My Dream Job

For the last 10 years of my life, I have not needed to apply for a job. I have not worked on my resume in just as many years. I have had three different jobs in the last 10 years and they all kinda just fell in my lap. From 2014-2020, I was running my own company as the CEO of Wyzerr. When Wyzerr was acquired in 2020, I joined PopCom as the VP of Business Development. I knew the CEO, Dawn,  so I didn’t have to interview for the job. In April 2022, I began consulting for WYL for a few hours a week. The CEO of the company was Ofo Ezeugwu, a long time friend of mine. When my role at PopCom ended in November 2022, I let Ofo know that I had more time on my hands so if he wanted me to work more hours per week, I could. Instead, he made me an offer to join the company full-time as the VP of Business so I found myself again in another job without having to interview for it.

In early March 2024, after being at WYL for about 2 years (8 months as a consultant, 15 months as a full time employee), I started to become extremely anxious about my job. While I loved the work that I was doing at WYL, I needed job security and stability. Being at an early stage company didn’t really guarantee a long term future. You’re promised maybe 18 months at most. Our fate is often decided by factors largely outside of our control. I found myself becoming more and more anxious as certain deals that seemed like a sure thing started to fade. I began praying every day about what I should do next. Should I stay? Should I go? I discussed it with my friends and family and unanimously heard back that I should look for a job at a more established company. I hadn’t thought of working a corporate job in 10 years. I love the innovation and pace of early stage companies. I decided to fast and meditate, pleading for a sign from God on what I should do. I didn’t get a sign, but something in my spirit kept telling me that it was time to close this chapter, it was time to move on. God couldn’t bless me with the next part of my journey if I didn’t end the journey I was on now. I had no plans, no job lined up, no other source of income but this seemed like a test of faith. Could I trust God to do the impossible? Could I trust God with the unknowns of my life? I could. I would. On March 18, I decided to resign from my job. After I did it, I knew it was the right thing to do because I felt so much peace. All of the anxiety and stress of the last few weeks disappeared almost immediately. I was jobless, with no income, staring at a resume I hadn’t worked on in 10 years, but I felt so much peace.

I had heard from several friends looking for jobs in the last few years that the market was really tough for ex-startup founders and employees. We have a lot of skill sets and experiences but Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) do not usually pick that up well. People were getting auto rejected left and right by ATS. Multiple friends told me that they applied to 100’s of jobs and were only getting 2-3 interviews per 100 jobs. Friends also mentioned that if you didn’t have a referral at the big tech companies, it would probably make it hard for you to stand out. The waves of layoffs at the big tech companies in the last 2 years put a lot of highly qualified people into the job hunt so you are competing against folks that have recognizable experience and talent. This made me nervous. I hadn’t applied to a job in so long that I didn’t know what to expect. I started searching for Business Development jobs because that’s what I’m really good at. I was surprised to see how much they were paying for Business Development jobs at the big tech companies. At the low end, they were making $250,000. At the high end, these roles were at $400,000. I read over the job descriptions and was surprised that I had done everything on the list. I became excited, thinking about the potential for me to make so much money doing something I was really good at. I started applying to several of these Business Development jobs. During this process, I texted a few friends to let them know I was looking for job opportunities. One of those friends immediately responded and gave me a job offer. This gave me some confidence that I had a back up plan should my job search not go well. However, after learning more about the job, I decided that it wasn’t the best fit for me. It didn’t seem like a role that I would enjoy over time so I declined it in faith that I would be able to land a job that I would actually love. The goal is to find a stable job I could be at for a long time. 

I had only been considering jobs at companies that were top of mind for me, like Google, Microsoft, DoorDash, Adobe, American Airlines, etc. These are companies I use regularly so it made a lot of sense for me to apply to them.  In a conversation with my sister, she urged me to consider Salesforce.  I hadn’t thought about Salesforce at all because early stage startups do not typically have a budget for Salesforce. I had only used trial versions of it in the past. However, my sister’s reasoning that Salesforce is used by a lot of companies and will only continue to grow made sense to me. This would be long term job security, which is exactly what I was looking for. I decided to start searching for ‘Business Development Salesforce’ roles on Linkedin to see what they had available.  The first role that came up in my job search  was a Portfolio Development, Director role. As I read through the description, my heart started beating faster with excitement. I couldn’t believe what I was reading. It was a role within their Salesforce Ventures team, the branch of Salesforce that invests in startups. This role would be focused on supporting and enhancing the growth of their portfolio companies. I hadn’t thought about what my dream job is now that I no longer want to be an entrepreneur. For a long time, being the CEO of my own company seemed like my dream job. However, now that I’m a mother with a young child, that isn’t my dream job anymore. My son’s father is an entrepreneur and he never really has time to spend with our son. He seems to always be at a meeting, at a dinner, at an event, or a conference. When he is around for our son, he’s checking his phone nonstop or on his laptop, not really present. I didn’t feel like it would be fair for my son to have two entrepreneurial parents at this age when he needs us most.

As I thought about what my dream job would be now at this stage of my life, I realized it would be to work at a corporation on their venture team that invests in startups, and help them grow. It would be to track innovative companies and help support them using corporate resources. It would be to help startups get sales deals because ultimately that is the only thing that will impact a startup’s success. If I could create my own dream job, it would be the Portfolio Development Director role at Salesforce. This realization made me super excited. I couldn’t believe my luck. The job listing was new. It had just been posted 2 days ago. What were the chances that my dream job became available right after I resigned from my job? I thought back to the words I was hearing in my spirit, that God couldn’t start my next chapter of my life if I didn’t end this current chapter. This couldn’t have been a coincidence. I don’t believe in coincidences. This job must be meant for me. 

I eagerly worked on my resume and cover letter, then sent over a message to a friend of mine, Sachin, to put in a referral for me. He applied immediately that he would. He just needed some time to look up the role in his internal database. It was almost the weekend so it seemed like he wouldn’t get to it til the following week. Not wanting to waste time, I decided to apply for the job and hope that Sachin could put in the referral for me after the fact. That was a mistake.  According to threads in Reddit, 80% of Salesforce jobs are filled by referrals and you can’t get a referral after you’ve already submitted a ‘cold’ application.  This seemed like a major setback but undeterred I asked Sachin if he could reach out to the recruiter and provide an endorsement instead. He cheerfully replied that he would reach out to both the recruiter and hiring manager on my behalf. This made me feel better. I also reached out to a contact that was a friend of Wyzerr’s. He was an attorney in Silicon Valley and used to answer my questions about different trends that he was seeing with other startups fundraising. I saw that he was now in a VP legal role at Salesforce so I reached out to him asking for an endorsement as well. He replied right away that he would be happy to send a message to the hiring manager at Salesforce Ventures as well.  Every day after that I kept reading and re-reading the job description for this role. It was perfect. I imagined myself working in this role and all of the amazing startups I would help by being in this role. The job required me to be in the Salesforce office in SF or NY. I hadn’t worked in an office in 6 years. Both WYL and PopCom were completely remote. I started looking up the Salesforce offices on Youtube to imagine what life would be like back in the office. I loved everything I was seeing. 

In the past, I have always been really private about my career pains and angst. I didn’t want to alarm my family if things weren’t going well, and I didn’t want people to think less of me since most people seemed to consider me highly successful and somewhat intelligent. Quitting your job with no plan did not seem intelligent nor did it indicate any signs towards success. However, I felt so excited about this prospective job that I didn’t care what people thought of me. I started reaching out to friends, family, and my church group to ask for prayers for my new job.  I texted my cousin asking her to ask her mom to say a prayer for me since God seems to listen extra hard to what she prays for. At this point, I’ve probably asked like 50 people to pray for me and this job. If I don’t get this job, it’ll be because it isn’t God’s plan for me and He has something better because there’s no way this many people’s prayers are falling on deaf ears up there in heaven. I KNOW God hears us. I know God sees us. 

During the week of May 6, my birthday week, I received an email that the hiring manager wanted to set up a time to meet with me. I was both ecstatic and nervous. I wanted this job so much. I also hadn’t interviewed for a job in years so I didn’t know what to expect. I decided that I could only be myself and do what I had been doing, which is pray, fast, read the Bible, and meditate. I reached out to the same 50-ish people to provide an update on our job application. It was “our” job application now and I needed their prayers again. I also wanted them to hear my testimony, that their prayers worked and helped. God does what He says He will do.  I also practiced some questions the hiring manager may potentially ask me. The day of the interview arrives. The interview went really well. I expected to go through other rounds of interviews but they miraculously extended an offer to me within 3 days after just that one interview. I knew this was God’s doing. There was no other way. I am so thankful for this opportunity and will be starting this new role next month. I know God will get the glory from the work I do in this role.

Around the same time that I had applied to the Salesforce Ventures job, I saw that Microsoft was looking to hire a Head of Diversity for its startup program. Similar to the Salesforce role, the job description read like a dream job for me. I would essentially be doing the same thing but with a focus on minority founders. It seemed like a perfect fit. I applied to the job and reached out to my friend Andre, who works at Microsoft, to put in a referral for me. He enthusiastically agreed. The Microsoft role seemed a little less promising because it had been posted for quite a while, which isn’t usually the best sign. I wasn’t sure if they were actually still hiring for the role or just harvesting resumes. I didn’t hear anything back for about a week and a half after applying. Then the week of May 6, I heard from the hiring manager. They wanted to schedule a virtual interview. I couldn’t believe it. Two interviews in the same week with my top two dream jobs. What happened next could only be God. I received two job offers for both of the roles I considered my dream jobs. There were pros and cons to both. One allowed me to work completely remotely from home and stay near my sister where I wanted to be. The other would require me to be permanently located in New York City, where Salesforce office is. While I would have loved to stay in Plano with my sister, I had made a promise to God that if He were to grant me this prayer of getting my dream job, I would help Him build His church in New York City, where Restoration Church would be planting a seed in the near term. I would also blog more consistently about His goodness in my life. I excitedly accepted the offer to work with Salesforce. My first day at Salesforce is June 12, 2024, which is a miracle in itself because I already had a plane ticket to New York for the week before. GOD IS GOOD! GOD will do it.  

If you are a startup founder and would like to pitch Salesforce Ventures, please send me a message through my website’s contact page. I would love to help you!