So, “Virgo Daily Career Horoscope 2021: Smart Career Moves Now!” That title, it really stuck with me back in 2021. Not that I’m one to live by star signs or anything, but that whole vibe of needing to make some smart moves? Yeah, that resonated big time. I remember kicking off 2021 with this nagging feeling, like I was stuck in a rut, running in place. My job was… fine. It paid the bills, kept a roof over my head, but there was no real spark, no real push to do anything more. It was just the same old grind, day in and day out.
I hit this wall, probably around late March. A big project I’d busted my tail on for months, trying to make it perfect, got shelved. Just like that. No real explanation, just, “We’re pivoting.” It felt like a punch to the gut, honestly. All that effort, all that late-night coffee, just went poof. That’s when I looked at my reflection in the dark computer screen and thought, “Is this really it? Am I just going to keep doing this, getting nowhere?” That project being tossed, it was the kick in the pants I didn’t know I needed. It was time for those “smart career moves” that horoscope title vaguely hinted at.
My first step wasn’t some grand plan, no sir. It was more like a bewildered wander. I started just poking around online, not for jobs specifically, but for what skills people were talking about, what industries seemed to be buzzing. I called up my old college roommate, Mike. He’d always been pretty savvy with tech stuff. We just chatted, caught up, and eventually, I dropped a casual, “So, what’s hot these days?” He started talking about automation, about how knowing your way around scripting could really open doors. It sounded a bit intimidating, but it also sounded… powerful.
I decided to just dive in. I grabbed a few free online tutorials about Python scripting. Man, those first few weeks were rough. My brain felt like scrambled eggs trying to grasp all the syntax, the loops, the functions. I’d spend my evenings after work, my weekends, just staring at code, feeling like a complete dummy. There were so many times I just wanted to close the laptop and watch some junk TV, but that feeling of being stuck, that feeling after the shelved project, it kept pushing me. I failed a lot. My scripts would crash, I’d get error messages that made no sense, but I just kept trying to fix them, piece by piece.
While I was battling with code, I also started tinkering with my resume. Not to apply for anything, just to see what it looked like, what was missing. It felt so… flat. So I started thinking about how to make it pop, even if I didn’t have a new job to put on it yet. I began reaching out to some old colleagues too, just casual check-ins. “Hey, how’s things going? Long time no talk!” A few of those conversations naturally turned to career stuff, and I’d just listen, soak it all in. I wasn’t asking for jobs; I was just trying to understand what others were doing, what challenges they faced, what made them excited about their work.
Then came the applying part. That was a whole different beast. I started looking for roles where even a tiny bit of scripting knowledge would be a plus, even if it wasn’t the main thing. I sent out applications like confetti. Most of them went straight into the black hole, never to be heard from again. I’d get the automated “thank you for your interest” emails, or sometimes nothing at all. I actually got a couple of interviews early on that were just disastrous. I fumbled answers, got nervous, felt like I completely bombed them. Each rejection, each silent treatment, it chipped away at my confidence. I really started to wonder if I was just wasting my time, if I should just stick to my ‘fine’ job.
But then, after what felt like ages, a recruiter from a smaller company called me. It was for a “process improvement specialist” role. The job description mentioned a “basic understanding of automation tools.” Bingo. I interviewed with them, and this time, it felt different. I wasn’t trying to be someone I wasn’t. I just talked about my current job, my frustrations, and how I’d been teaching myself Python to try and solve some of those exact problems. I showed them a really simple script I’d written to organize some files on my own computer. It wasn’t fancy, but it showed I was trying, I was learning.
A few weeks later, they called me back. They offered me the job. It was a leap, not a huge one in terms of salary immediately, but it was a completely new environment, a new set of challenges, and most importantly, a chance to actually use what I’d been busting my butt to learn. Walking into that new role, even if it was a virtual walk-in initially, felt like a breath of fresh air. It was scary, for sure, because it was all so new, but it was exciting. It was the “smart move” I never thought I’d actually make.
Looking back, that whole experience in 2021, spurred on by a random horoscope title, really taught me something. It wasn’t about waiting for some cosmic sign or a perfect opportunity to fall into my lap. It was about seeing a problem – my own career stagnation – and just starting to chip away at it, piece by piece. It was about taking those small, often painful, steps: learning new things, putting myself out there, dealing with rejections, and not giving up. It showed me that sometimes, the smartest move you can make is just getting off your butt and trying something, anything, different.
