Career pivoting, candid honesty, and carving out my own path
I recently got hooked onto this text-based game called “The Great Tournament”. It’s a story that takes place in the medieval times about a young boy's rise from lowly squire to powerful knight. He develops tournament skills and learns about the secret ins and outs of the kingdom through forming new friendships, including one with a beautiful princess named Hannah. Within the game, there are endless mini games, the outcomes of which are determined by initial attributes given to your character and choices made during the game. The mini games feel important, and you’ll feel pressured to make the “best” choices; however, what you’ll find is that as the story progresses, you end up playing bigger, more exciting games that are more important to the story. This is not unlike how the universe works.
Life is a series of mini games that weave into one another to create the fabric of reality. Much like the medieval game, in life, you often have no idea what your current experience is adding up to. Someone once said that you can’t connect the dots looking forward, so you have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.
For two years, I didn’t have a single job opportunity. I devoted my time to newfound passions like Mario Tennis and Switch Sports tennis, which eventually escalated into real life tennis. I used to think that my purpose could only be fulfilled through work. Now, I believe that my purpose is fulfilled by doing things that light me up, no matter how small and insignificant they may seem. The goal of the universe isn’t to win me every game - it’s to set me up to play bigger, more exciting games with higher stakes as well as higher rewards.
Some of you may be wondering how I made the career pivot I did since that’s the title of the blog post. The main part of it was just saying no to everything that I wasn’t 100% excited about and trusting that it is possible to get exactly what I want, even if it doesn’t exist. Energy can only flow where there is a void. The universe cannot bring you things to say yes to if there is no room for them.
Creating my own role
The hardest part wasn’t getting jobs; it was setting boundaries with the universe on what I wanted and communicating that to other people. The more I started to do it, the more comfortable I got with it. I want creative freedom. I want something that utilizes all my unique gifts and talents. I want a role where I can show up as myself.
It started to dawn on me that if I want a role where I show up as myself, then all I need to do is to show up as myself in every conversation. I used to hide my opinions (some of them at least) because there is a “shut up and code” expectation within the responsibilities of the software engineer. When I began interviewing for other types of roles, at first, I was afraid to share my honest feedback about the company’s product, or I would hesitate to admit that I didn’t have actual “experience”. What helped was reminding myself that I’m not speaking to another person; I am speaking to the universe. The universe doesn’t need me to have experience. The universe doesn’t need anything from me except my passion and excitement.
Two of the companies I’ve interviewed with describe the person they’re looking for as some kind of “unicorn”, possessing a hybrid of skill sets that are hard to find in a single person. As I became more unapologetically honest, I ended up receiving an offer from a company where my candid opinion is not only valued but encouraged, one that wants to break existing paradigms - as the first product hire of Web3 Platforms.
