Hi! I am new to the FCC Community, although I’ve known about FCC for a long time.
I’ve been living in a beautiful city in Montana for the past 15 years and not planning on moving for a long time, maybe 20+ years. I really like living here and all of the available outdoor activities. The downside is we don’t have a lot of opportunities here. It’s getting a little bit better and we have a few more companies/startups to work for but still not a whole lot.
I graduated with a BA in Digital Media Design and worked through college as a web designer (html/css). When I graduated, I ended up working for a university here as a web designer for a year or so. Then I had a better opportunity to work for a larger corporation, making more money in town. My role started as a web designer then moving up to a Design Manager, overseeing all things design whether UI, web, portal or graphics. I was there for almost 6 years.
I left the place to work for an tech startup where I am doing Product Management. It’s pretty intense and I am learning a lot but I do miss the “creating/building piece”. I’ve actually been freelancing on the side working on WP sites to not lose the technical skills so much. I’ve been working with this tech company for a little over a year. Then got promoted actually to head up Product Management. I’ve been thinking about my career path for the past couple of months and reassessing if I am on the right track. I feel like in my 20s, it’s all about making more money, climbing the ladder… Fast forward a years later, I don’t want to climb any ladder at all. The more I move up, the more I am closer to bureaucracy and drama. And maybe startups are known for drama. Money is always great but I’m ok with taking a pay cut too. I just want to get shit done and be happy with what I’m doing.
Anyway, like a lot of the people here who have switched careers because of family and wanting job security, I just found out I’m pregnant. Given that there aren’t a lot of opportunities where I live, here are the options I am considering:
- Stick to PM - even though there aren’t a lot of opportunities here as PM. I would guess that remote PM jobs are probably hard to get? And also, I really miss the building/creating piece.
- Focus on UI/UX - we have 0 job openings right now in the area for UX Designers. I am chatting with CareerFoundry this week to get some insight about getting a remote job doing this.
- Go full on dev - I’ve taken a couple of javascript classes in the past but since I am always in management role, my skills are pretty rusty at this point. I’m really good with copy/pasting from codepen and tweaking code according to my needs. That’s why I am doing the FCC course.
Anybody live in a remote/rural location and have the same challenges? Would love to hear your similar challenges in the past.
Thanks! And excited to meet people here.