Dublin 2.0

As you might know, choosing to leave a great job is an insanely tough decision. The curiosity and hunger for new horizons doesn't align with the feeling of responsibility, love and loyalty to my current team.?

But I made the decision to leave LinkedIn and it was the best job I had so far. The people inspired, grew (and danced) with me for the last 2.5 years and I'm grateful for that experience.

On my first day on LinkedIn they told me: "When you leave LinkedIn one day, we want you to truly be transformed. In return we want to have your promise that you're going to throw yourself at the opportunity to transform yourself, our company, and the world. And that you will run after the opportunities here with courage and persistence."

?I spent the first week of my 2nd month in Las Vegas at our Global Sales Kickoff with thousands of people I had never met. It was unreal, exciting, scary and it was all very, very new.

My first months at Linkedin were overwhelming. The big office, all the facilities and the people from over the world that were a little to nice in my "Dutch" opinion created mixed feelings. There must be a dark side I thought, let’s give it some more time...

Until today the people are still like they were on my first day. Genuine and extremely helpful! Within a year I learned how an office of 1600 people can make you feel like home and how your colleagues become not only colleagues, but your closest friends.

Working in such a corporate organisation goes together with a lot of perks but also a lot of challenges. How do you find a work/life balance when everything is mixed up and you end up in a bubble. You are constantly comparing yourself with high performing people and you see friends leave to other companies or even to other countries.

Covid has its negative side but it also gave me the opportunity to step out of this bubble and reflect about who I am, what I want and what drives me. One of my biggest challenges in the office was to protect my own identity and principles. During covid I got to know my colleagues even better and we found strengths in ourselves that we weren't aware of. Some of those became even close friends!

This week start my new job at Microsoft. It is a company full of passionate, ambitious and talented people who want to transform the world and build great things together.?The fact that I will help companies with their digital transformation really excites me.

So it is time to repeat it all again. Stepping into an even bigger new impressive office (hopefully soon), finding my way surrounded with thousands of new people I've never met and probably thinking again "how the hell am I going to run the race with so many talented people"

But hey, Joost Eling told me before "growth happens out of your comfort zone". And all Those bumps, cracks and obstacles in the last 2.5 years brought me to endless big and small victory's and celebrations.

I'm ready for this new adventure and when things get a little though I tend to tell myself: A little glitter never hurts.?