My career has been anything but linear.
I graduated college in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis (JMU class of 2011) and so I jumped on the first job offer I was given. Just before Thanksgiving of my senior year of college, I accepted a job with a government contracting firm called High Performance Technologies, Inc based out of Northern Virginia. In all honesty, I had no idea what I’d be doing, but I was so excited to have a job when I graduated, I didn’t much care.
Fast forward a year and I was a few months into my first real job. Earning my first real paychecks, paying rent, buying groceries, and living the “adult” life. Pretty quickly, I realized this wasn’t the job for me. I was stuck working as a project management assistant in the Project Management Office (PMO) of a massive federal government contract. I was the red tape that everyone loves to complain about. So what did I do?
Well, roughly four years later, I finally made a career change. If I’d had my say, I would have changed jobs years prior, but things didn’t work out that way. Regardless, I jumped out of the world of project management and government contracting and started a career in Search Engine Optimization at a premier digital marketing agency. Initially, I loved the fast paced, agency lifestyle. It was such a breath of fresh air compared to the glacial pace of the federal world. However, a few years in, I began to realize that SEO wasn’t my dream job. I was learning a lot, I was making my clients happy, but I wasn’t feeling fulfilled. I felt like there was more in my career that I was looking for.
I began speaking internally to our different teams, learning about the different areas of the business and what they worked on. Eventually, I found an opening within one of the product development teams as a technical operations and support specialist. This was quasi-product management, which I’d come to fall in love with during my time in SEO. I was the SEO department liaison to our internal product development team that built the internal tools and services that we used within the SEO department. I loved the way product managers led such monumental tasks and features with the grace and precision of a conductor leading a symphony orchestra.
After a year or so as a technical operations and support specialist, I began to realize that there weren’t going to be any openings as a product manager within my group–at least any time soon. Covid had struck and my agency had gone into survival mode. Thankfully, we had avoided layoffs, but hiring was frozen and any internal changes were frowned upon. By chance, I happened upon a job posting for a product manager at an video game stats and analytics company that I’d been following for years. I applied on a whim, expecting no response and somehow ended up with the job.
A year into that job, I was pretty suddenly laid off. We’d run out of money and my team (focused primarily on new ventures and new products) was first on the chopping block. It made financial sense, but it stung. With a two-year-old and a wife pregnant with baby number two, I frantically tried to figure out what the next step in my career would be. I was prepared to take any job that would hire me. I needed to keep the lights on, the house warm, and food on the table.
Almost exactly one month to the day I was laid off, I signed an offer letter with my current employer, Lumin as a product manager. Not only did I have a new job, but I had one that would pay the bills and allow me to continue pursuing a career in product. Almost a year into my time at Lumin, my boss (our CEO at the time) presented me with an exciting opportunity that I jumped on. He asked if I would consider leaving product to become our knowledge manager. As a rapidly growing startup, we’d realized we had a huge deficiency at onboarding new employees, teaching them about Lumin and the Lumin Way, and equipping them to succeed in their role. I graciously accepted the role, and have now been our knowledge manager for about four months.
So, why the life story? Why the overly detailed narrative of my professional experience? Well, it’s the context as to why I am launching a side gig as a career coach. Over the last eleven years, I’ve learned that no one career journey is alike. Everyone takes a unique path. Everyone has a unique story to tell. I was incredibly blessed to have people in my life who coached me along the way and helped me find the right roles for me that helped me to thrive and become the person I am today. And so, I want to do that for others. I want to help the next person figure out where the want to go and how to get there.
If that sounds like you, I’d love to help. It brings me great joy to get to know someone, understand their story, and help them find the career that they will thrive in. Life is too short to work a job you don’t love. There are countless companies that care deeply for their employees and want to see them succeed.
If you are feeling stuck at a crossroads. If you are feeling unsure about where you want to go. If you are pretty sure about where you want to go but unsure how to get there, let’s talk. I’d love to help you discover your dreams and achieve them.
That said, welcome to Career Coaching with Isaac. Let’s get started.