```json
{
    "title": "Career Reform – The Changing Face of Expertise",
    "url": "https://performancezen.com/2012/01/21/career-reform-the-changing-face-of-expertise/",
    "datePublished": "2012-01-21",
    "dateModified": "2022-03-31",
    "language": "en-US",
    "description": "In August 2011, I took the title \"consultant\" off my business card after having it for eight years. It was sad to see the old friend leave, but it was…",
    "author": "spierzchala",
    "publisher": "Performance Zen"
}
```

# Career Reform – The Changing Face of Expertise

In August 2011, I took the title "consultant" off my business card after having it for eight years. It was sad to see the old friend leave, but it was for the best - for both *consultant* and for me.

Two years ago (22 months for those of you who are more precise), I composed two pieces on what it meant to me as I evolved out of the role of "analyst" and into the role of "consultant" ([here](https://performancezen.com/2010/03/19/career-reformfrom-analyst-to-consultant/)) and how this meant developing the skills of a "selling consultant" ([here](https://performancezen.com/2010/03/24/career-reform-selling-your-way-out-of-the-paper-bag/)). It was a heady time. I was learning a lot of new skills, meeting the challenges of a post-technical role, managing to a new level of "success".
Many things have changed since then. But the key lesson that I learned is that the career path that was in front of me was not headed in the direction **I** wanted to go. The true sign of this, that I ignored at the time, but which is so obvious to me now, is when I started counting down the days to my annual vacation.

Having just finished *[Onward](http://amzn.to/xrLohz)* and *[Delivering Happiness](http://amzn.to/yipp5A)*, I read that these moments come to all people. It's how they choose to face them that determines their happiness after.

Due to a serious of weird misfortunes, fortune shined upon me. A new opportunity was presented to me, and I was able to use it to shape a new path forward, one I think that many maturing consults imagined that their roll would look like when they started their journey.

My new role is to act as a consultant to the entire organization. And what does that mean? My goal (and I get to invent the role as I go along) is to develop and share the knowledge of the strategic use of the product line, approached from a technical and sales perspective, to help current and new members of the company not only learn the **How** of the product line, but the **Why** that motivates prospects to become company customers. I also get to see how the product plan morphs, shifts to meet new information and new ideas.

Am I happy? Yes. When I began my change from *analyst* to *consultant*, I had hoped this is where I would end up.

If I stayed the course, would I have ended up here?

Despite being a counter-factual question, I think that the answer is no. I was being squeezed, shaped, and directed by the role of *consultant*. I had lost control of my own career and was being driven to the next destination in a blacked-out van.
Now I have gotten out of the van, checked my bearings, and started walking in the direction I want to go in.

What's next? Well, I'm sure that in two years, I'll have something to share.