When Your Dream Job Has an Expiration Date, What Next?

Written on July 2, 2019

Tomorrow, I celebrate my second anniversary with Calyxta.

But what if I told you that technically, I haven’t been part of Calyxta since April this year?

Recently, I was reading an old article I wrote entitled Maybe Dream Jobs Do Exist. (If you’re new to the blog, I highly recommend reading that article first to understand the context of this blog post!) I felt the genuine happiness in my tone as I talked about my career journey, saw old pictures of former colleagues who have moved on to new chapters in their professional lives, and how things just seemed to have naturally fallen into place for me at that time—like the Universe aligned according to how I wanted everything to be. Imagine this kind of feeling after leaving corporate with no plans, and not really knowing what I wanted to do and where I wanted to be for six months!

Going back, the reason I’m technically not part of Calyxta anymore is because early this year, the company went through a transition and my team, which is the editorial and content creation department of Calyxta, was spun off into its own company, now called WeaveWorks—a company that I was asked to become the Managing Director of. In a nutshell, WeaveWorks is a digital marketing agency focused on weaving content that converts. We still create and produce the same content for Calyxta and its social media channels while tracking and analyzing its performance, but we’ve also opened ourselves up to servicing clients outside the company—clients who have a similar DNA as Calyxta, since my team’s core strength is creating beauty, fashion, and lifestyle-related digital content.

The beginning was definitely a struggle. WeaveWorks experienced birthing pains—first, with the resignation of the entire team, who some of you are very familiar with because they appeared in my Instagram stories quite often. The transition didn’t align with their career objectives, and so the team had to be built from scratch. But with every sad ending comes a new and hopeful beginning—I was able to put together a solid team who I’m very fond of and proud of. They’re all smart, dedicated, and resourceful individuals who I have the pleasure of mentoring and laughing with every day.

There were a lot of moments this year while the transition was happening, my former colleagues moved on one by one, and I was planning my wedding, that I felt extremely overwhelmed with emotions. I felt less motivated to work, and at one point I even questioned whether or not things were still worth it. I was nearly close to filing my own resignation—just so I could focus on my passion projects and planning the wedding. But a huge part of me still had an attachment to Calyxta (and its people), and even though I was technically part of a different company, I was still doing the things that I loved doing for the brand (which is creating and producing content)—just with a different team, and with a new process.

As the months passed, my biggest motivation became the people under WeaveWorks, who I fondly call “my office kids.” I genuinely enjoy managing them, teaching them everything I know, and showing them the value of what they’re doing. This also pushes me to strive harder and become a better leader—that apart from giving a clear direction to each one, taking into consideration their career objectives, and mentoring them, I make sure to maintain a good and conducive environment, to value work-life balance, and to cultivate a People-First culture. I know I’m not the perfect boss, and I’m not trying to be. But I do want to be a good leader—someone that can make a really positive impact not just on the company, but also on its people.

It amazes me whenever I look back at the first half of the year, and how so much has happened. I may have “lost” my dream job (in the sense that my title and scope of work have changed to accommodate bigger responsibilities), but when you think about it, I’m still doing the same things for Calyxta but was just given the opportunity to do more for the company and for brands similar to it. At the same time, I gained so much just by having WeaveWorks as a team. And I know that things (and people) will always come and go, and there will always be obstacles to overcome—but these are precisely what allow you to evolve and do better. I’m not saying it’s easy though. It’s not. There were hard days, there are still hard days, and there will always be hard days. The company isn’t perfect either, but then again, no company is. And this blog post serves as a reminder to choose my battles, and to choose moving forward.

These days, I don’t feel bad about losing the Miranda dream. Because I didn’t. The Miranda dream was a stepping stone for another character to emerge—Jules Ostin from the Intern.

And come to think of it, maybe there’s a reason I’ve been watching The Devil Wears Prada less and The Intern more often all along. It’s because I’ve already reached that dream, lived it, and now it’s time for me to find and experience new dreams.

When Your Dream Job Has an Expiration Date, What Next?