In what ways can a paralegal advance their career?

Developing career direction

• Please help me figure out what direction my career could or should move in, based on my current job as Product Manager, my skills, and my strengths. I currently work as a Product Manager for a smallish company, a wholesale tile importer/distributor. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8kwaqyt7MpxcjF4R0FiWXRlTzQ/edit?usp=sharing, in case that’s helpful. My main issue is this: I feel like I’ve gotten good, even great experience working here, but I feel like I could not transition into being a Product Manager or similar position at a larger company (my general goal is better pay and benefits). I feel like my skills and abilities are ‘overinflated’ at my current job, if that makes sense- like if I were to look for a new job, my actual skills might lie a few ‘levels’ lower than what my current job title projects. I’m not sure if this is common when transitioning from small companies where people are expected to be jacks-of-all-trades, to larger companies, but it seems like it’s a common issue. I feel like I’m very good at my job and I have a lot of potential, but I’m not sure what skills to develop or courses to take to make myself a more appealing or competent candidate for this idealized better job. Maybe I’m not even putting my best skills to use as a Product Manager and I’m missing out on something I would enjoy and be great at. Here are some of my best strengths: - Making things easy to understand/taking in lots of info and making it easy for others to digest - Finding problems with current processes, making plans to fix them, and executing the plan - Organizing giant messes of data in useful, meaningful ways - Keeping track of the many different stages of a process and which projects or products are in what stage and why - Fantastic memory for products, technical specifications, and what product might be best for a given situation (example from current job, I have a working memory of 1200+ products, their model numbers and names, and all of their attributes (glaze color, water absorption, slip resistance, etc.) - Copy editing/writing - Accuracy (making all data match, all formulas work, all spelling correct, all formatting identical, etc) Here are some of my weaknesses: - Managing people (I currently manage a team, but I don’t think I’m great at it and I don’t necessarily enjoy it) - Being overly critical (I have minimized this greatly now that I am a manager, but I have extremely high expectations for myself and have a hard time expecting less from others) - Don’t have common job skills like working with real databases (SQL), project management training, Six Sigma, Salesforce (because I work for a smaller company, we use less common programs and can’t afford training) - Have a tough time with traveling for business (fear of flying) Things I have interest in or have considered: -Project management -Programming (no experience whatsoever, just interest) -Copy editing/editing -Consulting (process consulting?) Other relevant info: Currently located in New Jersey, potentially willing to relocate, making around 53k/year salaried, not willing to forfeit work/life balance (prefer 45 hour work weeks or thereabouts). Thanks in advance for any advice that people have to offer!

• Answer:

  I'd be careful about trying to take your career in a consulting direction; while not all consulting work requires travel, especially since you're in a pretty dense area of the NEC, it'll limit your options a lot if you're not able/willing to fly around for work. That said, your skillset actually sounds pretty solid. There are a lot of project management jobs that are more about managing projects than people. Some formal PM training and some database learning could take you far.