making a life change always has me reflecting on where i’ve been, how i’ve gotten here, and reminds me that i can do anything i put my mind to. it reminds me that i should do it scared.
as i wind down from my role at glossgenius and ready myself for a month of resetting before my next career move, i’ve been thinking a lot about where i’ve been and all of the challenges i’ve faced and overcome, all the goals i’ve set and accomplished, and all the times i’ve been scared to do something but did it anyway.
i grew up in florida, but i knew pretty early on that i didn’t see my future there. for some reason i saw myself in boston instead. that was a vision i had for myself since i was probably 10 years old1, and i made it happen.
i moved to boston right after i graduated college. away from friends, away from family. but it was exciting. a new city, a fresh start, and a place that felt like where i was supposed to be. i got myself an internship at a small marketing agency as an analyst, and shipped up to boston weeks after i walked across the stage. i applied to graduate school, and hoped i got the acceptance letter before my internship came to an end.
at the time, in 2017, wayfair was the hot place to work for a recent grad in boston, and so i kept applying for every analyst role i saw available. i was rejected more times than i can remember, but eventually i got an interview and landed a job. at the same time, i was accepted into the business analytics masters program at bentley, and my goals were being checked off one after another.
it felt good, and it was also a challenge. i was in my first full time role as an analyst and i was starting a masters program. i would work all day, go to class at night, get home past 10pm and go to work the next day to do it all again. weekends were for studying and getting homework done. but i also made time for fun, and hanging with friends. along the way, there were plenty of times i wanted to give up, times i didn’t think i was good enough, questioned if i could do it, if i was smart enough, if i was cut out for it. but i pushed through. i proved that i could do it, that i could do hard things. my confidence in myself boosted and reassured me that i could do anything i put my mind to.
and then i got an even better role at drizly. a significant pay bump, an even smaller startup, a super small data team, and so much opportunity to challenge myself. it was the most i’ve grown and been challenged in my career, and also the most rewarding 4 years thanks to that. there is soooo much more i could write about my time at drizly, but maybe i’ll do that another time.
when i got the opportunity to build and teach an analytics engineering + dbt course with the uplimit team, as one of their very first courses on the platform, i was terrified. who was i to teach a course? who was i to build a curriculum and tell people what they should know? building a 4 week course with live lectures, guest speakers, all the content and lessons and best practices i wanted students to walk away with, projects they could feel good about and actually teach how these things work in the real-world and not just theoretically…it was intimidating, and a lot of work. but fast forward and we consistently had one of the highest NPS and completion rates across all the courses on uplimit! and each run of the course got better and better. building and teaching this course was one of the best experiences i’ve had in the last ~3 years, and also so rewarding to see students finish the course and go on to get better jobs or better opportunities, to see them continue to grow even after the course was over. and this never would have happened if i didn’t go for it, even when that impostor syndrome was telling me i wasn’t qualified, even when i was scared that it would be too much work, or that students wouldn’t get anything out of it. i’m so grateful for everyone who pushed and challenged me during this time, we made something special.
glossgenius challenged me in other ways. it helped me find my path, helped me learn more about myself in ways i didn’t anticipate.
and that brings me to now. at the end of march, i’m starting at langchain as their first analytics engineering hire! being the first data hire is something i’ve been wanting to try, and the fact that it scares me a little means it’s the right move for me to make. i expect this next role to grow and challenge me even more, in ways i don’t yet know, but will soon discover.
both my parents are from new england, and we’d visit boston almost every winter break to see other family. most people don’t understand me for wanting to leave florida for boston, but it always felt like where i was supposed to be, even as a kid. sometimes you just know.