Hi everyone, I’ve been in this app for about a month and think it’s such a great community to help each other out. You all are so smart and empathetic and I miss being a part of a smart community. I’m ex-MSFT, ex-INTL, ex-agency, ex-trying to figure out life my way too lol UC Berkeley Haas alum, and have really felt like being back in the flow with other highly successful people and back in the bubble community of Silicon Valley with world-class people like yourselves. Plus seeing the TCs, IPO windfalls, etc makes me feel like I’m massively missing out. My challenge has been I started out at MSFT in inside sales, I annihilated the trainings with executives above my peers, then my mentor taught me privately to just do data entry. Years later he’s still in the same role... Then Vista came out and everyone disliked the security pop-ups etc. So I wanted to pivot into Product to create better and innovative products. Recruiters like at Google would only call me back for a sales job, even tho I told them I wanted otherwise. (I really hate the recruiting process, it makes me feel like I have no direction and am subject to the narrow-minded whims of those hiring aka “fit” vs hiring someone who can add a lot more value in a bigger way than they preconceived). Anyway so I took my career in my own hands, put my own funds ($20k+) into FB apps, got 5 star ratings, 26k users, etc. Then users didn’t want to pay for apps :/ So I joined a company doing $20M online. They didn’t have the SV chops to believe in UI/UX, and making a world-class product, despite my best efforts of showing them a million ways to improve it. So then I feel I’m left with little results due to no fault of my own, to leverage to get a better job. Done my own thing since then for a while. Recently helped scale a 10 year old company’s revenues 4x in less than 2 years part time. Point is I’m bored, underpaid, undervalued, net worth at 0, and I’m panicking and scrambling to try to figure out the best way to get back on a high-growth trajectory with equally awesome people. I hate working alone behind my computer all the time, I want to be around the right energy in the right boat at the right time, and need to actually get IN that boat asap rather than observing from the outside. Can anyone give me a helping hand in the right way? Any clarity and guidance would also be appreciated, as well as any Offers. Looking at companies like pre-IPO unicorns like Robinhood, UIpath, etc. Even Amazon bc of the diversity of work and stability of platform, tho I hear the WLB sucks. I’d at least rather get paid well working with solid colleagues than nothing. Thank you in advance.
Tl;dr
Food luck fellow bear 🐻
I feel for you. Trying to find that "boat" for years too. I can tell you it doesn't work like that. I've worked with a few successful entrepreneurs but many couldn't succeed in the same way as their first ventures. Some people get lucky. Some are really great and can have repeated successes. Some will build stuff from ground up and you can join them if you want but success is never guaranteed. I've placed my bets on a few, and none have worked out. You have diverse experience but recruiters don't hire generalist no matter how good you are. My advice is to seek out your network, seek out the job you want, and tailor your resume to that job. And don't be too hard on yourself about trying to "achieve" something. You have done well and it's just that some things don't work out the way you want it. Good luck!
Wishing you the best