Job Searching Mission Accomplished

Enter 2024. And with the new year (Happy New Year btw...), my job searching mission comes to a close. Epilogue time. Closing Act. Part 3 of 3.

Mission Accomplished.

But because it's not just about the destination but about the journey, let me take you along on the final chapter of this job searching journey.

WARNING LONG READ!!!!!!! DO NOT SKIP TO THE END! I'll add photos and emojis to make it lighter!! Promise ??

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Where it all began

It was Monday July 10th when I was informed that Microsoft Corp (US) announced that all the SMB Sales Lead roles were to be made redundant. That, of course, included yours truly…me ??. The procedure of laying off people was a known one in my Microsoft region, so when a meeting invitation titled 'Org changes' landed in my inbox on that sunny Monday morning at 8am, I knew exactly how my day would unfold.

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It took a day to digest, a week to process and a few months to clear my thoughts.

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It was July, it was summer ??, I was on garden leave until the end of September and after making some hasty and not-so-strategic or well-thought moves I decided to chill, enjoy my summer and kick off a proper job searching process in October with a clear and fresh mind. Until then, Greek summer life was mine to enjoy??.

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And enjoy I did! Paid summer vacations with no laptop and no 1K unread emails waiting for you upon your return.

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Now…just a quick rewind back ?to just before I buggered off to the islands. What started as a casual chit chat catch up over coffee ?lead to a phone call for a job interview while I was actually on vacation ??. From the island of Milos, in my white, sunny-lit Airbnb room, I had my first job interview for a position I was in fact very very interested in and very very excited about. The first interview lead to a 2nd round interview and by the end of August I had a verbal job offer accompanied by a gentleman's handshake ??. The written offer was to follow very soon.? I thought wow!! First job interview and I managed to nail it. That was easy!!! ??

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I went a bit crazy. I booked myself a 10-day trip to New York ?? and New Orleans ???? in September thinking that I had my new job waiting for me @9am Monday 02 October. Tickets booked and paid for. And then, less than 24 hours before taking off for JFK ????, I was informed that the salary package of our gentleman's agreement did not get approved and that the company could only get to a figure that was 40% less than what we had agreed upon. And so the deal was off.??

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It took a day to digest, a week to process, a few drinks ???? in New York and some great jazz music ???? in New Orleans to clear my thoughts.

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But hey! They say everything happens for a reason, and that was exactly how I was going to tackle this unexpected mishap ??. As we Greeks say 'every obstacle is for the better' and this is exactly what gave me the motivation to say good riddance, end of story, now move on. So I enjoyed NY (New Orleans not so much TBH, although I did gladly overdose on jazz music) and returned to Athens jobless ??.

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And so came 9am Monday 02 October and there was no 'easy, nailed-it' job waiting for me. It was then that my strategic planning began ????.

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Realisation #1

What I've come to realise is that job searching while NOT having a job is actually very liberating. Let me explain what I mean. It's liberating in the sense that you have no given boundaries within which you need to operate. Mmm...still not so clear eh? What I mean is....

If you are looking for a new job from an existing employment you typically tend to manoeuvre within the universe you are already in.

So for example, if I were looking for a new job while still employed at Microsoft, I would probably be exploring other tech companies, probably yet another multinational environment or perhaps a partner of Microsoft etc. Yet now that I was out, I realised that I was NOT limited (in my mind) by any such 'boundaries', and found myself in a brand new, bigger universe that was all mine to explore. No (sub)conscious self-imposed limits. And so I activated my network (network = super important, can't stress enough how important this is ) and spoke to people I probably would not have otherwise even thought to reach out to and started having some very interesting conversations.

Every conversation made me a little wiser, added a new angle to my thinking and as time went by, I realised it was an evolutionary journey I was on??.

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Realisation #2

And yet despite this evolutionary journey, I still couldn't answer the 1 key question head hunters (or anyone for that matter) would ask me :

"What do you want?"

Being the 'generalista' that I am, my answer was always vague..."Perhaps sales, perhaps marketing, also looking into business development, perhaps consulting"…A bit of this and a bit of that...bla bla bla bullshit... which certainly didn't make any head hunters job easy (nor mine).?

Realisation #3

I think my 2 (interlinked) wisest decisions were:

(a) DO NOT PANIC

and consequently

(b) DO NOT RUSH

This meant I had to STOP ?? randomly and thoughtlessly sharing my CV left, right and centre, but instead to 'handpick' to whom I speak and to whom I send my CV.

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If you panic, you rush. If you rush you are likely to get caught in the trap of accepting the first job offer that comes your way, because that's the only tangible thing you have at that point in time. It might not be the best option, you might find yourself compromising on a lot of fronts. And of course you'll beat yourself up wondering what else is out there that I haven't yet explored? But once you have an offer in your hands (correction...a written offer!!), are you really going to say no? Would you risk turning that offer down in favour of what you might land further down the line?

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So my way out of this temptation was to intentionally limit how many companies I was going to talk to and which positions I would apply for. I wanted to fully control the process and more importantly to fully control the outcome.

I wanted to choose my next job, not the job to choose me.

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(In the end, I had interviews with only 4 companies. THAT'S how selective I was.)

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(BIG) Realisation #4

And then came my epiphany moment in mid-November. I love having epiphany moments (as I call them). This is the amazing moment when gut feeling and logic are fully aligned, when R=1. I later realised that my particular epiphany moment was actually in the making of, for quite a while, below the radar, in my not-so-conscious mind and it was just a matter of time, boosted by many interesting conversations, that it was to reveal itself as an epiphany moment.

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It was through a head-hunter, that I had an interview for a CMO position in a Greek technology company. I was told by the head hunter that although the CEO liked me, I was not to be selected for this CMO position. He was looking for someone with a deeper Marketing background. And you know what!?! I exhaled a sigh of relief and it was during this phone call of rejection that my epiphany moment surfaced and I started babbling to the head hunter about how I finally knew exactly what I was looking for.

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It was not a rehearsed speech. It was REAL IMPROVISATION, just like when jazz musicians unknown to eachother come together to create something melodiously amazing.

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"I want to work for a Greek company, one that started out as small but has now grown to a midsize company with a solid growth strategy, but a company that needs to change the way they work, bring structure to the organisation's set-up, set R&Rs, introduce departmental KPIs, the reporting to measure it, introduce processes and procedures, develop and implement a company culture etc. I want to be the one executing this business transformation. What role is this? COO? Chief of Staff? Chief Transformation Officer?"

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Who cares about the title. I had found EXACTLY what I had subconsciously been looking for all along. And what I found was not in the most expected of places. Not Sales, not Marketing, not business development. In fact the role I was subconsciously seeking brings together all the goodies from my generalist background, experience and skills.

In a nutshell:

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(Crazy) Realisation #5

And here is the crazy part…it was my article published in September following my Microsoft redundancy, the one about getting scolded by senior executives for mentioning in my CV that 'I bring clarity and structure to chaos' (not corporate language and shit) that triggered a phone call on which I heard the voice on the other side say "That's exactly what I am looking for". BANG!!

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My Conclusion #1

It was keeping a cool head, not panicking, not rushing, but instead remaining patient, with deep and iterative thinking, interesting conversations and an open-mind that I landed a job that fits 100% to what I had muttered over that epiphany phone call in mid-November.

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I believe you influence your own fate (in a good or bad way) and in retrospect I now see that I was in fact subconsciously paving the way for (a) my epiphany moment to surface and (b) to land a job that fully matched this epiphany.

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Every move counts, every conversation adds value, every thought is worth analysing.

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My Conclusion #2

If there are some words of wisdom that I can share -? hand on heart -> "take any unexpected layoff as a gift". Explore the opportunity to the max, absorb and learn from every conversation, enjoy the job searching journey and let it take you to unchartered waters. It might take you to unexpected and remarkable places.

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TO BE CONTINUED………

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Ha! And so you thought I would tell you exactly what job I landed and with which company. It seems you were greatly mistaken! This you soon find out from a simple new update to my LinkedIn profile. The juicy stuff is in the story above.

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In the months to come, I will be writing (many probably) articles about the experience of working for a Greek company having worked only in a purely Multinational environment for 25+ years. I will have many insights and interesting learnings to share on this topic no doubt!.

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STAY TUNED.

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This is Margarita, reporting live from Athens ??

Some articles on the role of the Chief Transformation Officer

• The role of the chief transformation officer | McKinsey
• What is a chief transformation officer? | McKinsey
• The New Chief Transformation Officer Role In Business (forbes.com)
• The Chief Transformation Officer: Your Navigator for the Uncharted Waters Ahead | Bain & Company
• Transformation Office for Business Reinvention | Accenture