Learn to Say "Yes" to Opportunities - Promotion or New Position

Should I Take the Promotion or New Position or Not?
Recently I was offered a new role at my company. You can call it a promotion or a lateral move within the company. Either way it would involve new responsibilities, challenges, and uncertainty. They did not explicitly detail what the job would entail, only that it would involve some finance, SEC reporting, and technical accounting research.

For about a week, I debated whether or not I should take this position because I felt like I was quite settled in my current role. Many of the processes that used to take 4 hours, I’ve streamlined and improved so that they can be completed in forty-five minutes tops. More things have been automated since I entered into my current role. Everything had become familiar to me. In other words, it is starting to become comfortable.

The fear of having to go outside of my comfort zone, made me leaning towards not accepting the new role. If I accept the new position, there will be certain things that I would have to learn. While I do have some experience with the new position’s duties, this particular role would definitely put me to the test. While the pay would increase, though I don’t think by much, I would most definitely have to put in extra effort to fit into the new role. The upfront investment would be high and who knows if I will be successful or not.

However, in order to grow, sooner or later I know that I will have to leave my current position. I have hit the tail end of the learning curve. So whether it is a month from now or a year from now, I’ll have to make a move. When you work in Big 4 accounting you might bounce from client to client. In industry, you are practically at the company everyday of the work week doing similar things month to month. There are exceptions of course. If you work in internal audit or are on some kind of rotational program, you would move around. In any event, I digress. The point is to grow and be better than you were yesterday, you need to put yourself in novel situations.

I was at a crossroads and had two paths to consider and ultimately a choice to make. One path leads to risk and fulfillment and the other to caution and regret. Accepting the new role that I feel I am not completely suited for is a risk. But if someone else believes I can do it then why not give it a shot? I know that on the other side of it there is a high probability of fulfillment waiting.

Whether it be a career risk or even asking a girl out. Too many times have I sat there thinking to myself that I should have done this or could have done that and left myself wondering. What if? If you take the leap, a net will appear. You will learn or figure out a way to make it work.

Needless to say, I accepted the role.