My Year of Yes

I started reading Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes after making my decision to take a break from corporate life, but it’s my go to response when people ask me what I do: ‘Oh, you know, I’m taking a year of yes.’  

Unlike Shonda, my biggest personal challenge is not finding the courage to appear on the Jimmy Kimmel show – any time, Jimmy.  Nonetheless, I found we have more in common than I’d expected.  I don’t mean her incredible talent or Hollywood lifestyle, but her deeply personal experience as a working mom trying to have it all… and failing.  Not dramatically or all at once but in small doses, until something needed to give. 

I’ve held down a job since I was 12 years old.  Although I was privileged to attend a private school, I earned my own spending money, bought my own car, and paid my own way through college and grad school.  I babysat, taught English and aerobics, tutored, pumped gas, dispatched taxis, worked a cash register, interned at an advertising agency in Tokyo,… you get the idea.  Basically, if it paid money and wouldn’t embarrass me if I ever ran for President, I did it. 

Hard work and persistence paid off… and then what?

When I landed my first ‘real’ job at Accenture, I couldn’t have been more excited and proud.  I worked hard and did my best for my clients, and that job turned into another dream job as a development manager at PeopleSoft.  Which after ten amazing years – including the strange post-acquisition days - opened the door at a tiny start up called Workday.  Which after another ten amazing years paved the way to a marketing executive role at a company called Basware.

In each job I worked hard to prove myself and deliver results and as I took on more senior roles, success came from leading others effectively.  At the same time, work life balance became more important, as my kids seemed to get older more quickly every day.  While I loved leading a team, with each promotion it seemed I had to spend more time on politics and administrative tasks rather than meaningful work.  I figured that’s what I got paid for, but it wasn't what got me out of bed in the morning.  And as time passed I found it getting harder to get out of bed to do the things I was paid to do.  Nothing major, just… meh.

My decision to take a break wasn’t made overnight and I waited until I felt I could leave without dropping any balls, but it resulted from five key realizations:

Epiphany 1: This is as good as it’s gonna get

My first epiphany was that I had it all but that's not how it felt.  I had a wonderful family, a badass team that did great work, an executive job, and I managed to run a 6-person household and cooked dinner nearly every night.  I had the flexibility to work from home and travel wasn’t too onerous.  Thanks to my fantastic team, I rarely worked past 6PM or on weekends.  My years of hard work and coaching others to be successful had paid off. 

So if everything was so great, why was I always too tired to play with my kids or make new friends, let alone spend time with old friends?

Epiphany 2: Life will pass me by if I let it

That’s when I realized: If I keep doing what I’m doing, my life will pass me by in a blink and no one will thank me for everything I missed out on.  Not my kids and certainly not my company. 

Epiphany 3: I’m not my job

For many years I thought I was the job, but I finally realized that if you keep defining yourself the same way, you won’t ever discover what else you could be.  If you weren’t afraid.  If you let go and just… tried new stuff.  Talked to people.  Said yes to things.

Epiphany 4: It’s time to let go

My fourth realization was that although I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do instead, there was only one way to find out….

Epiphany 5: I've got this

So I handed in my notice, and it’s been an incredible journey so far.  I’ve travelled, made new friends and started practicing martial arts.  I’ve taken courses in design thinking, investment, statistics and graphic design.  I’ve helped start-ups define their mission and coached TEDx speakers.  My husband and I are renovating a lovely old farmhouse.  I spend more quality time with my kids.  I’m busier than ever, but I’m not tired any more.  I’m energized.  I’m open. I’m having fun.

Embracing the gig economy

These days, I get paid to do what I enjoy most, which is writing, speaking and creating content to help clients be more successful.  I can do it on my time and on my terms and I have more time for all the other things in life that matter. 

Are there things I miss about corporate life?  There are, but not many.  So, while I truly appreciate several offers I’ve received for a permanent role, I’d prefer to talk a fixed contract or project based work.

At least for now. : )

As Shonda says, yes yes yes!!!

Be the Right Candidate: Tips from a Hiring Manager

I’ve hired a lot of people and over the years and developed a reliable sense of what makes a good candidate and a great employee... and it isn’t necessarily what prevailing wisdom suggests.  For example, I’ve hired moms returning from extended maternity leave, people currently without a job, people in remote locations, contractors, and people who applied for completely different roles.

They were all very different but had a few traits in common that made them stand out during the application process.  Before I share these traits, your basic hiring manager typically has up to three motivations you should be aware of:

1. I’m really busy: Particularly in organizations that have limited HR support for hiring, the hiring manager has limited time.  In addition to their demanding day job, they may have to write the detailed job spec, make sure the job gets posted, review dozens of CVs, coordinate recruiters, schedule and conduct interviews, and even manage the offer process. 
2. I'm in a hurry: I want to get through this process fast so I can get back to my day job, plus if this process drags out I may lose my headcount.  I won't hire someone I don't believe can do the job, but I want you to be the one.
3. Make my problem go away: There’s a decent chance the headcount approval came only after an organizational gap became impossible to ignore any longer, and although really three people are needed to do the job I only get to hire one.  To be that one, you must radiate: I understand what you want and will make you successful.

What will differentiate you from the other candidates is how well you convey that you value the hiring manager’s time, will fit into their team and can solve their problem.  Specifically, here are the traits of a great CV, and then we’ll move onto standing out in the interview:

• Clarity – It takes me an average of 20 seconds to skim a CV.  I don’t have time to pore over every word you painstaking wrote about your job experience to get to know you - see point 1 above.  If I don’t see what I’m looking for immediately, I assume you aren’t able to communicate clearly and move on.

• Brevity – I’m a marketer with a highly tuned BS radar, so unless you personally founded multiple successful companies and cured cancer, there's no good reason for your CV to be longer than two pages.  If you have examples of past successes, great, but keep it short, simple and to the point.  
• Layout – You CV should be as attractive and polished as a solution brochure.  After all, you are the product.  Spend time making your CV look good, especially if you hope to work in marketing, and don’t forget your best friends proportion and white space.
• Accuracy – Typos, spelling mistakes and grammatical errors scream sloppy so be sure to run spellchecker and have a couple of people read and comment on your CV.  I’ve hired plenty of people who spoke English as a second language, and a few non-native turns of expression can be charming, but easily correctible errors are not.
• X Factor – If you have a catchy video, TED talk or portfolio of work you can link to in your CV, do it but never share proprietary information.

Now let’s talk about the interview.  Here are the qualities – besides the obvious ones like friendliness, courtesy, and professionalism - that help candidates stand out and make a positive impression:

• Preparedness – Great candidates show a clear understanding of the business and have thought about the job, what they would bring to it, and why they want to do it.  Thorough preparation demonstrates you want the job and are willing to work hard to produce high quality work.

• Confidence – One of the best product marketers I ever worked with was a bit nervous during her presentation, but her slides were superb and her confidence re-emerged because she was so well-prepared.  If you’re a nervous presenter, practice until you know your material cold. 
• Pride – It’s OK to take pride in the work you have done, as long as you aren’t unpleasant about it.  In fact, pride in your work is a signal that you care about results and are motivated by a desire to succeed.
• Positivity – There's a reassuring optimism that comes through in people that believe in their ability to master any situation and get the job done.  It’s OK not to know everything going in, your unique experiences will help you bring something special to the role.  Believe in yourself: You can do this.

• Flexibility – I’ve hired people for completely different roles than the ones they applied for because they displayed other characteristics I was looking for, such as outgoingness (for customer facing roles), clarity (for training), creativity (for strategy), etc.  Keep an open mind and stay in touch if it doesn't work out, because there may be other open roles.
• Authenticity – No matter how successfully you portray yourself during the interview, you’ll be miserable if the real you is in the wrong job.  Once during a skype interview my toddler ran in and started banging my keyboard.  It was a difficult situation, but I ended up impressing the hiring manager by staying calm.  Do yourself a favour and be yourself - within reason, of course : ). 

• Readiness – A great candidate is ready to take the next step into more responsibility.  As a hiring manager, I look for these folks because I know I can help them grow professionally and they’ll work hard to prove themselves.

I know it’s a lot but here’s the good news.  Great candidates stand out.  You’d be amazed how many candidates don’t prepare properly, can’t articulate what they bring to a role, or deliver a clear and articulate account of themselves with quiet confidence.

One last thing: The hiring manager is choosing you (hopefully) but you are also choosing them, so my next posts will be about how to choose the right manager and how to persuade great people to work for you.

Thank you for reading.  I hope this was helpful and as always, comments are welcome.

Working Girl