I've decided to quit Amazon at the end of September. I'm feeling pretty good about my decision to stay home with Carter and focus on our family right now. It was a surprisingly freeing decision - while I could figure out how to make it work and my part-time gig is pretty nice - I choose to step out of the paid work force. I was really scared that if/when I did make that decision I'd close a lot of doors in terms of future opportunities to work on something compelling and exciting. Let's face it - we work in a culture where mom's aren't really valued and taking time off of work for a long period of time is suspect. The other risk is that I've developed an expertise in an industy that is rapidly changing and while I've focused on building a general management skillset - I'll have to sell myself pretty agressively in the future. And of course as soon as I made that decision I got a ton of external director and vp level job opportunities at local companies that were almost too good to pass up. But it was easy in a way because I don't want to work full-time. Carter is way too much fun and having two working parents is really stressful. I'd rather simplify our life and enjoy this time as a family. As soon as I made the decision I felt much better - I'll let the future take care of itself.
I'm also excited about leaving Amazon. I thought I'd miss work more than I did - being on maternity leave gave me some perspective on how crazy Amazon really is. It isn't a fun place to work anymore and I'm ready for a change - I've been working in online marketing at Amazon for almost 6 years.
I didn't anticipate how challenging motherhood is either. Not only am I caring for Carter (nanny), but managing the family finances (CFO), coordinating our activities/volunteering/planning for fun stuff, cooking (chef), running errands, cleaning the house, and taking care of myself has been crazy. Caring for Carter has required me to be the most creative I've ever been. Plus I'm having a blast.
So come October I'll have time to reconnect with friends and take care of my family.
1 comments:
I'm guessing this blog is more about the family, rather than about work life at Amazon. Having worked in the non-profit world most of my adult life, I'm very curious about work in a for-profit dot-com like Amazon. Perhaps as you decompress from your experience there, and have some perspective on that, would enjoy hearing more about that.
Oh, and a blogger friend I know has a son named Carter too - formerly at www.jenlemen.com ; her husband still blogs at www.davelemen.com
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