The most rewarding part of being a recruiter is helping people grow their careers. I have coached and mentored dozens of people informally and love watching them achieve their goals. In April 2013, I joined Improving Columbus as a Technical Recruiter and quickly became their community liasion as well. During my 5 years there, I worked with some of the smartest, friendliest, and most trusted people I've known. I saw them become community and company leaders. I’m proud and humbled I helped that growth by encouraging people to challenge themselves and keep learning.
Last February, I gave a talk called Career Growth Questions You're Afraid to Ask. As I talked about the reasons to change careers, I realized it was time to take my own advice and look for a new challenge. I wanted to transition out of full-time recruiting and into something that included more of the career coaching and community outreach work I love. I quietly began reaching out to people I admired to explore my options.
In a happy coincidence a few weeks later, Test Double approached me about a role that focused on employee mentoring and engagement.
It was the ideal next step in my career! I gladly accepted the position. In addition to mentoring, I help with Test Double's community outreach, account management, recruiting, and diversity and inclusion initiatives. The role is evolving and growing as the company grows. It's an amazing place to be. As an added bonus, I get to travel more. Essentially, I now get to combine all of my passions into my day job!
I’ve known the people at Test Double through Twitter and the tech community for awhile. I'd admired their commitment to not only creating good code, but also being good people. I’m really excited to work with them directly now! I keep saying that I went from one company full of smart, friendly people to another one. It's amazing to work somewhere that counts Empathy as a core value, enables autonomous work, and has a robust career mentoring program.
For those who don’t believe that social media is important to your career, I probably wouldn’t have met Test Double's co-founders and employees without Twitter. The initial invitation to discuss this role came even came through a Twitter Direct message.
Since all of Test Double’s work is done remotely, I’m scheduling more coffees and lunches in Columbus and traveling to speak at conferences regularly. Let me know if you want to meet up!
