The Post Where I Can Finally Talk About My New Job!

Rainy Friday, here.  Perfect day to work from home.  And the perfect day for what I suspect will be just a lazy night in tonight.

Hmm.  Morning workout is already done.  On the agenda for today’s Best Body Bootcamp was another 40-45 minutes of cardio intervals, followed by the Ab circuit (same workout from Wednesday).  However, I was scheduled to teach Cardio & Core this morning, so my morning workout ended up being 20 minutes of Cutz, followed by 20 minutes of Kix, and then I did 20 minutes of floor work which included the moves from the ab circuit.

I’m super sweaty right now.

But let’s talk about something more exciting than my early morning perspiration.

Career Changes!

You don’t even know how excited I am to finally be able to talk in the open about this.

I’m not really sure where to start since I pretty much never talk about my day job in Fitness & Feta world.  I like to keep my main source of income and this blog separate, but now they might become pretty similar…subject wise anyways!!

How many of you even have an inkling of what I do during the day!?  I’ve worked for a medical software company for five years now.  For three years I worked in customer support with people I loved and awesome supervisors (Hi Jamie! Hi Jess!).  In early 2010 an opportunity presented itself to me that was too good to pass up at the time, and by springtime I had transferred into a new Marketing position.  The group was very visible, there was a huge need for someone with my product knowledge, and I didn’t mind the travel (at first!) that came with the job.  Then my company went through a huge re-organization, and long story short it just didn’t end up being the right fit for me.  Something needed to change.

So began my quest for self discovery.  I was an English major with a Business Minor.  So what?  What did that mean?  I like to write.  Okay, so what?  I started looking up writing jobs.  I started looking up Marketing jobs.  Job hunting made me even grumpier because nothing struck me as the “right” fit, and again when it came down to it I really didn’t want to leave my company anyways.  And of course there was always that nagging little voice in the back of my head that was always whispering, “fitness, fitness, fitness.”  When talking with friends that would say, “well what do you love to do?” there was that voice again.  “Fitness, fitness, fitness.”  I was always told I couldn’t make any money with a full-time career in the fitness industry, so I always kind of brushed the idea aside…

I started taking all sorts of steps that I thought would help me figure it out someday.  These steps have made my past year and a half absolutely crazy and my schedule jam-packed.  At the beginning I never really had any type of “definite plan,” but I just had to have faith that I’d figure it out along the way…

—> I started researching grad school programs.  Immediately I knew this was NOT an option.  No way could I pretty much do undergrad all over again…

—> I started running bootcamps for my co-workers.  (Look at Tim doing that jumping jack right up front! lol!)

—> I got certified in Corpbasics.  So glad I did.  I love these ladies!  🙂

—> I created Fitness & Feta and started blogging about something I felt passionate about (“fitness, fitness, fitness”).  I started blogging every day.  Sometimes twice a day.  I realized how much I LOVE blogging…

—> I got my personal trainer certification through the American College of Sports Medicine.

—> I took a wellness coaching course through Wellcoaches.  I still need to certify officially for this.  It’s on my fall agenda.  I have been slacking…

—> I started working floor hours at the Y where I was already teaching fitness classes twice a week, in hopes of generating personal training clients.  Since April I’ve been working the 5:00-10:30 shift at the Y on Monday nights.  It sure makes for a long day, and I haven’t seen much return client wise based on just one floor shift a week.

However.  Before I did ANY of this, I took one teeny tiny step within the walls of my own full-time job.  I submitted a “Question Box,” an intranet type opportunity for any employee to ask questions they want with the understanding that someone in management will respond back publicly.

I asked if our company would ever consider implementing a Corporate Wellness program.

My question went unanswered for some time.

Then finally, one Friday in March while I was working from home, the director of our Organizational Development team contacted me.  I just stared at the email for about five minutes before registering what it even said.

“Athena, do you have any time to meet and chat next week?  I’d like to discuss your ideas regarding Corporate Wellness.”

Long story short, my company is on the cusp of starting a Corporate Wellness program.  When I met with this director he was looking for ideas from an employee standpoint, but I made sure to cut right to the chase and tell him of my certifications, qualifications, drive, and passion.

Then began my transfer process.  I had to hold tight for a couple of months for things to fall in place within my new group.  I did a presentation for my new management team in early May pitching all the corporate wellness programs that I would start if I could.  You guys may remember this post where I was super vague and sketchy about my “important day in day job world.”  I did another presentation at the end of May to the entire group.

I was offered the position officially that day.

I accepted that day.

And I’ve been dying to tell you guys about this since May 31st, but I had to wait for my paperwork to officially go through.  Well, finally yesterday it did!!

I am thrilled to announce I will be transferring to the Organizational Development team on September 5th. 

Since there is not yet a full-blown Corporate Wellness program in place at my company, I do not yet have a 40 hour a week wellness position.  Aside from wellness, my new job will focus on conducting professional development seminars on a variety of management and work related topics.  Staff Development’s main focus is to assist with individual career development and growth, so I will be doing work in this capacity as well.  I’m excited because whether someone is bettering themselves career wise, mentally, physically, or what have you — in my opinion it still relates to their overall sense of wellness.  So I am so excited for this opportunity, for BOTH aspects of it.

Plus, I love a challenge.  This can be my project.  My baby.  My job to establish the vision, implement, and work to build something from the ground up.  It may take some time but I know that I can do it.  I’ll start small, with seminars like “Healthy Living on the Road,” “Work/Life Balance,” and “Stress Management,” but my end goal is MUCH larger (incentive programs, on site fitness classes, corporate contests, healthy vending machines, a company wellness newsletter or online portal…).  Seriously, my list of ideas is HUGE!

For once in my life, I finally feel that things are falling into place.  I’ve worked hard, and shown a LOT of patience, to get to where I am with both my new full-time job and my new part-time gig at the Y as Group Ex Coordinator.  Things are going to get much busier for me, and I’m unsure still of how that may affect the frequency of my Fitness & Feta posts, but I’m confident it will all work out for the best.

I feel like I’m just finally where I want to be.