2023, there was a seminar on my butt this year.

"Growth is the essence of life. Embrace change, for it is the path to learning and becoming the best version of yourself."

I’ve been doing ok so far professionally. I’m pretty much where I want to be, and I think my background so far has equipped me to do what I’m currently doing.

This year began nicely for me. I launched Career Protagonists, my career coaching business on the side of my 9 to 5 as a Recruiter at Amazon.

At Amazon, we were still in a hiring freeze so there was not much happening.

Businesswise, the beginning of the year went smoothly for a start: signed a couple of clients, and a few referrals.

I must thank my fellow career coaches from PARWCC and my mentors for learning the art of creating a career coaching business.

April arrived and I discovered that I needed to get surgery done for a cyst pilonidal.

For a few years, I’ve been having this Cyst without really considering surgery. Now was the time, I couldn’t escape it anymore.

It’s a small surgery that lasts around 30mn. The problem is not the surgery, it’s the recovery.

In my case, they had to leave the wound open. It should have taken around 8 weeks to fully recover.

And because of some complications, it took me 4 months.

I couldn’t sit, couldn’t run, couldn’t go to the gym, couldn’t work, couldn’t stand up too long, couldn’t walk long distances nor couldn’t pick up stuff I dropped on the floor.

4 months of sick leave, my business on hold.

Daily visits to the nurses and doctors.

They even organised a seminar to study my case. They were taking pictures of the area every day to document their research.

Yes, the tailbone on the butt area.

There was a seminar on my butt, this year.

Anyway, that’s a story for another day.

August arrived and I finally recovered.

It’s a weird feeling. You feel like everyone made progress but not you. You feel like things changed but kind of remain the same.

You feel lost.

The good thing is that during that time I got to think a lot.

What do I do now?

I knew it was time for me to leave Amazon. I was not learning anymore, I was taking on extra work for over a year, playing the role of a promoted recruiter without the promotion and the pay.

If they didn’t want to give me the career growth I deserved, I would get it myself somewhere else.

That’s how I accepted an offer with Revolut.

Meanwhile, things started to pick up with my business as well.?

I didn’t hit all my business goals that I had for 2023 but I’m ok with that.

You see, I don’t want to rush things.

My career coaching business is here out of passion.

As a Recruiter, I discovered the joy of helping people get jobs they like.

As a Career Coach, I discovered the joy of helping them gain the confidence to get jobs they like.

I’m not planning on leaving recruitment soon, I still have a lot to learn from it.

So, I will be wearing the recruiter, and the career coach hats for a bit.

Here are a few numbers to recap my professional year:

-?????? Interviewed 700+ candidates.

-?????? Reviewed 1500+ resumes.

-?????? Worked at 2 companies.

-?????? Coached 13 people.

-?????? Wrote 24 resumes.

-?????? Started 1 business.

-?????? Wrote 119 LinkedIn posts.

-?????? Sent 12 monthly newsletters.

-?????? Reached 374,463 people on LinkedIn.

-?????? Increased by 112% my LinkedIn followers. ?

-?????? Gave 5 career coaching presentations to large audiences.

Things don’t always go the way we want to. It’s on us to either take ownership of the situation and take the right actions or let it go.

I am so excited to see what 2024 holds.

I encourage you to create a list of career goals you want to achieve this year: any certification, training, side hustle, promotion, new role, etc.

Review them next year and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Thank you for reading me this year, I wish you a happy new year!

Damien