I met with the Director of Design this week.  She asked me a question that I was unprepared for: “Where do you see yourself in 20 years?” 

If you had asked me this question 20 years ago, I would have told you I wanted to be a veterinarian.

While I know I do not intend to stay at my current level in my career, I never really thought about might occur if/when I move beyond middle management.  Needless to say, I’ve been challenged about the direction I want my career to go. 

So then I started to wonder if I didn’t have an answer because I was unsure of what I wanted to do, or if it was because I’ve never really grasped what I could do.  Not that I don’t have every bit of confidence in my abilities (I know I’m good at what I do), I just don’t have the confidence to sell that to others.  I’m too modest.  I am unable to self-market. 

Then, I thought about it some more.  I thought about what type of jobs would be available someone with years of  GIS experience, a business degree, and a master’s in geography.  And, I’m not talking about production level work. I’m talking about management and director level work.  I’m good at organizing things.  I’m good at communication (except for when people ask me what I want to do in 20 years).  I’m good with data.  So where does that put me?

There are two people in the local GIS industry that I admire greatly.  People that direct and run GIS programs throughout entire organizations.  Their job is more about coordinating people and communicating processes and making sure things that need to get done get done (and get done right) than it is about pushing out maps and data analysis. The question I then ask myself is, “Could I do that job? Could I be that person?” 

Absolutely I could.

So, I have my answer.  Now, I just need to take the steps to get there.