Back to Work-ish — Glitter for Breakfast

Tonight everything has a crestfallen undertone. It's the end of vacation. It's also the start of real winter here in NYC, tomorrow being the first time it's predicted to hit the freezing mark since last winter. As everyone gets ready to settle back into their routine, I'm in the opposite position, I'm changing my routine and, for at least the next few weeks, will be much more free than I have been.

Following law school (NYU rules Columbia drools, kidding, we only care when it comes to Dean's Cup and let's just say NYU has had that on lock for several years now), I was accepted to a fellowship program for what was to be a year in the General Counsel's Office of a prominent, global non-profit. My time there was incredible; I was able to do meaningful work while learning from fabulous attorneys, each of whom imparted valuable nuggets of wisdom. When my fellowship came to a close, I was offered the chance to stay on, working directly for the non-profit on a part-time basis to help with one very large project that I had been involved in and which required much of the team's human resources. I took the offer and was there until December 23rd.

Concurrently, I had been building up a career in social media. In March, I answered a college friend's Facebook post, calling for recommendations for someone to do branding and partnership work. After learning a bit more, I decided to see if he would take a chance on me and the rest is history... Ok, there's a little more to it. Enter What I'm Holding. In sum, What I'm Holding began purely as the Instagram account @whatimholding. The idea was simple: highlighting innovative and awesome products, companies, and people and in so doing, make others take notice of the things they use in daily life, the things they hold. From when I started until now, we have grown by over 19 thousand followers (and I now know so many Instagrammers, hold hundreds of handles in my head, and can effortlessly pick out the hand in our post from an array of hands #iglife).

The growth has been tremendous and incredibly exciting! I get daily requests from brands or their social, PR, and/or marketing teams and individuals asking to be featured. Having your work recognized and having people want to be part of what you're doing, is invigorating, validating, and just plain cool. For me, the opportunity to do partnership work, write copy for some of our posts and write for the website, while simultaneously using my legal skills to think through strategies for partnerships and our growth and development has turned out to be a position in which all parts of me finally feel like they can breath. Who knew? So, as everyone goes back to their grind, I set out on my own grind, trying to find a way to grow my work in this space. I may not have to wake up at 6am tomorrow, but the pit in my stomach is no less real.

Have you ever made a career change? Do you get the Sunday night malaise?