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I’d really appreciate some advice on my current career situation.
I’ve been working at the same company (a startup) for almost 5 years. For about 3 of those years, I was a team lead in a department where I felt comfortable, but there wasn’t much room for growth and I was getting quite burned out.
Two years ago, after a restructuring, I was offered the opportunity to lead a new department. I had some prior exposure to this area as an assistant and I was given some training (an online course). I decided to take it because it felt like a good opportunity to grow. I've been the only employee in the department since the beginning and as of today.
Since I started I’ve worked on things like governance documentation, internal procedures and some audits. The thing is I often feel like I’m not where I should be as the head of a department. The company is still quite immature in terms of processes following the reestructuring, sometimes planning or auditing doesn’t fully make sense because many things aren’t even properly implemented yet.
To add to this I’m currently 5 months pregnant, and the company has started another restructuring (unrelated to the one that led to my current role) which has already resulted in some layoffs.
Was it a mistake to accept this role knowing my experience was limited and that I was planning to start a family?
If I end up leaving or getting laid off how do you think this kind of career move would be perceived in future interviews? Can it be framed positively or will it look like I was out of my depth?
Would it make sense to go back to my previous field in another company after my leave?
I’d really appreciate any perspectives or similar experiences.