After years of hard work, it had paid off. I finished my MBA at a great school, I got my product manager job in Silicon Valley, I was living in California and jet setting everywhere. To the outside observer, I was “living the life” but something was off…
After ~3 years, I quit. I voluntarily left my Technical Product Manager position at eBay in Silicon Valley as triggers in my personal life indicated that I needed a change. I have since moved into my younger brother’s apartment in East Village Manhattan and am currently cruising down the “job hunt highway” and I am certainly not looking back 
What happened?
This was certainly not an easy decision, it’s really not something that just hits you one day. I realized something was “off” for me for about a year prior to leaving California. There were so many factors at hand so I couldn’t quite isolate what the source of the trouble was and that certainly played a role in my not making a firm decision earlier. Let me also mention that I had the privilege of working with an excellent team at eBay and this is a reflection of my own personal journey and has nothing to do with the company, its employees, its culture or anything like that.
In the back of my mind I also knew that once I made the decision to leave California the rumor mills would start flying (“Did she get fired? She must have been terrible at her job, no one would leave a job like that…”). The reality was I needed to take some time to prioritize my personal life. It was a risky decision, it was a scary decision and honestly it wasn’t something I had ever really prioritized previously. As I continued to wonder how to make a change I learned that I needed go with my gut, let go and see where life would take me. Honestly, now after having made the move some days I’m fully motivated to find my next gig and other days are a little harder but I’ve been making a conscious effort to find and develop new skills that push me through the hard days in a positive and fulfilling way.
During breaks throughout my job hunt process I find myself reflecting and recognizing the evolution of my perspectives and approaches to “landing the job”. I completed my MBA at Cornell Tech only 3 short years ago and I thought the post-MBA recruiting was all I needed to know to get the next job, but what I’ve noticed is that while the requirements and the strategies to landing a job have changed slightly, my criteria for the next gig has changed even more.
What am I looking for in my next gig?
It didn’t happen overnight but I have come to recognize that I am no longer looking for X salary with Y title at Z company, that’s not what is truly motivating to me. Instead I’m looking for non-tangible things like impact, meaning, and growth potential. I still want to work within technology but more than that I want a job that doesn’t actually feel like work, one that I’m intrinsically motivated by and am excited to jump out of bed to work on.
But to truly find a “job” like this I also recognized that I needed to do a bit of homework first. Basically I needed to truly understand who I am and what motivates me, only then can I match my intrinsic motivators with the right companies and approach them passionately
My Approach: Cold Emails, Coffee Chats & Blogs
While I recognized that I needed to do some self-reflection, it definitely took me a while to come to terms with the fact that I had lost touch with what motivated me. Let’s face it, when we’re going through life and working full-time when do we really have time to pull ourselves out of the daily grind to reassess and reflect on whether we really like what we’re doing? So rather than get discouraged by my new discovery about myself, I decided to change my perspective about what seemed like a daunting task. I leveraged LinkedIn and my personal network to cold email interesting people asking to have frank conversations with them over coffee. I wasn’t sure if it would work but surprisingly everyone who I contacted was very supportive and more than happy to spend 30 minutes to chat and help out
I went into most conversations expecting to come out with a checklist of things to do that that would fast track me to my coveted job. Wrong (but in a good way). Instead what happened was just a normal, fun conversation that touched on career and jobs but also touched on life and self-reflection. Funny enough sometimes both of us would recognize that we were facing similar bumps in our career tracks despite the delta in experience.
Current Thoughts in my Journey
I have now had a handful of discussions with people from varying industries, backgrounds and levels of work experience. I don’t have all of the answers and I still feel like I have a little bit further to go before landing the final gig but I will say that despite not having a job yet and not having all of my own regular comforts I couldn’t be happier with my decision. Even though things are uncertain and I have no clue where I will end up I know this change was needed and in time I will understand why. Sometimes I even catch myself being proud of myself for having made such an important decision and sticking to it 
As I talk to more and more people I have been gathering little nuggets of wisdom along the way. I want this blog to be a place where I share what I learn along my journey but also to be a playground where I express my thoughts as I peel back my layers and reconnect my interests with what will bring value and ultimately help me with my new adventure of finding a new job
To anyone who is in a rut and contemplating a change, understand and embrace that the decision is not easy and can be scary at times. I still have my “freak-out” moments (even after I made the move) but as time has passed and my perspective has adjusted, the frequency of the negative thoughts has reduced. I’m embracing that change doesn’t have to be scary, for all I know I may end up back in California and I’m okay with that. I know in my gut that this change is what I needed and I believe in myself that I will make it work for me.
Have faith in yourself and your abilities, do your homework and create your next opportunity for yourself 
