New beginnings

In Oct, after many months of self reflection on my personal ambitions, I decided to leave the AMA. Even though I had learnt a lot in the year I worked there, I knew it was time to hit reset. I had never done anything like that before - quit a job before knowing where I’m going next.  It felt both empowering and scary. Every day, I oscillated between feeling excited about having some time to be with my family and utter panic at having to explain to people that I was unemployed.

Unemployment is a little bit like infertility.  Very few talk about it till they are on the other side.  Being candid about my decision and the resulting state of unemployment with friends, family and strangers required a lot of fortitude.  I attended two meetups in my first week after leaving the AMA.  Both were events I had signed up for before I knew I was leaving.  I had signed up for both events because I was genuinely interested in learning about the topics being discussed (building great product teams and machine learning in product management).  Yet, I couldn't shake off the feeling that any stranger I talked with, assumed I was there to find a job and treated me slightly differently.

Interviewing felt really fun at first.  I learned how to tell my story.  I learned about a lot of really cool companies - both in Chicago and outside.  I met some really smart people and made more connections than I had expected.  But after about a dozen or so interviews, I was ready to be done.  So, finding the right fit for my next chapter couldn't have come at a better time.

On Monday, I start a new job at FTD.  I am very excited to go back to a Digital pure-play environment and I feel incredibly lucky to be joining the team right as we embark on a multi-year Digital Transformation journey.

All in, I will have only taken a month off between jobs.  But it has been an incredibly jam packed month.  I realized just how crazy life is when you have two careers and two kids.  Because it felt pretty crazy even with one career and two kids.  I was able to cram a little bit of dabbling in art, a lot of "Fixer Uppers" (an HGTV show) and above all, relaxed time with my family over the Thanksgiving holiday. 

Two lessons I learned from this experience:

1. Sometimes you just have to take a leap of faith.  My decision to quit without having something lined up was totally out of my comfort zone but it was not entirely blind.  I was getting enough calls and callbacks where I was fairly confident I would land on my feet in the first quarter of the new year.  This leap of faith felt very uncomfortable at times but overall, I knew I had to jump in order to move forward.

2. Developing a voice is very important as you move forward in your career.  Writing this blog was the best decision I have made all year.  It forced me to read more, to articulate my point of view, to tell a story.  I credit a lot of conversations in interviews to the material I have read and written for this blog.  So, to everyone who reads this, a big thank you! 

I will leave you with this quote I recently came across.  It seemed very à propos to this post: “The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide you’re not going to stay where you are” - J. P. Morgan

Happy Holidays to you and yours!