Persevering through a tough spot in my career and landing my dream job
Reading time 14 minutes
My first experience with serious job hunting started off as a casual affair. It was in April of 2019 and I was getting bored with my retail job as a Marketing Specialist for Customer Data and Insights. Up until this point, I’d done everything that the organisation’s data limitations and legacy systems allowed, along with publishing a magazine and finding advertisers to launch the first issue. I organised quarterly “know your customer events”, as well as sitting in on countless invaluable vernacular focus groups with women customers across South Africa. Regardless of all these achievements, I was ready for the next challenge. Little did I know how demanding the next year would be, as I sought out that next challenge.
Love hurts, but rejection from a job you really wanted hurts 10x more
The first role I applied for was as an Analyst for Stitch Fix - it’s a company founded by a woman using AI to style shoppers. I thought my skills and experience would be a match made in heaven and that I’d be the best candidate for the job, even if it meant I’d have to relocate from South Africa to sunny San Francisco in the US. The rejection email came about a week later and I was devastated, sans an offer to even interview for the role. After a bottle of wine and a bunch of fresh flowers as a consolation prize, I was ready for the search to continue! Three months went by as I continued looking for positions where I’d be challenged enough, but also inspired by the company’s mission - there had to be a synergistic fit or I wouldn’t consider it. I continued to receive rejection after rejection, some rejections came personalised, while others were mere automated responses. I had an inkling that my CV might be the problem, so I went on a job search sabbatical for a week and updated it from a detailed, bland 3-pager, to an action-oriented, sparkling review of who I am as a person and my experience to date - all fitting on a nicely packaged A4 page. (Read more here on how to write a killer CV / Resume)
Open to possibilities, and recruitment
One of the most important things I learnt during this time is utilising LinkedIn’s “Job Preferences” feature on my profile. Make sure you let recruiters know you’re “open to work”. This feature allows you to pick the job titles you’d be interested in, your preference towards office-based or remote work, desired locations for said office-based or remote work, along with your envisioned start date. Only recruiters can see this information through their LinkedIn Recruiter allowances, so neither your current manager, nor your colleagues will see that you’re on the hunt. And that is how I landed my first interview in June of 2019 via this exact feature. A recruiter at a Data Analytics Agency reached out and thought I’d be a good fit for an Analyst vacancy. I went four rounds, did assessments, and had to complete two very technical case studies over the process of 6 weeks. In the end they went with an internal candidate, and I was absolutely shattered. It took me a good two weeks to recover mentally, naturally you start building expectations of what your life could’ve looked like in this new environment. Although looking back, I love the confidence I gained throughout the process, along with the skills I learnt as I attempted the case studies, and I came to the realisation that I wasn’t as interested in a completely technical role as I thought I’d be. The next two interviews also came through recruiters reaching out via LinkedIn, yet no job offers to match. By this stage I had to tell my manager that I was looking for something else, as I needed to take half days or full leave days in order to attend in-person interviews.
Perseverance always wins
More interviews with different companies stretched out over the last few months of the year. I became increasingly dejected as each rejection email rolled in. I felt as if I lost valuable time researching the organisations, reading corporate reports, and looking at reviews on Glassdoor to see how employees rated the company on aspects like work-life balance, its commitment to diversity, fair remuneration, along with the overall benefits offered and finally, how the organisational culture was experienced. I also lost countless leave days, along with personal hours spent preparing for interviews. Yet I knew that my increasing dissatisfaction with my current role, and the company’s shifting strategy, meant I couldn’t give up searching. I took a short break over Christmas and New Year, yet I remember being so glum on the 29th of December that I spent the entire day applying for jobs with the sound of crashing waves in the background to soothe my frustration. It’s from this application spree, that I landed an interview with a large Multinational Organisation, offering relocation for the successful candidate to Hamburg, Germany. I’ve always wanted to live in Europe, so I prepared myself and manifested that this was going to be it as I entered January of 2020. They took me through three rounds of interviews and I fell out short after completing a lengthy case study. I still haven’t been provided a reason to this day, yet surprisingly this rejection didn’t devastate me as much. Instead I felt invigorated as I knew I was close to a breakthrough.
During this time my wonderful manager of 4 years relocated to the UK and left me stuck with a narcissist as her replacement. I clearly remember crying in her office (take note - I am not a crier) on two separate occasions, as I told her I can’t work under the conditions she was proposing. Yet she continued criticising me and pulling apart everything I’d so painstakingly pioneered during my tenure. It’s during these moments that I let go of my identity that I carefully attached to my title and that organisation, and truly just sought an out - any out. During February of 2020 I had another three rounds of interviews with a Dutch retailer based in the Netherlands, which also didn’t work out. I remember receiving the rejection email and just feeling numb. On the unhappiness scale I was a 110/10, and people around me could tell. I had a printed resignation letter on my desk for two weeks, changing the date daily as I came closer and closer to the end of my rope. I had made no financial provision either, as value retail really doesn’t pay great, so I was well and truly down on my luck.
Looking back to June of 2019 and how positive I was at that time that I would find something wonderful that complimented my skills, and where I could genuinely make an impact, now seemed so oversimplified and naive. The whole process had truly humbled me.
Culture eats strategy for breakfast
In March of 2020, a friend and fellow senior colleague said she had an opening in her team and asked if I wanted to interview for it. The position was for a Business Analyst and didn’t really fit my career plans for the future, but I was desperate to get away from the narcissist. I applied and went for the interview a few days later - which was another very humbling experience for a completely different set of reasons (which the author won’t go into during this article). During the same week I had a recruiter reach out and ask if I was interested in a role as a Senior Research Analyst at an EdTech organisation. I looked at the job description, which required candidates to have a Master’s degree at minimum - which I proudly only got in the beginning of 2022 - along with experience in Academia or the EdTech industry. I replied saying I don’t meet the criteria and I thanked her for reaching out. She was adamant however and insisted that I’d be a great fit. The recruiter asked whether I was up for a call with her to explain a bit more about the organisation, and an intense case study as part of the process. I agreed since I had so many other options. To my surprise, I actually enjoyed the case study. The company also inspired me with their “no back row” mission, in granting fair access to education for all, and I loved meeting the hiring team - all women in their late twenties / early thirties, incredibly smart and educated, yet genuinely caring with the permission to show up as their authentic selves at work. It was perfect!
Culture eats strategy for breakfast
The day I went for my in-person interview at this EdTech organisation, was also the 1 year anniversary of the day I applied for the role at StitchFix. That’s why they often say life has to be lived forward in order to be understood backwards, because had I known that I would be embarking on 12 months of mental resilience and humility training, I would have given a massive “No thank you!” to the Universe - but I was in it and I got through it, still breathing on the other side. My criteria list had also become much shorter as time went on, although the one non-negotiable was culture - the culture had to be tangible, with a human element. I don’t know how to explain it, but I felt it when I stepped into their offices for that first in-person interview. It was in the employees greeting the receptionists and offering pleasantries or a joke as they made their way toward their desks. I felt it through the people and the way everyone was respectful towards one another, not by how the office was laid out, or how many posters with weird acronyms were displayed reminding everyone of the guiding elements. Instead this organisation had values, like “give a damn” or “don’t let the sceptic win” - values that truly resonated with me and the impact that I wanted my work to have.
My final interview got moved online due to impending COVID-19 lockdowns, and it was incredibly stressful, yet wonderful to meet the Senior Leadership team. The next day I received a phone call, along with an offer for double what I was making in my current value retail role. I cried (not a crier remember) the happiest tears over the phone as the recruiter told me when they wanted me to start and cleared up a few more nitty gritty details. My first phone call was to the narcissistic boss - I told her I had gotten another opportunity, and her words to me were “you don’t have to work out your notice, your work isn’t up to standard in any case”. However being the feisty Sagittarius that I am, I insisted on working out my full notice period, along with delivering excellently detailed handover notes, because I believe in leaving a legacy. Consequently, they took an entire year to fill my vacant role, as they realised the severe mismatch between the job description and remuneration offered, and I knew then that karma was alive and flourishing!
I spent 6 months in my role as a Senior Research Analyst and got promoted shortly after into the newly established Consumer Insights & Analytics function. I got to work with stakeholders all over the business, and was trusted to lead meetings and present the work that I had done - an opportunity I never had back with the vultures in value retail. My Manager is a saint and a good friend of mine until today, and at the time, she was my biggest cheerleader. I believed in myself because she believed in me. She saw to it that I was looked after financially and I got a total increase of 25% during my first 18 months with the company. Along with the financial provision, she also taught me the importance of work-life balance and would encourage me to take mental health days, or pop out for lunch or a quick grocery run without feeling guilty. This role that I didn’t even want to apply for in the first place, ended up being my dream job - I could make an impact on a daily basis and people listened to me, they respected me and sought my opinions on projects and strategic initiatives. This led me to enrol for my MBA in International Marketing during my tenure at this company, and I graduated cum laude - It couldn’t have been done without my manager’s support and guidance, so the timing was just absolutely perfect. The most important lessons I learnt from this entire experience is to be more open-minded and malleable when it comes to change and challenges, along with being a lot more patient. I now know that things will happen as they’re meant to, and there’s nothing I can do to speed up or slow down the process.
Job search best practices: Do this to help you get noticed and hired
I learnt some very valuable job hunting skills during the 12 months of searching, so I’m sharing them here for you to leverage and land your dream job. LinkedIn is a great place to start your search as you can search by skill, job title, or the Company you want to work for, and you’re able to zero in on a certain location, or “remote” as I previously mentioned. Apply for at least 12 jobs a day to build momentum - most of those will be returned with rejections, so it’s best to cast the net wide. Here’s a few more tips to help:
Make sure your CV / resume is recent and updated.
Get someone to review your CV / resume as the smallest mistake can creep in and cause recruiters or hiring managers to immediately have a warped perspective of your abilities.
Make sure your LinkedIn profile is updated with your most recent education and work experience.
Ask a few trusted colleagues or stakeholders to write a review for you on LinkedIn (you can request this via the “recommendations” tab on your profile. And then repay the favour.
Add short courses or skills certificates you’ve done, found under the “Licenses & Certifications” section on your profile. I’m talking about courses like Udemy Digital Marketing, or Google SEO skills, or the Canva Creator Certifications - anything that can add credibility to your resume and bolster your profile. You can always remove or hide these again later, so be generous.
Update the “Skills” section on your LinkedIn profile - this is often a key feature recruiters use when looking to fill vacancies, so listing that one obscure skill can help you stand out.
Don’t forget about your network. Women don’t utilise their networks nearly as much as men and it shows in statistics from who gets hired, through to promotion. Nearly 60% of jobs are found through networking, not online.
Make sure your social media profiles are set to private, as about “54% of employers have rejected candidates based on their social media profiles”.
Another important point no one talks about - make sure you apply to companies that match your values and career goals - this has helped me feel like my work has more substance and that I’m actually spending my time in a way that aligns with the future vision I have for myself.
Reach out to the hiring manager or recruiter on LinkedIn after you’ve applied with a personal note and attach your resume / CV. This act alone can increase your chances of getting noticed and landing an interview 10 fold - it’s a trick I only recently learnt.
Extra help: LinkedIn either lists the hiring manager, or name of the recruiter in the job description. Alternatively, you can click on the company name, followed by the “people” tab to find the most relevant persons to contact.
Final thoughts on the Search
Searching for a job can take around five to six months, so be patient and kind to yourself, and make sure you’re planning ahead financially in the event that your situation becomes desperate and you need an out. Also remember that it’s okay if your vision changes and you end up in a completely different role than you envisioned - maybe it’s the Universe’s way of taking you into another season for more growth. Finally, leverage LinkedIn - it has serious potential for helping you find your next role, along with building out your network. I got retrenched in February of this year and leveraged all of the above, which helped me land my current job as Associate Director within 3 months - where there’s a will, there’s a way.
