About seven years ago, I took what many have told me was a dramatic shift in my career path. It has since defined for me how I want to work – and where. Perhaps most importantly, taking that first step has made it that much easier to take even more steps. And while my career is far from over, it continues to help guide me as I decide what to do next.

Finding a New Function

For non-higher education folx, student affairs is usually a division that encompasses student services. This can include anything from student housing to student organizations, recreation sports to student health and counseling. It also often involves women’s centers – which is where I spent at least part of my young professional life. The rest I spent in student housing – working my way somewhat accidentally into a director role.

I can honestly say that not once in my career dreaming did I ever think of being a housing director. I have lots of experience in housing, but I had never planned a career path that led to director. And yet, as so often happens, the ladder went up, and I climbed the next rung, not really even questioning whether it was the right rung or not.

Dear Reader, it was not. It was a horrible, no good, very bad rung for me. At various points I ended up crying under my desk and in the hospital. So I listened to my body and my mind, and I decided to go. And I took a position in an entirely different functional area – still in higher ed – as a web developer.

Learning on the Job

For the first five years of my job as a web developer, my colleagues asked me how I liked my “new” job. The path that I had taken was so foreign to them that this job remained “new” far longer than most. And the first year was, well, really tough. I had taken a significant pay cut and dropped several rungs back on a different ladder. I really only had very basic web development skills (I’m not sure I would even call them skills at that point). But I also found an environment where it was safe for me to learn and where I was able to also capitalize on the relationships I had built with people on campus.

After a year in my new role as a web developer, I started to gain confidence and embrace the perpetual dearth of knowledge that all web developers have. Essentially, you have to know that you can never know everything about web development – and that’s okay. In fact, once you understand that, everything becomes so much easier to do. By the time I left that university, I had worked my way up into a position that capitalized on the skills I learned on the job, as well as all the relationship-building I had done over the years, and the additional management experience I had picked up along the way.

Taking a Different Career Path

Currently I’m stumbling around a little bit in my career – a bit like someone used to seeing who is wearing a blindfold. Except for one fixed point – that move from housing director to web developer. I often tell myself, if I did it once, I can do it again. (An additional tip from me: once a job puts you in the hospital, it’s a LOT easier to say no to jobs that might do that again.)

I wish this was something everyone could experience once in their career: saying no to the next rung. Or even hopping ladders. Instead so many industries are built on everyone climbing the same ladder. But try and imagine it: if you could have a different career, what would you do?

Don’t be afraid to make it happen for yourself. I mean hey, if I can do it and still remain standing, I figure most anyone can.