Man, December 2019. That title, “Virgo December 2019 Career Horoscope: Get Ready for Changes!” really stuck in my head, even if I wasn’t paying much attention to horoscopes at the time. Little did I know, things were about to get a serious shake-up for me career-wise. I guess sometimes those vague predictions just accidentally hit close to home, right?
Before that whole December thing really kicked off, I was kinda stuck. I mean, seriously stuck. I’d been at the same company for a good chunk of years, doing pretty much the exact same thing every single day. You know the drill – clock in, open the same old files, push the same buttons, chat about the same weekend plans, then clock out. Rinse and repeat. The pay was steady, kept the lights on, but the work itself? It was just… flat. No spark, no growth, no real excitement for anything. I felt like a cog in a machine, just turning, turning, turning, going nowhere. Every morning, that familiar dull thud of dread would hit when the alarm went off. I started spending my lunch breaks just scrolling through job boards, not even seriously, just kinda daydreaming about something, anything, different.
Then, late 2019, sometime around November rolling into December, something shifted. My buddy, he’d just bailed out of his old gig and landed at some startup. He was buzzing, man. Talking about new projects, cool tech, learning a bunch of stuff. He looked alive. And I looked at myself, slouched over my desk, staring at another spreadsheet, feeling absolutely dead inside. That was it. That was the slap I needed. This couldn’t be my life. This wasn’t how I pictured spending all those hours, day in and day out. The “changes” from that horoscope title? It wasn’t some cosmic joke; it felt like a direct kick in the ass to actually do something. I decided, right then and there, I was done just existing at work. I needed to build something, to learn something new, to actually contribute in a meaningful way.
So, I started digging. My first move was to figure out what I actually wanted to do, not just what paid the bills. I always messed around with little DIY projects, fiddled with electronics, tried some basic coding. So, I figured, something hands-on, problem-solving, that was the vibe. I jumped into a bunch of online courses after my regular work hours. I’m talking hours and hours on YouTube tutorials, grabbing trial versions of software, just trying to soak up everything I could about project management and a little bit of data analysis. And I wasn’t just watching; I was doing. I’d open the software, try to replicate what they showed, intentionally break it just to figure out how to fix it.
Next up, the resume. My old one was a dinosaur, stuffed with company-specific jargon that meant squat to anyone outside. I ripped it apart, stripped it clean, and rebuilt it from the ground up, focusing on transferable skills like problem-solving and organization. I got a few friends, the brutally honest kind, to tear it apart and give me feedback. It was humbling but so necessary.
Networking. Ugh. The worst. But I forced myself. Signed up for a couple of industry meetups, both online and some local ones. I didn’t go in trying to sell myself; I just went to listen, ask dumb questions, and learn. Ended up chatting with a guy who was doing almost exactly what I wanted. Picked his brain for nearly an hour. Best hour I spent that month, seriously.
Then came the job applications. Oh man, the sheer volume. I must have sent out hundreds. Each one, I tried to tweak, just a little, to fit the role. Got a ton of rejections. Ghosted on even more. It was soul-crushing sometimes, the constant feeling of not being good enough. But I just kept telling myself, each “no” was just practice, pushing me closer to a “yes”.
Facing the Hurdles
The biggest hurdle wasn’t the technical stuff or the endless applications. It was the doubt, man. “Am I really good enough for this?” “Am I just wasting my time and money?” “Should I just stay put in the safe, boring job?” The financial anxiety was real too. What if I jumped and landed flat on my face, with no fallback? I had to actively fight those thoughts off, daily. Every rejection stung, but I started to see them as part of the process, like a battle scar. And the sheer exhaustion of juggling a full-time job, learning new skills, and job hunting? Brutal. My social life took a backseat, weekend laziness was out the window. It was all about the grind for those few months.
But then, finally, after what felt like an eternity, an interview clicked. It wasn’t my absolute dream job, not yet, but it was a solid step. A real, tangible move in a new direction. It was a smaller company, less red tape, more dynamic. I landed a junior project coordinator role, working heavily with data. Totally different field, completely different pace.
Stepping into that new place, it was like a breath of fresh air. Every single day was a learning experience. Sure, I made mistakes, tripped up a lot, but I was also seeing the direct impact of my work. The pay cut wasn’t massive, and the long-term potential felt way bigger. More importantly, the feeling was completely different. I was excited to learn, excited to contribute. That daily dread? It was gone. Replaced by a buzzing energy.
So yeah, December 2019. “Get Ready for Changes!” For me, it wasn’t just some random astrological blurb. It was the wake-up call I unknowingly needed. If you’re feeling stuck, if you’re waiting for some big sign, maybe this is it. Don’t just sit there wishing for things to magically change. Start moving. Start planning. Start doing. Those changes ain’t gonna make themselves happen. You gotta grab ’em by the horns and make them happen.
