No confidence for new role.......

calamity_james

I seriously lack confidence & can't cope with any kind of change, hence I have stayed with the same company for 12 years.
There is little to no opportunity to move around to other companies within the same industry in Ireland, & I feel sort of trapped because of that.
I am comfortable in my current role which is pretty much stress free, & can be boring at times but also challenging at others. There is little human interaction oustide of emails & conference calls.

Recently I have been offered a new role(no pay-rise) within the same company.

The new role will be more high-profile, require regular travel(approx. 20%) to customer sites; & customer interaction which I have no experience of & find the idea of terrifying.
I know the new role will be a lot more stressful & time-consuming, & impact on my social life.
On the plus side, there will be great experience with the new role & I'm sure it would look very good on the C.V., & be very good for my confidence in the long run.

I feel it is a good career move, which i will probably regret not taking, but I just can't bring myself to say I'll do it.
I have a knot in my stomach all the time just thinking about it, & am not sure I have the confidence to interact with people & ability to cope with the extra stress.

Anyone else ever been in a similar situation &:
- turned it down & regretted it?
- took it on and couldn't cope?
- took it on & got through it?

Also, I realise I may seem ungrateful to have a job in the current climate but I'm not. I just have no confience in myself.

Thanks.

thefeatheredcat

I had a similar opportunity, although not quite in same way but, in progressing from going from a role that I knew well and was happy and confident with to being challenged by something different. I went ahead with it....but not after much debate with myself!! yes it was stressful, yes at times I felt I couldn't cope, yes it ate a bit into my social life, but I took it on, got through it and a few years later here I am really glad I did for all the things I learnt and learnt a few things for the future too.

The flip side for me was that anyone in the department I worked for could also have chosen to take up the opportunity, but for any amount of reasons (or indeed none) few did. Looking back I think I got the better side of the buttered bread in the experience of it and what I learnt. Those who didn't take it on, well I don't know if any regretted it, but I did have to deal with a few people who were jealous and not very nice to me in me seeking to expand myself.

Ask yourself will it fulfil you? Or does your current role fulfil you enough for you to be happy in in the next 1- 5 years?

You might surprise yourself in finding out a few things about yourself such as finding the confidence you need, with the skills that you have. Somebody definitely thinks something of you to be offering this role to you, so somebody is there cheering you on already!

calamity_james wrote: »

The new role will be more high-profile, require regular travel(approx. 20%) to customer sites; & customer interaction which I have no experience of & find the idea of terrifying.
I know the new role will be a lot more stressful & time-consuming, & impact on my social life.

More travel means more stress, definitely, but it can give you the chance to address that right away by learning to manage stress and approach the whole frustration of travel with a new attitude and there are ways to approach it if you're organised and know where you're going. With customer interaction it would be taking it to a new level, certainly not easy, but after a few visits to a few places, you'll find your feet and maybe you could try out a few role plays beforehand or something to get over the worst case expectations? With time consuming tasks, well it's a challenge in time management, which when you apply it, will get you set on the right track and in also balancing your work/social life correctly. So with any challenge that you face, as long as you acknowledge them, you can take measures to resolve them or get support.

Believe me, when I was weighing up to take on the new role, I had no clue really what was ahead of me, and while confident in the previous role, I was a bit petrified of a change and unsure whether or not I would be up for it, have the confidence for it or succeed in it, but I did surprise myself in the end and glad I took it on.

CrazyRabbit

If you didn't find a new job role terrifying, then I'd think there was something wrong with you.

Trust me, you are normal. Nobody like large scale change.

I've worked in 3 different companies, and in 6 distinctly different job roles in my current company (in 11 years). Each time, the change was scary, and I've not been sure if I was going to be up for the job. But I just leapt right in, soaked up as much knowledge as I could, and just get the job done. In time, I 'became the expert' & the job became easy.

Because I've become so knowledgeable in so many roles for the same company, I'm pretty difficult to replace now. Which gives me job security, and room for salary negotiation. So there's strong benefits to moving roles within the same company.

LegacyUser

Get this book: 'Fear the Fear and Do It Anyway' by Susan Jeffers.
It will help.
Good Luck!