2 miracles: God working in my professional life

Like many working professionals, the past 4 years have been a rough ride through a pandemic, economic crisis, and most recently a wave of layoffs. Hard seasons like this make me treasurer Psalm 23:1 “The lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.” This is a challenging verse when I can quickly think of big things that I’m lacking like a job as many people are currently lacking now. Is the lord still taking care of me? Is he shepherding me even in tough times?

I can tell you in my experience the answer is yes. He is a good shepherd and he has provided in ways that I could have never imagined or done on my own. How did God get me a Product Manager role in AI during a global pandemic? Snorkeling, that’s how.

I was blessed to come back home to Hawaii during the pandemic. During this time, many Silicon Valley tech executives flocked to Hawaii to work remotely. An old friend of mine from San Francisco was hosting a birthday party for her business partner and needed help planning. I, being originally from Hawaii, was happily obliged to help find local activities and restaurants for the party. The first activity, snorkeling at Lanikai Beach.

This is where I met a young Founder who would soon be my boss. He was invited by my friend hosting the party but I didn’t know much about him. I had no idea who he was or what he did. As we were out snorkeling, the young Founder turns to me and says “Hey what do you do?” I say that I dropped out of college and started a startup but now I’m looking for something new. He responds with “Oh I also dropped out of college, and I’m also a Founder, funny.” I didn’t think much of it, we proceeded to snorkel, have dinner and enjoy the party.

The next day, I get a call from my friend who hosted the party. My friend says, “I think my Founder friend wants to work with you, so I’m going to talk you up to him. Come out with us tonight and be ready to close the deal.” I’m thinking what deal? What work? I don’t even know what he does. I didn’t even really tell him much other than snorkeling tips. Anyway, long story short, I go out with them and the young Founder shows me an AI demo that blew my mind. We proceeded to talk about his company until 2 am and then he offers me a job on the spot. No resume, no application, no whiteboard interview. I immediately call my friend who hosted the party and asked what she said to “talk me up” to this young Founder. She didn’t tell me much other than she spent the majority of the day talking me up and that I’d better not screw this up, so I take the job. Miracle one.

Miracle two. Fast forward 11 months, and I leave the job to take on another PM role in fintech. About 3 weeks into the new role, I go skiing for the first time in over 10 years, as I mentioned earlier I’m originally from Hawaii, so I don’t ski much at all. I take the beginner ski class with a group of young kids and one other adult. This adult would end up being my future skip level (my boss’s boss).

We both had no idea how to ski. The instructor totally ignored us thinking we could figure it out ourselves. So we tried to teach each other by trial and error, it didn't go that well. We go up the ski lift together and the adult asks me what I do, I say I just got a new job as a PM in a fintech startup. He responds with “great, I also work in fintech and a PM” and at the end of the ski day before we leave, he comes up to me and says “I lead a team at Visa, and if you’re looking to join Visa someday let me know, here’s my LinkedIn.” I didn’t think much of it at the time, as I just started my new role, and did not think I would enter the job market for a while. I was wrong. 3 months later, I get laid off from the fintech startup and I’m back in the job market. I message the Visa guy on LinkedIn and I find out that he doesn’t just lead a team and he’s not just a PM, he’s the global head of product. 4 weeks later, I get the offer letter. Miracle two.

For those that know about my startup background (you can read more about those startup adventures?here) you would know that Visa is not where I thought I would be today. If you would have predicted that I would work in startups my entire career, I would have agreed with you. Startups are all I knew and anyone that knew me would know I was not a fan of big corporate. All I knew was a startup mindset eg “move fast, break things” and “ABC: always be closing.” You would think I’d be a fish out of water in a large older corporation like Visa. Wrong. I love it. God’s ways are higher than mine. He had a plan that wasn’t mine and graciously interrupted my plans for his better ones. There’s no way I could have planned this. And if I did, it probably would sound crazy. Who plans to meet an AI founder while snorkeling with the aim to get a PM job? Who would go skiing with the intention of meeting the global head of product to ask him for a job 3 months later?

To sum it up for now, God works in supernatural ways not just on Sundays, but in our lives every day, even at work. For those looking for a job now, reach out to me if you are looking for help. I’m starting a group to help ex-founders transition to becoming Product Managers. Most importantly, know that God is still with you even through tough times. Trust him even though you can’t see the whole picture and keep yourself open to his ways. He may just surprise you and work in an unexpected way, like snorkeling or skiing.