Great to see you here Andy! I do hope you will enjoy the journey of searching for your next act. I have appreciated the activities and time to think about what to do next. And I will admit to not having solved it yet....

Greetings! My name is Melissa and I am so glad to be here among the Peppercorn Community. I am in the midst of trying to narrow down what my next work experience could be coming from a varied background in education and other adventures. I want to use my skills and interests - building teams, problem solving, creating impactful programs - to help a company/team be the best they can be. I would be interested in hearing other stories from you about career pivots and change, along with agile project management in the non-technical world.

Thanks for asking that question as I am thinking about how to answer if it does come up. During this pandemic people have been given time to step away, recharge, renew, gain new skills, or tackle some hard things in one's life. Someone suggested that I develop a list of what I did during the time away - what skills did I work on, classes/webinars/workshops/etc. that expanded my skills, books I read, writing, etc. So I am writing my stories about what I did during the "sabbatical" an extension of the STAR stories. My time away from working full time included taking care of our son who was battling cancer. What did I learn? How to meet the biggest challenge in any mother's life - losing a child to cancer. That's life changing and has formed me into a better person.

@Mira (Lindsey Miranda) Thanks for your honest sharing especially about the before and after. I would agree that going through the Phase 1 has been incredibly helpful to identify many strengths that I bring to any project - especially the soft skills. And so we continue to move forward with encouragement.

Thanks for sharing!

I love that phrase to take a leap of faith... I will use that.

Thanks for the great reminders.

I have no success story to share yet...however I do think that changing or rather moving from one direction to another is always challenging. Believe in yourself, have confidence, and use your goals to guide you. Sometimes it happens in very little steps. That's what I am planning on doing.