Here’s how to not plan your career timeline:

May 1998 - Graduate from college (Biology degree) – Everyone seemed to choose Finance, Business, or Communications. I wanted to be different.

Dec 1998 - Get first “real” job – Selling advertisements door to door. It wasn’t actually a “real” job but instead was a pyramid scheme. I lasted 5 months. It was an interesting experience.

July 1999 – Actually get “real” job, selling Pharmaceuticals for Roche. I liked it for the first year, then my boss got promoted, and it went sideways from there. Lasted almost 5 years (somehow).

March 2004 – I had time and $ on my hands, so I traveled around the country playing poker. I wasn’t good enough to make $, but it was fun, and I enjoyed it. Met some interesting people along the way.

July 2005 – Got a job selling residential security systems for ADT. They offered me the job at the end of the first interview. THIS IS A RED FLAG 🛑. Don’t take these jobs. 𝗢𝗳 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲, 𝗜 𝗱𝗶𝗱.

Nov 2007 - Hired first career coach. Took the Wonderlic, a Personality Test, and a Career Interest Test.

Feb 2008 - Quit ADT.

Feb 2008 - Briefly held one last sales job selling in-home basement remodeling. 𝗗𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗮𝘀𝗸. Lasted 3 months, quit to take an office job.

June 2008 - Finally get that office job. Customer service: I answered inbound phone calls for manufacturing customers. I got this job through a temporary agency.

June 2009 – Hired full-time for the above customer service job.

Jan 2011 – Start evening M.B.A. program.

Jun 2012 – Promoted into Finance, an Accounts Receivable role.

May 2013 – Graduate from M.B.A. program.

Apr 2015 – Promoted to Credit Risk Analyst.

Dec 2016 – Promoted to Cost Center Accountant role.

June 2018 – They let me go. I was terrible at that job and didn’t like it.

September 2018 – I go back to Accounts Receivable with Genesys.

Oct 2021 – Hire 2nd career counselor who was focused on the DiSC profile. I was a high C, but it didn’t help me identify any different type of work to do.

June 2022 – Hire 3rd career counselor. This time, spend 5x what I’d spent previously. I bought 12 coaching sessions and a 9-part module.

November 2022 – Take a Data Analysis job at SPINS.

July 2023 – Start creating content on LinkedIn.

Feb 2024 – Quit Data to full-time content create, coach, and start a podcast.

𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗵𝗮𝗱 𝘁𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝗺𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗜 𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗱𝘂𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗴𝗲, 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗶𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗴𝗼 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻, 𝗜 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗹𝗮𝘂𝗴𝗵𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗳𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗮𝗶𝗱 𝗡𝗢 𝗙’𝗻 𝗪𝗔𝗬.

📌 Life is funny sometimes. You get on a certain path, don’t have much of a plan, and the next thing you know, 20-plus years go by.

Don’t do this. Let me save you many years off of this timeline.

➡ DM me “career” or schedule a free call so I can help you think differently about your future and your work.

𝗣.𝗦. I post M-F at 8:30 a.m. E.S.T.

𝗣.𝗦.𝗦. This picture is from the day I graduated from college.