In just one month I will be celebrating my one year anniversary at my current job. When I moved down here to Mississippi, I never would have imagined how much my life would change. With some big changes in my life recently (stay tuned for more posts about that) I have been gifted with some time to reflect on the life I have built here on the Gulf Coast.
Last spring, I was attending a networking event with my dear friend and supervisor at my internship. As we arrived at the event, we walking in from the parking lot with a few other women who were arriving at the time. At this point, the decision had been made to not keep me on in a full time position at Back Bay Mission after my internship. While this was utterly devastating at the time, I am not one to stay down for the count. With the help of my dearest Laura, we had been hitting up networking events and visiting with friends and had sent my resume out to over 50 positions on the coast, ranging from marketing, to event planning, to other non-profit work, etc. But on this particular day, we happened to walk into the event with a lady Laura knew. Laura introduced us briefly and mentioned that I was searching for a new job in the near future. This woman just happened to know of an opening in her office and told me to give her my information if I was interested in hearing more about it. Before the event ended, I made sure to get her business card, and immediately followed up the next day with a thank you email that had my resume attached. Long story short, she passed my resume to her boss, who interviewed me, and within a week or two had offered me the position.
Now here I am, one year later, and I am in awe of just how far I have come in this job in the last year. I was warned that the first year would be the hardest, and Lord, they weren’t joking. I have learned more about the finance industry than I ever thought I would after my MBA. (After all, finance and accounting were not the classes I excelled most in.) I have learned about retirement accounts, stocks and bonds, the different between a distribution and disbursement, a handful of extremely technology tricks (plus bribing a few of the tech guys with my masterful conversational skills), answering phones and taking messages while sending off speedy emails, being able to phrase “as per my last email” as congenially as possible, and how to prioritize a task list 80 items long within minutes. I have busted my butt, and I have cried a time or two, and maybe yelled few times (never at work, because I am a professional). There are so many days where I find myself staring at my screens just trying to figure out how to keep going.
However, I could not have made it to this point without every single person in my office. Every single one has shared their expertise and wisdom, their support and their shoulder to cry on. I have, since I was a small child, had a bit too big of a heart and that sometimes results in me being overly critical of myself. Each mistake or disappointment hits me a little harder than I would like. And yet every time I find myself doubting if I am doing enough, or doing things right, i get an email or a text saying “Killing it Kelly!” or “That email was so well written! I never would have thought to say things that way.” or something along those lines. I went from knowing nothing about this job (and even this industry) to being one of the people that others come to when they aren’t sure of what documents they need or how to get that document processed. I have grown to love and respect every single person in my office, and I am absolutely certain they would be to me in a minute if I was ever in need.
When I left my internship, someone gave me the advice that I should learn to limit how attached I get to people in the workplace, and that I’d be better off keeping my emotions and affection to myself. Well, thank goodness I always follow my heart more than my head, because it is the love and support in that building that has gotten me through the last year, and that emotion and attachment that drives me everyday to be the best I can be in my position. And it is the work family I have at Merrill Lynch that has turned a much needed job into a career that I am excited to grow into, and I am so blessed to have walked into that networking event last year. My life is so much more than I could’ve expected or asked for, and I cannot wait to see where the next year takes me.
~ Kelly
Devine Perks 