Renee Hampton spent 25 years in the newspaper business, and she was publisher of the Saginaw News in Michigan for almost 10 of them.
In 2008, she saw that journalism was suffering. "I had been with the same company for 17 years and was very comfortable. But I could see the handwriting on the wall," she says.
Hampton made an abrupt change. She took an HR job at Steelcase, a manufacturing company. "That was one of the scariest things I've ever done," she recalls. "But you either do it now, or you wait and have it done to you." Sure enough, the newspaper went through a round of big layoffs after she left.
Hampton only stayed at Steelcase for just over a year before realizing that it might not be the safest bet. She decided to make another shift.
"We don't think our skills are as transferable as they are. What I did for the paper as publisher was strategic planning, business direction, product development, employee morale, and all of that was applicable in other businesses," she says.
Hampton now uses those skills at her new gig as an information management consultant at Spectrum Healthcare in Grand Rapids, where she works on employee attraction, retention, and engagement.
"I'm really happy here," she says. "But I've learned I can't predict the future. I'd like to be here for a long time and have a wonderful career in healthcare. But the thing that's constant is me. I was happy as a publisher, and I'm happy now."
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