If you hate your job, read this
Hi, my name is Brie, and I’m a recovering fake version of myself.
As I hit my 30s, I realized I’d spent the previous decade with two distinct personalities: my actual personality and my work-friendly version of my personality, or what I thought of at the time as “professional.”
Here’s how I evolved over the course of my 20s:
College Brie: early 20s, pink hair, eyebrow ring, converse shoes, lots and lots of hoodies. I promise I wasn’t emo.
Corporate Brie: mid-to-late 20s, back to blonde hair, Kendra Scott earrings, business casual attire, incredibly uncomfortable heels
Startup Brie: 29+, still blonde hair and Kendra Scott earrings (they’re super cute), converse shoes, jeans/leggings every day
The aspects of my personality that manifested didn’t just happen — they were extremely well-thought out and well-intentioned, only completely misguided.
You Do Not Need to Conform to Get a Good Job
I was not an over achiever in college per se. I did very well in my courses — made the Dean’s List even — but I also did very well in partying.
The trigger for my first evolution was my impending graduation from college.
When it came to internships, I opted to work at an overnight summer camp instead. Not only is this arguably WAY harder and full of much more responsibility than any internship (you know, like kids’ lives), I was able to work up into a leadership position after my junior year.
There isn’t one job that prepared me better for working with clients than being a summer camp counselor. I gained 400+ experiences meeting parents who were dropping off their precious babies for the first time ever and had to instantly earn trust, understand their needs and gain their confidence within minutes.
And I learned I was actually pretty damn good at it.
If that doesn’t prepare you for a role in client services, I don’t know what will.
I knew the work I was doing was teaching me about life, leadership, grace under pressure, and managing responsibility in a non-millennial way, but when I would return to school, I was bombarded with the message that I somehow wasted my summer and would never be able to get a good job out of school.
When it was time to go out in the real world, I thought I’d ever get a job with pink hair. So I morphed into “Corporate Brie.”
I got a job at New York and Company my last semester of school so I could load up on clothes I would hate wearing at a discount. Well-intentioned, by misguided.
Be Yourself At Home and at Work
I held a couple positions throughout my early-to-late 20s. A common theme among them was I had to be someone I’m not.
This is not to say going into a corporate environment is a bad thing. It just wasn’t my thing, and I had to learn that the hard way.
I was thrilled to start at this corporate company. I had been working in a struggling agency and was worried I couldn’t pay the mortgage on my new home because I wasn’t getting paid on time.
When I started at this company, I got a $10k raise (and was actually paid it every two weeks) with half the workload I was doing in an agency, a company cell phone, a company iPad, and an easy 9–5 work schedule. How could this not be a perfect place to work?!
Fast forward a few months, and I felt absolutely stifled. I absorbed as much as I could, and became an asset quickly, but I had no autonomy due to all the red tape and politics within the organization.
In order to survive the politics, I felt like I had to lie every day.
I’m not lying when I say this is the actual advice I received from co-workers:
- “Be nice to so-and-so even though he’s a jerk because he has seniority. He will try to get your fired if you piss him off.”
- “Don’t talk about co-worker 1 to co-worker 2. Co-worker 1 had an affair with co-worker 2’s husband and it’s awkward.”
- “Stroke the ego of so-and-so because they’re close to the executive team”
- “Don’t suggest any new ideas because if they fail, everyone will blame you”
- “When the company survey comes out, lie. They hunt down anyone who says anything negative. Oh and be sure to also lie on the ‘Best Company to Work” surveys too or else they’ll be mad if we don’t win.”
Before you think, “well, you just found the wrong corporation to work for,” let me be vague but say they win awards nationally for being the best place to work every year.
I learned some really bad habits while working in that environment. When I started to realize I was living a double life and that I wasn’t going to learn at the pace I needed to because innovation was so frowned upon, I made the decision to leave.
And I wasn’t going to go just anywhere.
I was going to find a place where I could earn and keep respect from the work I did, work autonomously, learn and fail fast, influence change if it was going to help the company and its clients, and where I could speak freely without fear of losing my job every day.
Interview Your Potential Employer for Culture
It came down to two companies toward the end of my job search. I had scoured the internet to research HubSpot marketing agencies and which ones had the culture I was looking for.
I knew of my current company, but had been out of the game for a while and wanted to do my due diligence.
Company 1 had contacted me earlier, so I was well into the interview process before IMPACT contacted me. Their interview process consisted of the following:
- 30-minute call with CEO
- 1-hour call all with potential boss
- 1-hour call with potential co-worker 1, who asked the same questions as potential boss
- 1-hour call with potential co-worker 2, who asked the same questions as potential boss
- 1-hour call with potential co-worker 3, who asked the same questions as potential boss
- 1-hour call with potential co-worker 4, who asked the same questions as potential boss
- 1-hour call with potential co-worker 5, who asked the same questions as potential boss
- 1-hour call with potential co-worker 6, who asked the same questions as potential boss
- 30-minute call with CEO, which I thought was the offer call, but ended up being another interview asking me if I would be willing to work with software I’d never worked with before and never claimed to know
- Few-minute call with CEO, which was finally the offer
I have to admit, I was pissed when the call I thought would be the offer was not. I had a full-time job still and was taking these calls in my car, on my lunch break, in random parking lots…wherever I could. They never explained that I would have that many calls, so I was unaware what next steps were constantly.
It was a lot of my time and I was highly annoyed that I had to repeat answers to the same questions over and over again. I found out later, they did that so they could “compare my answers and make sure I wasn’t lying.” Thanks.
The CEO also came across as a jerk, and I didn’t appreciate him trying to push me into working with software where I could add no value. When I declined the offer, he was extremely rude to me.
On the flip side, IMPACT reached out to me between calls 5 and 6 of Company 1. My process went like this:
- 10-minute call with CEO, Bob Ruffolo
- 30-minute call with CEO and my potential boss
- 30-minute situational activity run by the CEO
- (Interlude — this is where I told him I had been offered a position at Company 1, and got immediate feedback that they wanted me. I declined Company 1’s offer 5 seconds later.)
- 2-day visit in-office to meet the whole team with an offer waiting for me at the end of day 2.
- I was able to put in 5 weeks notice to make sure I could train my replacement, and IMPACT not only was okay with that, they respected it.
I am thankful I went through Company 1’s hiring process because it showed me how drastically different IMPACT was.
- My time was respected.
- Bob mentioned a book they use to manage by objectives, Traction. I read it in a day and knew that’s the autonomy I was looking for.
- I got feedback on my situational activity from Bob. Freaking. Ruffolo. How cool is that?!
- They cared about my well being and if I would feel this is the right fit for me. They understood I was interviewing them too.
- They were okay with me putting in a long notice. The fact that they respected it shows me they respect other businesses and are professional/realistic about what it’s like to change jobs.
The stars aligned and I’ve been with IMPACT for almost 3 years.
I’m the same version of myself at work and at home, and actually a better version of myself at home due to all the things I’m learning at work.
Had I not had the negative experiences I had, it would have taken me a lot longer to understand what I valued and what is important to me in the workplace.
Hopefully by reading my story, you can fast track your learning and find somewhere that is perfect for you.
Happy job hunting! And, oh yea! We’re hiring.
Hey! I’d love it if you’d go check out an episode of my video podcast for female marketers, MarketHer. You can find us on iTunes.
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