Following Purpose Instead of a Career Plan
How a winding path through public service prepared me for an unexpected career opportunity in economic development.
The Career I Never Planned For
If you had asked me several years ago where I thought my career would take me, I can confidently say economic development would not have been on the list. Honestly, local government probably would not have been either.
I wanted to be a police officer. I wanted to serve my community and be a voice for justice in what I sometimes viewed as an unjust world. I had an idea of what public service was supposed to look like for me, and for a long time, I thought I knew exactly where I was headed. Clearly, life had other plans.
My career has never followed a perfectly mapped-out path. I went from working for a school district to finding my way into local government. My responsibilities continued to evolve from there. But through every change, one thing remained constant: public service.
My education has followed a similar path, taking me through human development, criminology and justice studies, and communication. Professionally, I found my way into community development, communications, and project management. At different points in my life, those pieces may have seemed unrelated. Looking back now, I can see how much each one prepared me for what came next.
Recently, another possibility has entered the conversation: transitioning my work toward economic development. Nothing is set in stone, and there are still many conversations and decisions ahead. But even having the opportunity to explore this direction has made me stop and think about how much my career has changed, and how much I have changed with it. I am excited about the possibility. I am also a little nervous about it. And I think both feelings are valid.
Economic development would be a new professional direction for me, and I would have a lot to learn. I don't pretend to know everything about it. In fact, part of what excites me is how much there is left to learn. The more I explore economic development, however, the more I recognize pieces of the work I have already grown to love: supporting local businesses, building partnerships, connecting people with resources, promoting the community, bringing organizations together, and finding ways to turn ideas into something tangible.
Maybe that is one of the biggest lessons my career has taught me so far: you don't always recognize an opportunity while you're preparing for it.
Sometimes you're simply doing the work in front of you. You're learning everything you can, saying yes to responsibilities that challenge you, building relationships, making mistakes, asking questions, and gaining experience along the way. Then one day, you look around and realize those experiences have been preparing you for a possibility you never knew to plan for.
I don't know exactly where this next opportunity will lead. A few years ago, that uncertainty probably would have bothered me. I wanted to know the plan. I wanted to know what came next and exactly what I needed to do to get there.
Today, I look at it differently.
I don't need to have my entire career mapped out. I need to keep learning, keep showing up, surround myself with people who know things I don't, and be willing to walk through a door when the right one opens.
The career I originally imagined for myself may look very different from the career I am building today, but the reason behind it hasn't changed nearly as much as I once thought. I still want to serve my community. I still want my work to make a difference. I am simply discovering new ways to do it.
Economic development may be the next door that opens. And if it is, I'm excited to see where it leads and what other opportunities I haven't even thought to plan for yet.
