Hello, and welcome back to the awfully quiet podcast. I'm really excited for you to be tuning in today. My life is crazy town at the moment. I gotta be honest. it feels like everything is happening at once. Just come back from holiday about two weeks ago and been very busy at work. You know how it is post holiday, there's lots and lots of things that need to be taken care of.

We have an event come up at work the week after next, so, that I'm involved in. So yeah, lots on, lots on my agenda. Plus wedding planning, which is mostly fun. And I'm saying that I almost feel like I'm, I'm lying because it is very stressful and I'm trying to tell myself it is fun because it really should be.

I almost feel bad for how stressed out I am and how little I appreciate those little moments. Like, literally.the day before yesterday, I picked up my dress. I had this beautiful moment with my maid of honor, you know, picking up the dress, drinking some champagne, just this beautiful day. But I came in after work, I had so many things on my mind.

And at the same time, I like, like locking down a photographer. making sure that everything, happens before the wedding, just because we're very late on a lot of things. And my INTJ profile does not feel very aligned at the moment. So I think. everybody is around me is slightly confused as to why I'm doing all of this so late, why I'm being so spontaneous suddenly when it comes to my wedding, but it's just how it is.

And part of me appreciates that part of me likes that because finally I'm able to loosen the grip a little bit and kind of I'm a little bit more easier going, which is untypical, which is not typical for me. And at the same time, I'm like, Oh, I would love to have things locked down and ready for the day.

I think up until the night before the wedding, maybe even the morning off, I'm not even able to like really relax and appreciate this moment. And I'm really hoping that I get to that place where on the day I'm fully there, I can appreciate it. It's a beautiful day for my family, for my friends, obviously for us as a couple.

Ah, but at this point, we're not quite there yet. And today, what I'm bringing to you is a little bit of a reflection and of, a story time about a time in my career that was pivotal for me. And I thought about this moment this week, actually, what I ask my students in three day interview prep to do is to draw their career journey today, to just kind of like figure outhow their career went and how happy they were, how aligned they felt at any point in their career.

And what were the drivers of that alignment or fulfillment, or, you know, when they didn't feel aligned or fulfilled, what were the reasons for that to almost like come up with, some of the criteria that are really, really important to you in your career. And I thought back to the moment in my personal career, that was probably the most pivotal one.

And the one. Yeah. That still stays with me and it was this, this crazy time very early on in my career, but, but equally the most exciting and the biggest change, the biggest development. I, I ever made within just a matter of weeks and also in terms of what I made. So I know today this day and age is all about, you know, You know, six figure salaries and 10 K month and making it overnight and, Sunday earning a lot of money, which, which didn't happen as impactful as that.

So I'm not click baiting you on anything, but there was a significant change in my position in my salary from, yeah. Okay. Bye. One day to another. And, that has always stuck with me as something that was. Outstanding for me in my career. I love to think back to it and equally the time that preceded this move and this, development was a very tough time for me.

So today I'm bringing you back to a time in my career that was about a good. eight, nine years ago. And it was just after I finished my bachelor's that I really wanted to pursue a master's in marketing. I had done a bachelor's degree in communications and with a little bit of business administration, but I really wanted to go deeper into marketing and wanted to do a master that specifically catered to, to marketing.

And At the time I was considering, you know, whether to do this full time or whether to do this almost like as a side gig because equally I was really eager to start working and to start gaining some, job experience because I knew that was going to be really Really, really important on my CV, you know, that was, you know, back in the days, everybody was like, well, you gotta have job experience.

You gotta have work experience. That is not just, you know, your waitressing job. That is not just, your kind of, you know, side job that you had. But something that was going to help you land a really good job. And my plan at the time really was to study a master's in marketing, get my degree in marketing and then start as a, some sort of trainee or graduate program in a big FMCG company.

So within fast moving consumer goods, I was always really, really interested in working Brands with big iconic brands and to do their branding and marketing and their comms is always something that stood out to me from, from a creative point of view, from a brand management point of view. And I always, I don't know what it was, but I was always really, really inspired whenever I saw marketing and branding done well.

So that was what I wanted to do at the time. And I ended up Opting for a master's in marketing that I could do on the side. So it was almost like evening programs and on the weekends. And at the time I had a job at a personal agency, it was like a working student job that I thought was really, really cool.

I worked there because I had a friend who worked there previously and she was super happy and it was this kind of cool, small team, startup, personal agency. They had a super fancy office location, one of the fanciest office locations, so to speak, in the whole town, very prestigious. And then very startup feeling, like a lot of.

young people work there.at a very young age, they get very fancy offices. And then, from what it felt like a really cool office culture, it's like people dressing up for work. I think in today's day and age, it all, it's almost giving selling sunset vibes, but obviously not to that same degree, but a little bit like that.

And in hindsight, I would say Lots of parallels to that too. So I worked at this, personnel agency as a working student and What I really wanted to try and do was keep working there and do my master's degree at the same time. So almost like work full time, do my master's in the evening and on the weekends.

I had seen a couple other people do this and I was really intrigued by the idea. As I said. To gain work experience, work in this really cool up and coming team, you know, be one of them, be one of those cool people who come in to the office with their high heels, who look good, who do interviews all day, make money, and then go to university at night, get their degree, you know, this kind of really career driven type feel that if you think about it seven, eight years ago, that was really cool.

So that was what I, what I really strived for. And it ended up happening. So I got, a job offered from them. I was able to do my master's on the side. No, it was not like they paid for it, but I paid for it myself. But still, I was really grateful for the opportunity. As I said, I really, really wanted to belong in that team.

And I really, really wanted to make this work. And I felt like the master's program in itself was really aligned to what I was trying to achieve. But at the end of the day, and a few months in, I would say, I really didn't feel like I, that, like that was the right environment for me. It almost felt. It almost felt toxic to me just because I, I didn't really belong.

I wasn't really part of the team when it comes to this particular type job. You can imagine it's always, you know, provision based and then you obviously have clients that you work with and clients that you're being given. And it's almost about, you know, it's kind of weekly meetings where it's about, Oh, and how are your deals going?

And, you know, did you recruit anyone? And, it felt like I was, because I was the, the newest in the team, I was always left with the kind of clients and the client kind of positions to fill that nobody else really wanted. And so one of those clients that nobody else really wanted, I worked with and I must say I really ended up clicking with them.

So it started out as this type of client that was. That didn't have the most attractive positions to fill. It was almost like this kind of, contractor based positions, not really. The, you know, you can't really make huge provisions from that. It wasn't as attractive to anyone else. So I ended up with that client, but then the longer I worked with them, the longer I worked with their HR department, I got better jobs and I got better, positions to fill for them.

So it started out with like, you know, office based contractor positions, but I ended up recruiting longer term marketing and sales candidates for them. And so that was really, really interesting. So I built that client from the ground up and people started to notice and the management started to see, wow, this really seems to be working well.

And, you know, they have, you know, a lot more jobs for you, which is really good. So I kind of built that client. And it started to work out really well and still, I didn't feel, I probably just didn't feel like myself in the group as I tried to describe it. And as I said, it was like this very cool group from the outside.

It looked like, oh, my God, I want to be part of that. They all seem to be friends. They all seem to be having fun. They're all living their life and almost like building their career. So from the outside in, it looked really attractive, but I never felt like I belonged. And in hindsight, I think what it was, and I didn't notice it at the time, but I was probably the only introvert.

I was a lot calmer, a lot quieter, a lot less outgoing. I was not, I was really not a networker, so I almost preferred just kind of one to one conversations. I was never really the life of the party when I was there. And yeah, that didn't really, that wasn't really a good match for me. And so, yeah, in hindsight, you know, I'm not too surprised why I didn't feel like I belonged.

And there was also some toxicity in the, in the office, I'd say. So I think that Selling Sunset reference is actually quite accurate. Not that there was so much drama, but underlying, there were always this kind of, you know, you knew who liked each other at the office and who didn't. And I was just not that big of a part of the group.

And so, like I said, build up this client, did my own thing, stuck with it. And then one day, this, HR lady from that client I had, the person that I worked with a lot who ended up giving me a lot more, jobs and a lot more, recruitments to handle for and with her, reached out to me and was like, you know what, Hannah, we have A vacancy in our team, and we would love for you to consider applying for it.

And that vacancy was an HR business partner position. And. At the time I had obviously never worked in HR. I was at a personal agency. I started out as a working student, then did this full time for maybe about a year or so. So I did a lot of recruitments. I did a lot of interviews, but I've never really done an HR job.

So I'm like, why would you give me this job? Or why would you have me apply for a job that I'm clearly not? Qualified for and that I literally don't bring any experience and then I was just so perplexed and. I think I said no right off the bat. I was like, because you know what? This wasn't part of my plan.

My plan was just kind of stick it out at this personnel agency, do my master's. And then once I had finished the master's, I wanted to apply, like I said, at like a big FMCG company, get a trainee program, a graduate program, and then off I go. That was the plan. I wasn't going to go into HR. Can you imagine?

Like you, you wanna be a marketer and then you start in hr and then any company in the world will never see you as a marketer again. Once you start in hr, how are you gonna get out? so that wasn't part of the plan. So I was like, you know, I'm flattered. But no, regardless, she was persistent. She like, sent me the job description and I looked at the job description and I'm like.

I don't fulfill anything on that job description. Like I don't bring this experience that you're asking for. I have not studied HR or anything along those lines. Like there was maybe one point down below, you know, where, where it's about soft skills and, you know, presentation skills and English and so on.

Yes. I bring some of the soft skills on this job description, but I literally don't bring anything else. I think they were in a position where they didn't really have a lot of candidates for the role. Certainly not internally, and they've not been getting the right profiles from externally. So they had this experience with me working together and me obviously doing great for the recruitments that we had worked on.

But other than that, that was, that was the basis they went from. So I said, no. And I kept saying, no, I think it, it was weeks and weeks. I remember at one point we had a lunch with this client, like my management at the time, me, we had lunch with them. And even then they asked me again, they were like, You know, did you think about, did you think about applying?

We think you could be a great fit for the team. We think this could work really well. We know that you, that this was not part of your plan, but you know, you can always do marketing down the line. And I said no time and time again. And so I still remember, remember to this day, it was a Friday afternoon.

I was at work. And just painting the picture for you, what my life looked like at the time I was in my mid twenties, probably like 24. My Friday nights were working until six at that personal agency and then walking over to the university where I did my night classes. So from six to nine, I would do nine classes.

And then the next morning I would be back at university at eight o'clock Until like 4 or 5 p. m. That afternoon studying. That was, that was my mid twenties. Yeah. About that, but no regrets here. Oh, we had a great marketing education from it. So, that was what it looked like. And there was just something on that Friday with.

The team and the management at my job that just rubbed me the wrong way. I was so frustrated. I really didn't like it. Like I said, I didn't feel great, but it was always just kind of underlying. And I was never to the point where I'd consider leaving. And I went home and that weekend, I think it was a Saturday night.

I was out with family actually. And I thought to myself. Why am I not giving this a try? Like, clearly there is a job, like, they want me, like, they have been reaching out time and time again, and I have rejected them time and time again. And it just feels like. Somebody is trying to steer me in the right direction and I'm being stubborn.

And so I go in my mind, I'm like, well, I can just reach out because they've not, they didn't say, you know, just let us know and we'll give you the job. They were like, well, you just apply. Let's see. And so I'm like, well, let's have the conversation then. So that Saturday night from my phone, pick up the email to my client.

I was like, you know what? I'm going to give it a try. I'm going to apply for that position. And couple, couple of days later, I had an interview with the HR director at the time. And it was in the offices of a client. I had been there before I actually lived around the corner. It's this beautiful, very modern office right in the center of the city.

And as I was walking in, I could already feel. I could already feel things shift. Like the energy was a lot different. It was a lot more corporate. There was a lot more of a, yeah, that corporate vibe of like, Oh, these are, this is like a big firm kind of type organization and company. And I went up with the elevator.

I greeted the HR director, very nice lady. We, it felt like A really casual conversation, I must say. I think what I had anticipated was this kind of very stiff kind of. Very, very serious meeting, but she was just so good at interviewing me. It was like a really, it was a no bullshit interview. She was super, super honest.

She took a lot of notes. She clearly, her team had let her know that they. We're very happy working with me together and that, that they could really see me on the team. And so I think I've started from a really good base, but then the interview was just like, it was really good. And I was in awe because my job at that time was to do interviews with other people.

And so I was almost like, Oh, this lady does a really good job at interviewing and it's no bullshit. It's not, you know, not any artificial seriousness. It was just like, okay, let's see whether this could work. And I left feeling, well, first of all, feeling really, really good about myself because rarely did I leave an interview where I was the person being interviewed, feeling good about myself.

I always felt kind of shit about myself, but this lady was like, it was a really good conversation eye to eye. And it felt like I was appreciated already. And then the other thing that I felt was I felt like I belonged. And if you pick this up earlier in what I said about the other company that I was working for, again, super young startup environment, fancy offices, et cetera, et cetera.

I just didn't belong. And here, first conversation I have first interview I'm at meeting the potential boss. It was like, yeah, somehow, somehow there seems to be a fit. I feel like, I feel like I could belong here. And so I had one more interview with another lady in the regional structure. And this was another thing that I had completely, I was completely not aware of, basically, because this was a huge FMCG corporation, part of an even bigger one.

And a lot of the structure was regional and global. And so there were other stakeholders on the team that were interviewing me from out of the country, like truly an international environment. And part of my experience to date had been You know, very, you know, communications driven. I had a bachelor's in communication.

I studied languages. I had English in, in one of my majors at school. I majored in English, in my bachelor's degree. So a lot of that international environment really appealed to me through my time abroad and everything that I really wanted.so it felt really, really good. And again, this, this other interview that I had.

Was really, really good too, and I had a really good conversation. And so, I remember to this day. I was at my sister's graduation. My sister had, her graduation as a physiotherapist at the time. It was a beautiful day out. We were at her school and it was this beautiful celebration. She had done really, really well on her in, in her studies there.

And yeah, my whole family was there and I get this call from another person on the team. Who called me to say that they had decided to give me the job and wanted to make me an offer. And I, I think it was all overshadowed by that offer, but I was obviously super, super excited because that, you know, if you're that far down the road, you've done two interviews, you kind of want it then.

So I really wanted it at this time. And at this point, I was like, how did I ever say no? So I was quite invested. And then at the same time, I felt Really, really almost like naive because when it came to like salary conversations, I made very, very little at the time. Like I said, I was a working student there.

Then they took me on full time. It was mostly provision based. So I made very, very little. And so this lady says a number to me on the phone.

And I don't believe I. I've never felt this before in my life. I was like, I, I, I rechecked with her whether I heard correctly. She like kind of chuckles and she says, yes, yes, you heard correctly. This is the number, this is what we're offering you. This is the full package. I'm going to send this offer to you in an email just after this call.

Let me know if you're fine with it. You know, let me know if you accept you can come in next week to sign and then we'd love to welcome you to the team.

I don't think there was ever a happier moment in my career. I've never made that biggest step. I doubled my salary on this day. And.

And that the financial aspect of it wasn't even the most important. Although I have to admit, it did feel like at this point, at this moment, it felt like, Oh my God, I made it. Not in a sense of I reached a certain salary threshold, but This was not on my horizon. As you can imagine, I did a lot of recruitments.

I knew a lot about salaries and about what people made at different levels in their careers and in their jobs. And the salary that I was offered on that day I didn't think was on my radar and was on my horizon in the next 10 years or so. I really didn't think that I, I made a big jump on that day. I was in disbelief.

I could not believe myself, but even more importantly, I was like, this is a huge shift for me. Like they, they are offering that kind of money, that kind of position that The job description said they wanted somebody who brings like a good four to five years of experience in HR. They take me on, they clearly want me, they're offering me this position.

Like, I think that was, aside from the salary and it all, that was what really shifted for me. And at that point I was like, Oh my God, this is the best moment ever.

And as I said, to this day, obviously I've had other jobs. I, I probably doubled my salary since then, which it is really not about, but I've never made that big a jump again. I've never, yeah, I've never made that big jump again. And it felt like that's when it clicked for me. And I don't want to tell this story to brag.

I don't want to tell the story to just kind of like normalize that you have to double your salary. Obviously, the, the higher you, the higher you get, that's very, very unlikely to happen at this point in my career. And again, this is not what it is about. What this story is about is really two things. The first thing is that

You should consider the things. Or the opportunities that are not part of your plan. Now, if you think back to my first reaction to that job offer, can you imagine? I ended up doubling my salary and my first reaction to the job, to like the opportunity to apply was no, no thanks. No, thanks. I want to do a trainee program or I want to do a graduate program.

I would have never made the same salary in a trainee program. I would have never had the same opportunities had I waited for another two years and then started a trainee program. It's mind blowing to me. How, what I wanted, what my plan was and what I ended up getting was so much better, was so much more aligned and ended up putting me so much further ahead on the journey so much earlier that I really want you to consider this.

Sometimes the best opportunities are the ones that you have not planned for. Sometimes we're so stuck in our ways that we're like, no, I want, you know, I want exactly this job. I want exactly this team. This is what I have laid out for myself. This is what I'm manifesting. This is what I'm thinking about when I go to sleep at night.

So I want this, I'm not going to consider anything else. And this is where we sometimes go wrong.

The second thing I want you to consider is how you feel, whether you feel like you belong, or whether you feel you're out of place. And this is something that I just kind of didn't, I didn't give justice to that for a really long time while I was in that, in that first job that I really didn't feel like I belong.

I've had this again throughout my career. So this happened again, not in that position that, I was recruited for an HR, but further down the line, I did have positions where I didn't feel like I belonged. And to me as a projector, as an introvert. The environment I'm in, the people I'm surrounded by, who I interact with on a day to day basis, the people I have close proximity to.

It's so, so important to me that I cannot be fulfilled or happy in a job where that is not aligned, where I'm not surrounded by people who inspire me, who I look up to, who helped me grow, who helped me become a better version, who challenged me. I can't, and I've learned this about myself, but that early on in my career, I didn't know this about myself and I would not have had the guts to change anything about it because I was just like, you know what?

Push through. This is how it is. Something's wrong with you. You just don't, they don't like you. You're not likable enough. You're too, you know, you're not enough, essentially. And that's what I want to give you as a learning almost. It's like, be mindful of how you feel, be mindful of the environment that you're in and how it makes you feel.

Do you, is that, is that a place where you belong? And if not, do you want to belong? You know, is it, do you even want to belong there? Does it feel like it fuels you? Does it give you energy? Does it give you something? Or is it just not aligned? And if it's not, be open to other opportunities. Do not discredit them if they're not part of the plan or if they're not what you had envisioned.

More often than not, what you hadn't envisioned, the opportunities that come out of the blue, that are not part of the plan, that don't look like they should be on the plan for you at first glance. Consider them. Be really, really careful before you say no to them. Take it from me. In hindsight, that career opportunity was the biggest one of my life.

It did not only catapult me into a huge opportunity, but I am still with that company. I still work there. I went from HR to sales, to marketing, to brand management. And it's been a good eight years with this organization and I continue to learn and grow. And I'm so, so grateful for that part of me.

Eight, nine years ago that said, you know what? I'm going to give it a try. Why not? Let's see where this goes and see what it takes me. And I'm so excited to hear where it takes you. I'm hoping you're taking something away from this little story time today. And hope you feel inspired. And I would love to hear from you if you have a similar story, or if you're thinking about something and you can't quite make up your mind, just DM me at the awfully quiet podcast and I'd love to chat.

Thank you so much for tuning in and see you next time.