How I approached my new career ⇒

My goal was to never truly apply for a role. I wanted to find a cool company that needed/wanted me and just make it happen. To do that I had to really understand myself and what I wanted so I first worked with a career advisor to figure out:

• what I'm good at - evangelism, sales, coaching
• what kind of companies I like - small, startup, agile, fun
• what industries I'm passionate about - green, health & wellness, education

Next I went through a huge list of local companies to find ones that fit my criteria and looked interesting. At the same time, I reached out to my friends and asked them for help (intros, company suggestions, etc). Then I went though the list and found people I'd like to talk to and see if I had a connection to them via LinkedIn. It was rare that I did not have a connection. I really tried not to depend on the same people all the time (I have several extremely well connected friends), and that meant I sometimes had to reacquaint myself with some old colleagues, which was nice.

If I didn't have a connection, I reached out on Twitter to try to set something up. Surprisingly, that worked several times! I set up meeting with my connections first, unless I knew them well, and then moved on to the key people I was trying to meet. And while I did research the companies before I met, I never checked to see if there was a position. Good companies bring good people on even if there isn't a defined position. I never turned down a meeting, even if I knew that I wasn't interested in the company because new connections are always great and you never know who they know.

I have been extremely happy with the results; met some amazing people and companies and have several interesting opportunities to choose between.