A Meaningful Life, Part 4, Business professional

"When I went into the workforce from college, I never had the chance to look back as one professional success beget another. I was growing not only professionally but personally with each opportunity that beckoned another and eventually, acquired a business tenure in comparison to returning to my educational roots and the heart of learning what makes us act the way we do and from that learning, having the clinical ability to help others. My professional experience was actually living in the business world and seeing first hand why people act the way we do. I worked over a decade in Human Resources on the myriad of people-aspects that make up a workforce: recruitment, benefits, compensation, rewards, training, diversity and inclusion. Besides corporate roles that trained me in Human Resources, I formally expanded my professional knowledge by attaining my certification as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR). My career path excelled with further on-the-job training as a project consultant for a private firm. So much so, that in May of 2004 I took a professional position where I was not only a consultant but I developed the business plan, service offerings, marketing goals, etc. for a new business services/consulting platform that was government funded to assist small emerging businesses and start-ups in Indianapolis. I like to think that I did so well in Human Resources that it allowed me to go into consulting where I advised business owners on the people elements of acquisitions, mergers, optimization, etc. and I implemented best practices on how to have the most successful outcomes with people in the business environment. Years later I started my own limited liability corporation (LLC) and advised state government, a university and a health care delivery start-up on workforce assessment, development and optimization, leading to successful “people” outcomes.

I eventually became somewhat rote with what I accomplished professionally in Human Resources and that is when I took on operational projects, learned more about the health care industry and very quickly was promoted to Chief Operating Officer for a small division of the health care company I worked for at the time. I tired quickly of the travel the position required and realized my sons would soon be in high school and then gone to college so I gravitated to find my dream job of working from home. An at-home account management opportunity with a health care firm soon developed and there I was right where I wanted to be and planned to remain as my two teen sons started high school.

During this time, I also served on my church’s personnel committee. I later accepted the role as committee chair. I was to be done with my committee chair commitment by the time my youngest son graduated high school. My thought was once my sons were at college, I might even start to wind-down business-wise, think more about retirement and focus on more volunteering and healthy living."

Tomorrow: Part 5, Being mom