Okay help me out. I am at a bit of a crossroads in life. Currently moving to a bigger town as I want to get a new job and do a bit of a refresh of my life.
I'm good at my job, been there over 5 years, nice enough company and get treated pretty well (consulting type job). Good salary, nice people to work with, but no realistic chances of progression as it's a fairly flat structure. Also the jobs higher up are taken by people who have been there years and will never leave. But I'm ready for a new challenge.
The problem is that because I'm so experienced and salary if I moved across to another similar firm or back into the industry I consult on I'd need to go in at a fairly senior level. And I just don't do peopling.
I hate the people management side with a passion. My current job I have no responsbility for anyone. However I do love supporting more junior colleagues more along a mentoring role to develop their abilities and knowledge on a technical level. But I'm just not cut out for peopling, I'm fairly forthright and I completely acknowledge I am severely lacking in empathy. It really is just who I am, I don't suffer fools and don't take any BS from anyone. It has worked in my favour dealing with difficult clients, but I'm just not sure I could take oversight for a team.
So what would you do in my situation? I don't really want to just do another consulting job, contracting is an option but the industry I work in has cut right back on this in the last few years, or maybe I should just bite the bullet and take a management level job and get some professional help with it?