I’ve been described by folks who know me as ambitious. I’m a goal-setter and list-maker, and I push myself to get to the next rung on my personal ladder. That has both its pluses and minuses. On the minus side, I end up frustrating myself if I’m not making forward progress towards a goal. Hence this post…

I started my current job some two plus years ago. It’s a good job, with a mostly good company. Note that mostly good is pretty high praise for any company: I figure that just like people, companies have their quirks. You have to decide if your particular company’s quirks are ones that you can work with, and/or work to improve. (I don’t think I try to change my husband, but I definitely count it as part of my job to improve my company.)

The quirk with which I’m wrestling and which I’ve wrestled for most of the time I’ve been there, is to determine whether it fits my career goals. If it doesn’t, it’s time to move on. I’ve aspired to start my own company for quite a while now, and I’m interested in proving my business acumen and leadership potential for someone else’s company’s benefit, with the idea that I’m also doing it with a stable salary till I build my own confidence level to go it on my own. Haven’t seen much opportunity for that in the last two years, even though I’m not shy about discussing my goals with my managers.

My annual performance review is coming up, which will round out last year’s cycle in which I listed some specific opportunities I wanted to work on with my manager. Not much progress there. So I’m now at a crossroads… stay in the stable job, doing good work for a decent salary and benefits, or risk the new job path? Is staying put giving up on the next rung? And if it is, am I willing to do that, and what does that say about me? Walking into a new job requires building new networks again, and being seen as the newbie again: are there other options I’m not seeing in my current job to get past the ladder block? Debating… and really tempted to illuminate this debate to my manager at the performance review. Stretch his people-management and coaching abilities…

Interested in thoughts…