Man, 2015. What a year. When I look back now, that whole “don’t miss this” thing from Susan Miller’s Pisces career forecast for 2015, it really rings a bell. Not that I was religiously checking my horoscope every morning back then, but boy, did that year throw some curveballs my way, and looking back, grabbing those curveballs was probably the best thing I did for my career.
I remember feeling pretty meh at the end of 2014. My job was, well, it was a job. Steady, predictable, but honestly, I was just going through the motions. The company was this big, established outfit, and my role was pretty well-defined. I’d walk in, do my stuff, hit my targets, and walk out. It was easy, almost too easy. I started feeling that itch, you know? That feeling like you’re not really growing, just existing.
Then, early 2015, this little side project landed on my desk. Officially, it wasn’t even my department’s gig. It was this crazy, out-of-the-box idea that some of the younger folks had pitched to management. They wanted to build a new internal tool, something that would streamline a bunch of manual processes across different teams. Sounded simple, right? Wrong. The old guard, my boss included, just saw it as a massive headache and extra work. They were happy with the way things were.
But something about it caught my eye. Maybe it was the chance to actually build something new, or just the challenge of trying to make sense of a whole lot of scattered information. They were looking for someone to help organize the data requirements, essentially be the bridge between what the tech guys wanted to build and what the actual users needed. Everyone else in my team sort of shrugged it off. “Too much trouble for too little reward,” they’d say. But I thought, “Why not?”
Jumping In Headfirst
So, I volunteered. And let me tell you, that was the first big step. My manager gave me this look like, “Are you crazy?” but he signed off on it. From that day on, my “regular” job got a little blurred. I started spending hours with the project team. We were this rag-tag bunch of young hotshots and… well, me. A seasoned hand who just wanted to dig into something fresh.
My first task was just to understand the problem. I had to go talk to folks in almost every department. Accounting, HR, operations, sales – you name it. I scheduled meeting after meeting, pulling people away from their daily grind. Many were grumpy, especially the ones who’d been doing things the “old way” for decades. They’d just grunt or give me half-answers, clearly thinking this whole thing was a waste of time.
I started documenting everything. I mean, everything. I built flowcharts on whiteboards, scrawled notes in notebooks, created spreadsheets to map out existing processes. It was a mess. Every department had its own way of doing things, its own quirky exceptions, its own lingo. Trying to standardize that for a single system felt like trying to herd cats while juggling flaming torches. I spent a good month just getting my head around the sheer volume of fragmented information.
Then came the harder part: translating all that into something actionable for the developers. They spoke code; the users spoke spreadsheets and jargon. I had to learn to speak both. I started drawing out mock-ups on paper, showing how a new system might actually work. I’d take these crude drawings back to the users, sit down with them, and watch their faces. “Would this work?” “What if we did this instead?” Lots of back and forth, lots of revisions. I felt like a detective, an artist, and a diplomat all rolled into one.
The Grind and The Breakthrough
There were countless late nights. I remember sitting alone in the office, surrounded by printouts, trying to connect dots that just wouldn’t connect. I’d hit walls, big ones. There were moments I just wanted to throw in the towel, go back to my safe, predictable routine. But then something would click. A user would say something that illuminated a hidden process, or a developer would suggest a simpler way to handle a complex data point. And that little spark would just reignite everything.
I also realized I was learning a ton. I picked up bits and pieces of project management, basic system design concepts, and way more about inter-departmental politics than I ever wanted to know. Most importantly, I learned how to really listen to people, not just hear them. To dig past the initial complaints and figure out what they really needed.
We built prototypes, tested them, broke them, and built them again. It was a constant cycle of iteration. My role evolved from just data gathering to being a sort of product owner, advocating for the users while keeping the technical realities in check. It was exhilarating and exhausting all at once.
Looking Back
By the end of 2015, that internal tool was finally rolling out. It wasn’t perfect, nothing ever is, but it worked. It actually saved people a ton of time and cut down on errors. The initially grumpy users started sending us emails, saying thanks. My boss, who initially thought I was nuts, actually started looking at me differently. He saw that I could tackle something beyond my defined role, that I could actually drive change.
That experience completely shifted my trajectory. It showed me that I could take on bigger, riskier projects. It opened up new doors, new ways of thinking about my career. That “don’t miss this” from the Pisces career forecast? For me, it wasn’t about some pre-ordained external event. It was about recognizing that restless feeling inside, having the guts to step outside my comfort zone, and saying yes to a challenge that everyone else dismissed. It taught me that sometimes, the biggest opportunities aren’t the ones that come with a fanfare, but the ones you have to dig for, and then build with your own two hands.
