Finding my Purpose Act 2: ages 23- 32

I interviewed with the partners who were skeptical (valid) of my qualifications for the job.

But my new friend really went to bat for me, and shortly thereafter, I reported to her and one other person as an Account Coordinator at a very cool up and coming SEO start up. I had no idea what SEO meant, and frankly most of the world didn’t in 2007 when I started. But I knew what I had in front of me- a job at a cool place, with cool people, doing work that was cutting edge at the time. AND you could wear jeans to work. It felt like I had hit the jackpot. Another point of my career that was clearly meant to be, as I once again met people who are still a big part of my life today. It also taught me so many skills that I had no idea I would later apply to my own business. The company started offering social media management for businesses, before that was even a thing for businesses. And I was lucky to be the first account manager to score a social media business account to manage. The things I learned about diabetes management were pretty amazing lol. I would say that as far as first jobs go, I was really lucky this was one of mine for a number of reasons. Because they were a young company and really ahead of the times in terms of trying to be a place millennials wanted to work, they were all about the company parties and activities. And I was ALL about that. I jumped right into offering to help plan along with my girlfriends. We called ourselves the PPC…the party planning committee. A play on words in the ad space (pay-per-click). If ya know, ya know ;)

From there it seemed I had found my way. Or at least, I fell into a path. My corporate career would continue into the online marketing space, across different agencies, for 9 years.  I continued to climb the 'ol corporate ladder, eventually becoming SVP of Account Management. I just kept keeping on the path that was laid out in front of me, without really considering an alternative. The reality was that this career path I was on was exactly what was expected of me, and what was deemed successful. As the oldest of 3 kids, I felt this responsibility to always be doing what was expected of me, and so my career totally fit that narrative. Not to mention I was living in Beacon Hill, and I was in a healthy, happy and stable relationship with my now husband. We had built a life. And honestly? The money confirmed the narrative that I was where I was supposed to be. Until I wasn't. I would say there were many points along the way where I questioned whether I was in the right career path, whether I was fulfilling my purpose. I wouldn't say I was passionate about the work, though there were certainly parts I enjoyed. But again, I had this narrative in my head that no one really likes their job. It's a job. And I was ok with that to a degree. I thought it was totally normal to feel anxious going to the office every day, and to end the day by heading to the bar with your coworkers to vent about said work day… 5 days a week. And I didn’t have any friends who were modeling anything different. We were all living this way.

I’m going to butcher this analogy, but have you ever heard that analogy about how life will keep throwing things at you to get you to notice? How it will start with little things (pebbles) until you finally take notice? Ok well apparently I needed a boulder thrown at me before I took a good look around me. And the boulder was one of those big life events where your morales and values are called into question. The type of situation you just can’t, try as you might, ignore. It felt like pandora’s box had been opened, and it couldn’t be closed. It made me take a really big look at every aspect of my life.

Professionally, all I knew was the tech/marketing space. But I had this feeling that it was no longer my “home.” So I took the time to reflect, and thought about what a totally new career path might look like. I started listening to all sorts of podcasts about finding your calling, etc. I was reading all the self discovery books. But what I realized was, I wasn't ready to go totally AWOL. That was too difficult for me to wrap my head around at that time. What I did know was that I needed a job where I felt immense purpose and where I could see a real impact.

To be continued ;)

xo

P.s. this post is Act 2 in a 4 part series on finding my purpose! If you haven’t already, check out Act 1.