The Road to the Dream Job

About two and a half months ago, I started a new job at ASICS Digital in Boston, and in many ways, it’s the elusive “dream job” I’d been looking for for the last three years (and possibly the last 10). I love my management/reporting line, the company culture is positive, and the scope of my work includes international travel and “enough rope to hang myself” in terms of how much responsibility and ownership is involved. Also, shoes. Lots of beautiful, comfortable, colorful shoes.

With a number of friends currently investigating their next steps professionally, I wanted to write a short blog compiling my personal playbook on how I managed my most recent professional move and share the advice I’ve given to friends in varying stages of their recruiting processes.

How I started recruiting while working at my last job

Because I took my previous job largely as an “escape hatch” from the extremely-stressful one that preceded it, I knew going in that it wasn’t going to be “the one.” Despite working with a decent group of people and learning a fair bit about software platforms (which has served me enormously in my new job) for the year and a half I stayed at my last job, I felt unhappy and bored as early as two months into my time there. While it was the right professional move to make at the time, I had a feeling the long-term potential didn’t exist for me in the role or company.

Knowing that, I did what I could to learn what I could from the place I was and from…