New beginnings

It was a short time, but a great time - today is my last day as Technical Account Manager at Medallia. 

2020 was an incredibly trying year for so many people around the world and I feel like saying mine was difficult would be disrespectful to those who lost everything. So I will instead say it was a slightly challenging year for me. It was shortly after midday on April 8th, 2020 when I was let go from Lever along with a lot of incredibly talented people due to COVID, and I found myself at a crossroads in my career for the very first time. That organization and role gave me so much in a very short period of time and I harboured no resentment towards them, but damn did that setback hurt like hell. My partner was 4 months pregnant with our first child at the time and that was the first thing on my mind as I hung up the call that informed me I was no longer employed. About an hour after I got the news I called up a good friend who runs a gin distillery in Toronto (Reid's Distillery - check them out, you won’t regret it) and met up with him, masked up and socially distanced. He made me a Negroni and we chatted about the craziness of everything going on with COVID and for just a couple hours I forgot that I had absolutely no idea what I would do next. 

After a frenzy of applying for anything and everything in the 24-48 hours after being laid off, I took some time to really think how I could frame this experience in a positive way. I applied for EI/CERB and my partner and I made the decision that I would use this opportunity to stay fully present for my daughter’s birth and then start looking for permanent work in the Fall. Unfortunately, it meant we could no longer live in our fantastic apartment at Fort York, which we absolutely loved and had been in for almost 4 years. That said, we were incredibly lucky and privileged to have the support of my in-laws, who welcomed us, with open arms, into their home in Scarborough. And as I was preparing to welcome my daughter to this world that summer, I had the good fortune of connecting with an old colleague who was now working at Medallia. 

Long story short, after a very efficient and memorable interview process I was given an offer to take on a brand new role within the organization. The offer was too good to turn down and they were incredibly accommodating, allowing me to negotiate a much later start date so that I could still enjoy the birth of my daughter and some crucial early bonding time. Medallia gave me much more than an incredible role and relationships with some out-of-this-world talented people - it gave me a sense of stability and peace of mind at a time when I was experiencing so much uncertainty. For that I will be eternally grateful to that organization. I especially want to thank Sarah and Vin - for your incredible support from my very first day to my last. The team that has been built in Canada is one of the most supportive and talented I’ve ever worked with. I look forward to all the incredible things you will accomplish. And if anyone is looking, the team is growing like crazy and you would be very lucky to be a part of it.

In terms of what’s next - I’m very excited to be joining a small and mighty team at a Canadian crypto-fintech startup as a Junior Product Owner. The chaos and energy of the startup world has always suited me and I’m happy to help this incredible team grow and improve an already amazing product. 

Whenever I’m faced with what feels like a monumental decision in my life I’m often reminded of the quote by Steve Jobs in his Stanford address: “...you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward.” I can’t wait to see how it all connects when I look back on this pivotal time in my life.