Back in July, I shared that I was saying goodbye to my job in consulting after fifteen years, and promised I’d come back to share what was next. Long-time readers know I’ve been blogging for several years before PwC, sharing my excitement at getting the job, and I hope I am still blogging for many more years to come! I try to toe a professional line and don’t talk much about work on this blog, but I would be remiss to not memorialize that those years shaped me in more ways than I can count. Not just through the projects I worked on, but through the lessons I learned about business and leadership, and the incredible people I got to work with (both at PwC and at some amazing clients). I’ll always be grateful for the experiences and relationships that defined that chapter of my life!
One of the best boondoggles: yachting in San Diego with some of my favorite colleagues!
But as much as I loved consulting, I knew it was time for a change. During COVID, we stepped back from traveling full time, but now, travel to client sites was ramping up again – and right now, I’m eager to stay in Colorado to spend time with my husband, mom, and stepkids. Meanwhile, my time serving as Board President for Coal Creek Meals on Wheels taught me that I want to make an impact on people and community, not just corporate balance sheets. So this August, I started a new role as a Director of Digital Transformation at a healthcare organization. It’s work that’s both challenging and meaningful, and I’m excited by the opportunity to help modernize operations in ways that directly touch people’s lives.
For those of you currently searching for new roles, I wish you all the best – the job market right now is really tough! From my experience, just applying for jobs didn’t yield a lot, and I know how fortunate I was to have a strong network to lean on. Serendipitously, a potential role came up at Mike’s company, and what started as him passing my resume along for that role turned into conversations with a different team for a new opportunity that was tailor made for my skillset. I am so excited about this role, which combines my background in AI strategy, change management, and digital transformation. And with a bit of a nod back to my airline revenue management days, my focus now is on developing innovative solutions to modernize the revenue cycle.
Here’s me on day 1! Fun fact: my new office in Denver is literally next door to my old office (we even share a parking garage). Makes it easy for me to grab coffee or lunch with former Denver-based colleagues!
One unexpected twist in this new chapter is that Mike and I now both work at the same company – which, I’ll be honest, still feels really weird! While I was excited about carpooling together (every day is “Take Your Spouse to Work Day”!), I was also a little anxious about how to navigate it in the office. As it turns out, there are quite a few couples here, so it’s not totally uncommon. Through Mike’s network, many of whom I knew socially before joining, I already felt surprisingly well-connected, which made the transition much easier than if I’d been starting cold after 15 years at PwC. It’s also been fun to have some built-in lunch buddies (many of whom came to our wedding!) in different departments when I go into the office 🙂
At the same time, I’m very focused on carving out my own path. For now, I haven’t changed my last name to his, and I tend not to mention Mike by name when my team and I are swapping weekend stories. It’s not that I want to hide anything, but I want to be known for the work I do and the impact I make, not who I married. Mike has a really strong brand at our company, and while I’m grateful to learn from his experience and occasionally ask him how things work, I really want to build my own independent brand. I’m still not used to being married after so many years of flying solo, but we’re figuring it out!
So that’s how I landed here… and I have to say, I am so in love with my new company. The work is exciting, and the people and culture are absolutely amazing. Before working here, I believed that companies had to make a zero-sum game tradeoff: either you focused on the best business results possible and worked your people like crazy to do so, or you took care of people but maybe didn’t move as quickly or drive top results. I have been so delighted to find that at my new company, we have incredibly smart, hard-working people who go the extra mile to drive excellence… but everyone also prioritizes their own well-being, their relationships with their coworkers, and the well-being and happiness of our patients. I know that I’m still in the honeymoon phase right now, but I honestly didn’t know this kind of company existed, and I feel like the absolute luckiest person to have found it!
Cue “The Luckiest” by Ben Folds, which I think is my theme song of the year; it’s also what we played when I walked down the aisle at our wedding. Here’s a gratuitous shot of that! Wedding details still to come in a future post…
But speaking of the honeymoon phase, one challenge has been the timing of my actual honeymoon with Mike, just a month after I started, which wasn’t ideal. I had flagged it during the offer process, and my boss was incredibly gracious in encouraging me to fully enjoy my time away. But after a few weeks of onboarding, I’m now in a bit of a holding pattern, as it doesn’t make sense for me to take over a project only to transition it back while I’m away. I am really itching to dive in and get back to producing a lot, but I’m having to remind myself to slow down and focus on getting to know the organization, and trust that the rest can come after Kilimanjaro.
This week I met with a VP I had interviewed with at the start of the process, who also came from a consulting background. Without me even mentioning feeling like I’m in a holding pattern, he shared some advice that really resonated: “In consulting – you’re on the highway going 120mph, and you don’t realize it because everyone else is too. Now in a corporate job, everyone is going 75mph – so not slow, but not what you’re used to. And now your car has to be hitched to others, so you have to get used to that too. My biggest advice for you is embrace that slowdown and use it to get to know the people around you. Why are they going at that speed? What do they care about? How do they work on a regular basis? And what can they teach you?”
Such sage advice, and it immediately brought to mind the African proverb that I’ve always loved as a runner: “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.” A big part of my new role is alignment and consensus building, so this really hits home!
And since it’s an African proverb, it also made me think about my trip to Tanzania next week (!). The VP advised me that once I think I’m going slow enough at work, I should go even slower… and I have a feeling that’s exactly what I’ll be learning on my Kilimanjaro trek. I’ve heard again and again that our guides will be continuously chanting pole pole (“slowly, slowly” in Swahili) as we climb, and I think that mantra may need to stay with me long after the mountain; a reminder to pace myself both on the trail and in this new role.
Pole pole!