Hello all, great to be with you!

Hello!

Its great to be here so I thought I'd pop a message through.

I was just wondering, if you're an experienced manager reading this and you had to start your career over again from scratch, how would you go about it?

I ask because I'm a recent graduate, not a manager yet but that's my long term goal.  I work in an office for a small company, it's mainly an administrative position and I've found there's not many opportunities to display management skills because it's mostly just working alone on a computer, although it is quite well paid and secure.  I've applied to several graduate management schemes but haven't been successful as yet.  My passion is really for leading others so I have been considering to take any job I can find even if it's a risk, for example temporary work stacking supermarket shelves.  There would be more interaction with people, and I would have the opportunity to apply principles such as encouraging good working relationships, championing change, improving customer service, like any good manager would.  Then hopefully there would be an opportunity to progress to team leadership and then onwards from there.  On the other hand I have a mortgage to pay and I know how hard it can be to find work in this current climate as I've got friends in that situation.  What would you do in my shoes?  Keep a secure job, especially in this economic climate, or take a risk and a pay cut to pursue your dreams?

Looking forward to making some great new friends here and also using some of the fantastic resources on the website... I'm just off to use the self-assessment questionnaire to find out how my skills stack up against the National Occupational Standards...

Best wishes

Stefan