(Pt 2) 10 years of professional experience: Failures, Managers, and Lessons Learned...

Welcome back, if you haven't read part 1, I encourage you to do so now and then come back here.

We are still in the first professional year of my career. Let me tell you about how I got fired!

The last time I told you about the lessons learned from that year but to give some background to what happened, I got back to finishing my graduation project at the Uni, and I was a part-timer at the company handling a couple of clients, then it hit me that I am not interested anymore in the whole social media world, I have learned all that I wanted to learn, also the part where I have to be online all the time was not fun at all, reply to customers even if they send at 10 PM, attend events and 'tweet storm' about it -that was a big thing in Jordan back in 2011- so naturally I was slaking and not fully there for my job, so I graduated from University and joined the company again in their offices. I was very clear when I was talking to my colleagues, I am done here, I will look for other opportunities in other industries, but I will stay here until I find the right opportunity. But, not all things come your way, I remember not so much time after this, the team leader was kind of micromanaging me to the point where I was fed up until he and the CEO sat with me and told me that we are sorry but we have to let you go and wish you all the best in you career. I wasn't even 22 at the time, and I remember I was ashamed of myself, it was my first time handling such a situation, I was always top of my class, everyone loved me, and I have never failed before! I wasn't ready to handle such disappointment at that age.

Looking back at it now, it was a blessing in disguise. I collected myself and started doing a lot of interviews, being a graduate of PSUT, I didn't have to apply to any job that I interviewed for, massive numbers of companies in Jordan in the Tech industry just wanted to hire from our university. I remember going to a lot of interviews at big and international firms, only to see my colleagues there from my class interviewing for the same positions.

A couple of months later, I have three offers at the table; one from an International Telecommunication Company that offered me a Project Coordinator role, another big Jordanian firm offered me a Technical Support Engineer role that entail a lot of traveling around the world- that was exciting for sure- and a small American startup to work with them remotely as a Program Coordinator.

Not sure where this idea came to me at such a young age, but I was always afraid to be part of big organizations, I was afraid to be lost in the company, having my efforts not be seen and my career progression be not as fast as I hoped it would be. I remember rejecting the two offers from the big companies while the small startup hasn't yet submitted their final offer to me in writing, but a little bit after, they sent the offer and I accepted!

I spent two and half years with that company, the ambitions were big but the timing and the financing weren't in our favor. We were trying to be the place to go for banks, companies, and investors when they want to know who are the fastest-growing companies in the emerging world and who are the startups to watch.

I traveled with them to many parts of the world, was part of organizing big events that had really immense value for the companies founders' and the investors, and worked in a culture with two great ladies as the co-founders of the company and a wonderful lady that was my manager Ola, that I have learned tons from. I consider her the most well-rounded manager I have ever worked with, now she is the CEO of a cool company called Bitoasis.

What I have learned from these three powerful ladies in my two and half years in that company can be summed up in these points.

• Be attentive to every small detail but don't miss the big picture in the process. I remember one time I was drafting our regular newsletter to our founders and CEOs of our network, and I can't forget that the Email got back and forth between me and one of the founders just because I am having one more space here and there or that I have missed a comma or a dot here and there, I was baffled by this at the beginning, in my head, I thought this is so stupid, she is wasting her time and mine for something that doesn't have to be perfect, it's just a newsletter, but now I learned that attention to details was needed and it really stayed with me in my whole professional career and allowed me to switch between bird eye view to the nitty-gritty details when needed, so I thank her for this.
• Enjoy being thrown at the deep end of the pool. One day back in the office, I was swamped with checking financial statements and doing calculations for the companies that applied to be part of our list of the top growing companies in the Arab world, it was late at night at the office, my manager was helping me and I remember we had a soon deadline, then she got up, gathered her stuff and told me I had to leave, I have something important to attend to, you continue working and let me know if there is anything I can help with. In my mind, I was saying "What the FUCK!" is she doing, we are having a tight deadline and I am a fresh graduate who joined the company a couple of months ago, that was my reaction to that incident at the time, but now I would say thank you for throwing me at the deep end of the pool so I can swim and survive on my own and get the confidence to do it again and again. In her defense, she did prepare me for such situations, since day one, I was part of almost every meeting she attended so I could soak as much as I could, also she taught me and trained me well in the first couple of months of my employment, I am always grateful for her great mentorship.
• Make Some Mistakes. In our part of the world, we are generally raised to always be successful and top of the class and never make a mistake, that was how I saw the world back then, its a very dangerous view because when I made some mistakes and failed it was very hard for me to accept it and that it is one way for me to learn. I have made many mistakes, and I remember them being professional about it, they wanted to understand what happened exactly and how can I learn from it so I won't repeat it next time. One story that I vividly remember today is I was drafting a newsletter for a specific region of the world and accidentally sent it to all of our network, and then I was checking the report that comes to who opened, clicked, and unsubscribed, I saw casually the name of Bill Gates unsubscribing from our mailing list, I got scared and started to blame my stupid self for this, I don't recall a hesitation from my end to come forward about it, directly I told the founders and apologized and cleared that wasn't made intentionally, I remember them being ok with it and not scrutinizing me about it, or punishing me or taking the task away from me because I was incompetent! None of that! their reaction was more logical and towards forgiving and allowing me to learn from my mistakes. That really affected my career positively, it made me more confident to take calculated risks and voice my educated opinion on whatever subject or decision that the company needed to make.

I am happy to share my journey with you, and I hope you are enjoying the read! Please comment on your learning and the defining moments in your career, and see you next week in Part 3.