Happy 2013!

Happy New Year!  I hope you have all had a good start of the year thus far and in 2013 you be happy, healthy, and getting closer and closer to your personal and professional goals.

While during the last quarter of 2012 I had a slow, a little sad looking, professional life for a couple of months, 2013 could not have started better.  One of my projects had finished in October and I could not get funds for it to sustain it.  There were other things I could do, but they were not like doing what I loved and wanted to do.  There was a gap.  It made me think a lot about direction of my career, my research, my goals.  This gap made me do interviews for new positions in my own organization for the first time after over 11 years!  I knew in my bones, the time for me to lead and manage had come;  The detail oriented focused me, was not happy anymore behind a console coding, writing, debugging, implementing other people's goals and dreams.  I had a thirst for larger impact, bigger roles, for growth, for having others implement my vision and goals and me helping larger programs that I admire achieve theirs.  It is time for me to put all my bossy, controlling, detail oriented, organizational desires into a job where such skills are not only appreciated but required: project/program management!

The gap in my funding, made me think of new possibilities and opportunities that previously I was too busy even considering.  In the past, if such gaps and needs occurred I would just accept or select the most appealing available opportunity that my supervisors or collaborators had to offer.  This time, I applied for technical management positions that I thought would be a good growth opportunity for me. I wrote my own research proposal.  More importantly, I said "No" to my colleagues' research opportunities to make room for achieving my own goals, even if that meant dealing with uncertainty and not looking good for 1-2 months.  The year starts with me being selected for a technical managment position full time and having a research proposal awarded that I will just have to supervise because I do not have the time to work on it myself.  However, I am happy for having this grant because it keeps me connected with research and technical world, and it even gives me more opportunities to practice my leadership and management skills on something I am passionate about.

While I am excited about these opportunities and challenges, I also have concerns.  What if team members do not accept my lead? What if the team does not deliver on time and on budget?  What if I fail?

2013 is the year I try to motivate, lead, manage and achieve results.  Let's see how that turns out.  I am excited!