The Rerun

So after six months of trying something new, I have, once again, found myself back to the ad-tech world.

Flashback to 2019, walking into my first day at a company I knew I was going to thrive at.

It was a great feeling, I knew I was going to make lasting friendships with a lot of coworkers as well as contribute immensely, and learn a lot along the way. You may think, it's crazy to know all that just within your first few days, but after having worked at places where you didn't feel that at all, even after six months, that's when you know.

And that's essentially what happened this time around as well, I learned a lot about myself in terms of how I prefer to work and how I'd like my coworkers to work with me. It's inevitable; every person is so different and therefore every company, made up of hundreds or more people could function very differently from the next. And on the flip-side, every person could prefer different working environments, routines, or workflows. At the end of the day, finding a workplace that compliments your growth and working methods should be the baseline, and then doing what you love to do should be the differentiator.

 If you're doing what you love, but it's extremely hard to accomplish,

you're going to end up resenting that type of work.

Fast forward to 2022, getting heated on a call with my manager and HR, this is exactly how I was feeling and just wasn't able to zoom out, and summarize it as that. After I was let go, I was open to finding anything else. I was exhausted from "working in advertising" because I felt like "working in advertising" equated to burn-out, micro-managers and lack of freedom. But it wasn't the fact when I was at my first ad-tech job back in 2017, fresh out of college and wide-eyed, ready for anything. 

I don't regret taking a small break from advertising, it may have even helped with confirming that I wanted to get back to it. But it definitely confirmed a few things that I'm going to bring into my new job. 

1. Positive Intent

As cheesy as it may be, this was the #1 thing that working at Apple retail has taught me. I also think it gets buried in the corporate world, with politics, promotions and power trips. But leading with positive intent, and assuming positive intent is what can make or break relationships with coworkers. When you lead with  positive intent, you're assuming that someone did something for a good reason, or if it was negatively impacting you, it was simply a small mistake and by talking to them about it, you're letting them know so they can learn. At Apple, they teach you to provide feedback in a way that leads with positive intent, so for example, if someone gave the wrong information to a customer, you could approach them like:
"Hey Mike, I was noticing you told this customer X, I was told Y, where did you hear that information? I just want to ensure we're providing consistent answers so let's try to confirm the best answer."

There's a distinct difference from blaming yourself, you're just ensuring that everyone succeeds. You're looking out for others while simultaneously protecting and educating yourself. You never know, maybe there was an update that you missed or they know something that you don't. Confrontation has always been extremely hard for me, thinking that the other person will be upset, or angry after being told to change their ways, but leading with positive intent has helped me tremendously over the years and can really make or break every interaction, from first impressions to yearly performance reviews.

2. Constantly Learn

You can attempt to grow all you want, but if you're not learning something new, your growth will be stagnant. That's a harsh truth, but something I felt in the past six months at my last job, and something that can really separate a job from a career. Sure, getting a promotion is generally a reflection of hard work and dedication - but let's break it down. Hard work doesn't always mean it's difficult. Like cramming for an exam the night before, that's difficult and you're not going to be able to achieve great results overnight. Hard work can be the direct outcome of years of knowledge and expertise. But getting that knowledge and expertise doesn't happen at the drop of a hat. You need to keep discovering, and uncovering new tools, methods and insights that could spark other areas of your work and life. 

Like change management within a company, you should also reiterate and test new things in your own life, both personal and professional, to truly uncover the best possible result. So whether you're learning a new skill, or learning more about yourself, learning should be constant.

3. Balance and boundaries

Duh.

No but seriously, looking back at my last position, there weren't too many things that I would have changed, except I would have introduced better boundaries. Working at start-ups tends to ingrain a do-all mindset, it looks like teamwork, but it's sometimes disguised by having unrealistic expectations of your coworkers. Near the end of my last position, I saw so much delegation from other managers onto our team that it made me wonder what they do all day other than meetings. Tasks that managers should have been doing, like onboarding new members and supporting them on client calls were given to team leads or seniors who alredy had tons of work on their plate. It disgusted me. It wasn't contributing to a fair working environment and it became unclear as to what responsibilities were who's. Being accustom to this do-all start-up mentality, I wish I had spoken up and voiced the concerns I was having. However, I also realize that seeing what didn't work well in this situation, made it clear that boundaries are necessary.  If you're taking on too much at work, you're not going to be able to put 100% effort into each task. You need to be strategic in what you take on, and ensure you're the right person for the project or task at that given time. I started shifting into that mindset after acknowledging what the other managers were doing and that's probably when I felt the most invested in my work, however I also had told my manager that I couldn't take on additional work either.

Did this contribute to being let go? Maybe. 

Should I have put up these boundaries a long time ago? Probably. 

But when you're growing your career, you don't know what you don't know. You just dive into what feels right, what excites you, and if you love what you do, you want to get involved. That's how I knew walking into the last office I worked at, that I wanted to be part of the culture and not just occupy a desk.

Tomorrow, I start a new job, which can always be a little freightening, but I recognize this familiar feeling of excitement for growth, change, and development. There's so much I have already learned that has got me this far, so bringing all of this into a new opportunity is incredibly humbling, and fitting.

☯️