Hello February & 2022!

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Hey There Career Hustlers & Hello February!

I hope you all had a great start to the New Year! & Happy Lunar New Year! I'm a bit tad late with the first edition of this newsletter since my family and I had a rough start of 2022 with school closures and COVID hitting our household. But you know what they say.... better late than never, right? The good news is that we are all feeling better, and the kids are back at school! (thank goodness because I know many parents can relate that working remotely while the kiddos are home can be one big circus).

I can't believe how FAST 2021 flew by! You have heard me repeat this time and time, but I am one LUCKY GAL to have you all part of my community. As we get settled into the new year and set our goals and intentions for this new month, I wanted to take this THROWBACK THURSDAY to reflect on this past year and share a few milestones.

At this exact time last year, I was about seven months into my LinkedIn journey, and I was still a bit confused about what the new year would look like for me. I was getting ready to start my first group coaching cohort, and although I was able to build a coaching business from the ground up and work with dream clients, I felt like something was missing.

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You see, ??'?? ?? ?????????????? and ?? ???????? ???????????????? ?????????? ?????? ?? ???????? ???????????????? ??????????????. Thanks to my network, I had the opportunity to get back into Tech as a Recruiter back in April when I started at Thumbtack. Although my time there was short, I'm forever grateful for the experience, and I'm happy that the company could reconnect me to my passion for recruiting and building teams. Fast forward to today, after being rejected multiple times in the past, I recently joined my DREAM company Meta, formally known as Facebook, this past October, on their D&I Technical Recruiting team as their first Technical Recruiter for UX Research.

It was a surreal moment starting my new role in October 2021, at my dream company with hundreds of new hires in my living room. It was also bitter sweet that my family was there to celebrate with me on my first day!         

Before we get into the GOOD stuff, where I'll share my favorite moments from last year, I want to briefly touch on New Year's resolutions because I know people are in the thick of planning their 2022 goals. ??'?? ?????????? ???? ???? ???????? ???????? ??????, as I mentioned earlier, going into 2021, I didn't have a concrete plan of what my career and business would look like in the new year. And for me, that was a bit scary because I tend to be a planner. This pandemic has forced us to ?????? ???? ?????? ?????????? ???? ?????? ??????????, and I have learned through a few lessons and experiences that it's OK to not have a plan in place and have everything all figured out. Sometimes in life, we have to take action, experiment, and follow our gut and intuition.

Things to consider when writing your new goals for the month:

1. Set realistic and attainable goals! In the past leading up to the new year, I would always overwhelm myself with the goals and resolutions I wanted to conquer. Before writing your goals, audit your calendar and decide which realistic goals/habits are doable.

2. Start small and build up and add to your goals when you've maintained a level of consistency of the plans you've started with.

3. Give yourself some grace and be kind to yourself! Find a group of people that can help you stay accountable. I'm currently re-reading Atomic Habits by James Clear, and in chapter nine, he shares how the role of family and friends can help shape your habits. The most effective way to build better habits is to surround yourself with a group of people that have the same goals.

4. Take it one day at a time. Instead of having a laundry list of goals and accomplishments, focus on the small goals and habits that will bring you joy. If you didn't complete your list of goals/habits for the day, don't beat yourself up! take a moment to celebrate your small wins for the day. Tomorrow is a new day and a new opportunity to start fresh!

OK, now let's get to it! There have been so many moments from 2021 that it's hard to mention a few.

2021 was a year full of coaching milestones! I launched my first group coaching cohort, coached individually 40+ people, and have helped them start new careers. I fulfilled one of my dreams of teaching and taught 25+ workshops at Community Colleges, Universities, Bootcamps, and non-profits. I'm fortunate to have worked with dream clients, and I'm so happy to be part of their career transformations!

Last year, I had the honor to be recognized by Jobscan for being a Top Job Expert to follow on LinkedIn. I remember getting a LinkedIn D.M. from someone on the team, and I couldn't believe it! I was only on my LinkedIn journey for six months, but this shows you that a lot can happen during a short amount of time. This was a huge honor which would have never happened if it wasn't because of the supportive community on LinkedIn. Here is the interview that I did with Jobscan, where I share career advice for 2021 (the majority of the advice I share on job search strategy and personal branding you can still use today!).

One of my favorite moments of 2021 was getting interviewed by the one and only Senior Editor of LinkedIn News, Andrew Seaman! For months I would tune into his #Gethired #linkedInlives and read his newsletter, where he brings the community together to share career advice for job seekers and professionals. So when Andrew reached out and asked if I was interested in being interviewed on the show, I immediately said yes! We discussed how you could navigate through a job loss during our interview. You can catch the replay here ; you might be able to hear a cameo from my chirping birds in the background! Thank you again to Andrew for the opportunity to share my advice with job seekers and for making me feel so welcome!

Last year was also a year full of creative projects and collaborations! I have had the opportunity to share my passion for building community and coaching with fellow Recruiting Professionals and Career Coaches. The silver lining of this pandemic is the friendships that have been created on this platform. During moments of feeling isolated and lost after my layoff in 2020, I leaned on the LinkedIn community to give me that extra push of motivation. So it was great to give back to the community by launching Career Hustle & Flow last June with my fellow Co-Hosts and dear friends, Valerie Mekki and Jessica Williams. After having dinner together on one beautiful early Sunday evening, we did an impromptu #LinkedInlive on my iPhone. We discussed the power of community and encouraged people to start building genuine connections on LinkedIn. The chemistry and vibes on that day inspired us to start Career Hustle & Flow, a show where we celebrate diversity in Careers and Entrepreneurship. Special thank you to Valerie and Jessica for collaborating with me on my brainchild! It was so fun "passing the mic" weekly to our rockstar guests!

Another fun collaboration last year was joining the Job Search Angels, founded by a lead angel, Anna Morgan. Anna put together a group of POWERFUL Career Strategists, including Jessica Williams, Harleny Vasquez , and Jessica Smith . We did a weekly Clubhouse event in February, where we offered career advice to jobseekers. It was a fun collaboration, and this experience was able to help me keep my recruiting skills in motion while giving back to the community. Thank you, Anna, for including me in your project!

I ended last year with a HUGE surprise with a nomination for a LinkedIn Talent Award in the Talent Advocate category. The talent awards are a data-driven recognition that celebrates companies that positively impact LinkedIn by utilizing the LinkedIn solution. My content had reached over 1.4 million people at the time of my nomination! And it's not about the likes and views that keep me creating content. It's about making a ????????????????????, ????????????, CHAMPIONING DIVERSITY and following my passion and purpose by helping people in their job search and careers. Attending the Talent Awards and receiving the nomination was a humbling experience, and it was an honor to be nominated amongst great thought leaders in the industry. Check out this post to see how my experience was attending LinkedIn's first Talent Awards ceremony in the U.S. Thank you again to this community and LinkedIn for this recognition and for allowing me to serve you with my career advice.

What am I looking forward to in 2022

There are so many things to look forward to in 2022! I'm now getting settled into my new role at Meta (I've just hit my 3-Month Metaversary!), and I'm looking forward to making an impact on our UX Research Teams. I'm finally back in my recruiting chair, and it feels good to speak to candidates again and help them prepare for their interviews.

On that note, I'm also excited to announce that I created the Career Hustle & Flow Community ! Between working full time at my great role here at Meta plus wanting to be present with my family, I can't help everyone that has reached out to me for 1:1 coaching. There are simply not enough hours in a day and I have to take care of myself too! :)

I'm humbled and honored by everyone who has reached out wanting coaching support, so I wanted to create an accessible and affordable way to support those who need help by making a coaching collective and community that can help you gain some career clarity and help you build your personal brand on LinkedIn. This past Tuesday, we celebrated the launch on a special LinkedIn live with Valerie Mekki. I'm excited to bring in other Career Coaches & Recruiting Professionals in this community to share their career advice!

I'm also looking forward to continuing to build community on LinkedIn! I can't wait to see new creators on this platform. I'm inspired by you all! Thank you again for the continued support. Now let's get to BUILDING!

- June