💥 The Best + Worst Days of 2023

BTW: If you’d rather listen to Modern Mavericks as a podcast, click here!

Just like I love seeing everyone’s Spotify Wrapped at the end of the year and the creative TikTok spin on people’s “Dating Wrapped,” I took a moment to look back on 2023 in terms of the meaningful career I’m building. 

And it was clear that this year was a rather extreme mix of proud highs and tearful lows.

With just three more days of 2023, I’m exposing the absolute best days of my year and the absolute worst days of my year- as they pertain to my work, business, and career.

I know most of you will be able to relate to the bad days– and it’s my hope that you’ll be able to recognize the same kind of feeling I had on my best days of work this year and use that as a sign as to what you really love, are great at, and what truly energizes you.

🥂 To more of that in 2024!

🥴 The worst days of my career in 2023:

1. The “Burn It All Down” Day

For the better part of three years, I’d been a full-time solo entrepreneur, running and scaling a career coaching business that had replaced my corporate salary and had facilitated nearly 100 successful career pivots for other corporate millennials. 

I was the picture of a modern “success story” in my own right, turning my passion and expertise for career coaching into a bonafide business. 

Except that business was making me miserable.

And finally, one day in January 2023, I admitted- out loud- that I didn't like my business model and wanted to burn it all down. (Kinda.)

And while that decision wasn’t done in just one day, that day of admitting I didn’t want what I thought I wanted (ironically, the very struggle I love to help people solve in their own careers) was the hardest, most painful, most tear-drenched, most necessary day of my year. 

It also kicked off my five-month job search (as a job search expert)- which brings us to…

2. The Rejection I Didn’t See Coming

I’ll be honest, I thought I could search for a job in stealth mode and just hard-launch a dream job offer on LinkedIn… you know, like precedented times!

So that’s what I did in February. After tossing my resume into the mix for a few Learning & Development jobs, I found a job posting for something a little different that I was SO excited about. It was an amazing blend of content, community, and career development, and for a small brand that I really admired.

After shooting my shot in the LinkedIn DMs, the hiring manager and I hit it off immediately. Next thing I knew, I was speeding through the interview process, submitting an extensive project, and sending them my references and salary goals! I had this in the bag! 

Right? LOL no, this is the job search we’re talking about, remember? 

It ain't over until you’re sitting in New Hire Orientation.

After sending my references and salary target, the hiring manager promised she’d get me a final update on a specific day. And when that update came through, I didn’t even have to open the email before my heart dropped – it was right there in the subject line: “Not moving forward.”

I was truly devastated.

I was embarrassed for forgetting that there were other candidates in the process.

And I was nervous that now I’d have to get public about my job search. 

And with that, came the 3rd worst day of my career this year… 

3. The $600 Dumpster Fire 

What do you do when you’re a career pivot and job search expert who’s developed proven resume and cover letter templates that have gotten hundreds of other people their dream jobs?

Well, if you’re me, you start to believe you’re an imposter and nothing you’ve ever done is correct and you need to pay someone else who calls themselves an “expert” to show you how it’s really done.

The sting of the aforementioned rejection turned into something of a panic, when I became convinced that I needed a “professional” resume writing service to update my resume and “properly” communicate how much value I brought to the table after building my own business.

So, I hopped on the phone with an agency that came with tons of high reviews. 

I was to give them my current resume and a 30-minute phone call wherein I discussed every detail of my experience, and in turn they were to give me a standout, SEO-optimized resume that would help me secure a dream job quickly.

Friend, when I tell you my jaw dRoppEd to the floor when I beheld what they sent me.

To call it a resume would be generous.

It was a sloppy, incoherent hodgepodge of corporate jargon I’m convinced was “written” by an off brand ChatGPT. I’ve truly never seen anything like it!! 😂

Oh, the best part? 

It was 600-fucking-dollars.

I’m embarrassed even writing that.

I would NEVER submit this resume to a real job opening, so it’s a great thing I was still applying for roles with my own resume instead of banking my progress on this one.

But the faith I put into this horror of a resume service only reminded me that I know that the heck I’m doing as an HR veteran and career coach, and not to put my career power in anyone else's hands.

Woof! OK, thankfully, that all happened in the first few months of the year, and the best days of my career this year were only just to come!

🥰 The BEST days of my career in 2023:

1. Welcome to Back to Corporate!

55 applications.

10 interview invitations.

5 months.

A dream job offer.

The day my top-choice team chose me back and I signed my offer letter was one big celebration.

A new Era in my career as a multi-hyphenate (balancing corporate and entrepreneurship) was underscored by one of the best personal days of 2023– going to the Eras Tour!

2. The Would-Be Dropout’s Redemption Arc

In August, I was invited to lead a workshop & talk at NYU about using LinkedIn to increase your income, visibility, and career opportunity. 

The invitation came because of the way I’d set up my own LinkedIn profile and my personal website– how I’d built my own personal brand to showcase why I’m the right person to come in and educate/motivate a group around owning their careers.

The session itself was a huge success– a packed room of eager and engaged students; thinking on my feet when my original group activity wasn’t feasible to turn it into something even better; seeing on the day’s agenda that the Editor In Chief of Cosmopolitan magazine Jessica Giles was set to speak to the group after after me!

But what made this day one of the best of the year was reflecting on the fact that I almost dropped out of NYU after my freshman year due to deep depression. 

Due to the feeling that I didn’t have a purpose.

But I stayed, and it was at NYU that I started career coaching, found my voice as a public speaker, and landed my first full time job in Learning & Development after graduation.

I’ve been open about my struggle with depression and anxiety here in the newsletter, and this opportunity to be invited by NYU as an alumna to do something I absolutely love and am recognized for being great at was the most wonderful feeling. 

I am so, so grateful for that day. 

3.  “Look at Us- Who Would’ve Thought?”

In May, I interviewed Emma Hinchliffe about what it’s like to write about Fortune magazine’s Most Successful Women for her career. Our conversation spans Emma’s early journalism career, to how to landed at Fortune, to what she does to prepare for hard-hitting Q&As with big names like Kim Kardashian and Megan Markle.

What struck me about this day, though, was looking across the podcasting table at a woman I’d gone to highschool with and whose career now inspires my own.

Emma and I weren’t close in high school, but we both worked on the school newspaper. And having a raw, face-to-face conversation about our careers in the 13+ years since then was an energizing full circle to moment. 

I remember thinking, “We came from the same place, are doing pretty different things on paper, but both have this fire to do and build something we’re proud of.”

To have that conversation and reflect on the growth that’s gotten me to this place, was an awesome feeling.

Thanks for reading all of that! Trust, there were tons of sad and amazing days in between those “Top 6,” and taking a moment at the end of the year to reflect on the highs and lows allows us to be even more intentional about next year.

AND: I’d love to celebrate your best days and commiserate about your worst from 2023– reply to this newsletter and share them with me!

KGYGT (keep going, you got this),

Janel

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