I’m a product person turned Chief of Staff, and am currently buying some time for myself to think about and explore the future of social tech.
But I wasn’t always so sure. I wasn’t one of those kids who knew what they wanted to be when they grew up and still didn’t know as I was graduating from Northwestern University. Since then, I’ve had 4 different jobs over the past 8 years.
I used to worry about how people would react to my resume; we live in a society that prefers consistency and specialization. I had multiple versions of my resume, each tailored to a different interest or skill with a corresponding narrative that explained a through-line. But the truth, that I felt obligated to keep hidden, was that I actually hadn’t set out with an overarching grand plan and was still in the process of exploring what I wanted the fate of my career to be.
But that didn’t mean I was reactively pinballing from job to job either—it was thoughtful and intentional movement. I was good at recognizing when a position no longer served me and when it was time to try something else, and I was determined to optimize the degree of fit between who I was and what I did.
You see, if you’re smart, a quick learner, and above average at a variety of things (especially at new things), it’s hard to want to settle or to specialize.
But I found that even the roles with a low degree of fit proved valuable learning opportunities, and with time, I’ve realized that it was ultimately my diversity in experiences and exposure to interdisciplinary thinking that set me up for the success I find today.
I experienced more in 8 years than some people do in a lifetime. I gained insight into my own abilities and proclivities, learned critical lessons in management working for different leaders, scaled a startup, acquired a company, took a company public, and gained a range of proficiencies from which I can now draw.
Only because of this breadth of exposure and experience am I now able to confidently identify where I want to focus my attention and energy, both as finite as my time here on earth.
So, if you’re someone who yearns to taste a variety of things or are unsure of exactly what you want your career to be, I encourage you to follow your curiosity, seek out opportunities to learn and people to learn from, know when to move on, and embrace the many diverse experiences and perspectives you’ll encounter along the way. Try, try, and try again.
Happy to talk about any of the above.
xx
My background is in design and innovation. I started my career working at a luxury chocolate company, working directly with the founder/CEO to conceptualize and implement Wild Ophelia, Vosges’ more mass-market sister brand. I then moved to work internally at Slalom, a privately-owned consulting firm with almost 1B ARR, working with the GM to create and execute a leader eminence and content strategy for our Chicago Market.
I left Chicago to move to New York to work for a VC-backed healthcare startup to help build and launch an iOS app, web app, and several clinical spaces. It was here that the CEO recognized my instinct to create design goals within the context of our broader business goals. He introduced me to the concept of having a "Chief of Staff,” nascent at the time, and asked me to be his.
A year later, the startup failed, resulting in a lot of lessons learned and a desire to continue to learn about business through the Chief of Staff perspective. I accepted a role as Chief of Staff to the CEO of Getty Images, Craig Peters, after hearing his 3-year plan to return Getty Images once again to the public market.
In my 3.5 years with Getty, I helped restructure the business, set company strategy, acquire a company, and most recently, return Getty Images once again to the public market. In my 3.5 years with Craig, I learned what it means to be an excellent leader, how to evaluate the operations of a global business, and how to thoughtfully build for the future.
In retrospect, all of my roles have required me to possess a balance of commercial and creative understanding while working closely with leadership. These experiences have naturally led me to entrepreneurism, where I find myself today. More about why I left Getty to pursue social tech here.