Man, 2020. What a year, right? It just slammed into us like a freight train nobody saw coming. Before all that chaos, honestly, I was feeling pretty antsy with my job. It wasn’t bad, you know? Good paycheck, steady work, but I woke up most mornings feeling… blah. Like, I was just going through the motions, clocking in and out, not really building anything that felt like mine. I’d hear people talk about finding their “calling” or seeing signs in their daily horoscope for career stuff, and I always just scoffed at it. Sounds nice, but come on, real life doesn’t work like that, does it?
Then March rolled around, and everything just went sideways. Suddenly, my routine was totally upside down. The company I worked for, they started scrambling, cutting hours, talking about layoffs. The whole floor just felt like a pressure cooker. I found myself sitting at home, staring at the walls, thinking about everything. That steady job? It didn’t feel so steady anymore. That “blah” feeling? It turned into outright anxiety. It wasn’t just about the money; it was about what I was doing, what I was spending my precious time on, if it even mattered.
That’s when I stopped scoffing at the whole “insights” thing, just in a completely different way. I realized I couldn’t rely on some newspaper column to tell me what to do with my career. I had to create my own damn insights. So, I started observing myself, like I was my own personal data project. What tasks did I actually lean into during the workday, even if I was supposed to be doing something else? What conversations did I enjoy the most? What problems, when they popped up, made me feel excited to tackle them, instead of just drained? I was really trying to listen to myself, for the first time in ages.
I distinctly remember one week, I spent hours just messing around with some open-source software for data visualization. My actual job was in operations, totally different. But I was so engrossed, just trying to make sense of some public datasets for fun. It felt like playing, not working. That sparked something. I began spending an hour or two every evening, after my usual work stuff was done, just diving into online tutorials. I started with some basic coding, then moved onto specific tools for this data stuff. It wasn’t easy. There were nights I was so tired, my eyes felt like sand. I wanted to just crash on the couch and watch TV, but this little voice kept pushing me. I told myself, “Just ten minutes. Just get one thing done.”
I hit roadblocks, of course. I’d get stuck on a piece of code for hours, pulling my hair out. I’d doubt myself, thinking, “What am I even doing? This is a waste of time. I’m too old for this.” My old job still needed me, and the stress there was real. It felt like I was running two jobs at once, one for the paycheck, one for my soul. My friends, they mostly just talked about binge-watching shows to forget the world. I felt a bit isolated in my little learning bubble.
But then, things started clicking. I finished a small project, just a tiny visualization of some local market trends, and I showed it to a friend who was in marketing. He was blown away. Not because it was groundbreaking, but because I made it. He asked me if I could help him with a small thing for his side gig. Suddenly, this little side exploration wasn’t just a hobby; it was something that had actual value. That’s when the real insight hit me: my work satisfaction wasn’t going to come from a better paycheck at the same old thing, or from some cosmic prediction. It was going to come from doing things that genuinely engaged my brain, that made me feel like I was solving a puzzle I actually cared about.
By late 2020, things were still shakey at my old company. But I had a secret weapon now. I had built up a small portfolio of these data projects. I started reaching out to people I knew, not even looking for a job, just saying, “Hey, I’ve been learning this stuff, what do you think?” One conversation led to another, and eventually, a friend told me about an opening in a totally different department at a different company, a place that was all about using data to solve problems. It wasn’t a perfect fit straight away, but it was in the right direction. I applied, went through the interviews, showcasing what I had done on my own time. They took a chance on me.
Stepping into that new role, man, it felt like a breath of fresh air. It wasn’t just a new job; it was a new way of approaching work itself. The real career horoscope for 2020 for me? It wasn’t written in the stars, but forged right there in those uncertain months. It was about paying attention to what my energy was telling me, taking action on those inklings, and building something for myself, even when the world felt like it was falling apart. That year taught me that you don’t wait for insights; you go out there and you make them.
