideal timing, I felt peace after my interview and I had not felt this kind of peace in a long time, so I chose to believe this was a good sign.
I didn’t need to wait long when I came back to work after Christmas for the results of my interview: I got the job! I was able to go into the new year knowing I would experience my new opportunity within a few short weeks.
The Law of Gestation states that everything has a period time during which it develops. Every seed has a finite incubation period before it moves into physical form. On the surface, the phone job was not what I thought I wanted. I found when I really considered my personal situation that the role provided less responsibility, more time for family, and more time and energy to pursue my passions. It was perfect.
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