This Week's Discussion
Meet Mitchell, a two-time Sprinter
Learning at The Commons
March enrollments now open! Secure your seat to join The Commons.
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Your Weekly Level Up
🔥 Hot Topic: Salary Negotiations 6 Months into a New Role?
✏️ Career Resource: Our (new) job board!
✅ Community Reccos: Building A Personal Website
💭 Thought Starter: Focusing on a great product + the right metrics to drive growth
💡 Brain Teaser: 💦
🚀 Community Share: No Unanswered Threads Here!
THE COMMONS SPOTLIGHT
Meet Mitchell, a two-time Sprinter who identified his career goals and went for them!
Where are you located?
📍 Denver, Colorado
💼 Senior Financial Analyst - Revenue, Ibotta, Inc.
Why did you decide to pivot industries?
I was looking to move from a large corporate environment to a smaller team where my work was more impactful
How has your thinking around your career path changed over time?
I think COVID really impacted my thinking about career path and relationship to where and how work gets done. Pre-pandemic, my future looked like a cubicle and being in office everyday was the only way to progress and advance but now I see a world where I can have balance between career growth and personal happiness and my hobbies.
What was behind your decision to join The Commons?
I joined The Commons to try and gain a baseline understanding of SQL and also to see where my skills would match up from a corporate finance background to a more startup focused company.
What did you get out of the Sprint? Anything you didn’t expect?
I did both the Strategy & Operations and Strategic Finance Sprints and I think in both, the unexpected learnings from teammates were what I valued the most. Just seeing their little tips and tricks across presentations and workbooks was so neat!
Tell us about your job search experience!
After 5 years at one company, I had never really had to do a true job search. I had always just fielded inbound interest from recruiters so as I prepared for my job search I spent a lot of time really polishing the resume(shoutout Commons community for the help) and did a lot of LinkedIn prospecting for people in the city I knew I wanted to move to. Once I had reached out to the network, I really started to leverage that to try and find openings where I had a contact. In total it moved along way faster than I had anticipated!
When pivoting from Corporate Finance to an e-commerce startup, what was the biggest change you noticed?
Every day I notice how much more critical thinking I have to use in my new role than prior. I think this is a function of company size mostly but being in a faster pace environment where the norm is more about testing theses and driving efficiency I find myself really relying on those critical thinking skills.
Any other words of wisdom or motivating thoughts for people who are looking to make a similar career move?
I think we all struggle with wondering if we’re good enough for a job we see, but you’ll never know if you don’t apply. A lot of life is about initiative and not skill! (Editor's note: This has got to be one of our favorite quotes! We second this wholeheartedly, Mitchell) One of the quotes I love that illustrates this goes something along the lines of “the man who takes a leap of faith owes no explanation to man who stands by watching”.
Check out Mitch's List of Podcast, News, Book + Shortcut Recos!
What’s happening at The Commons
Upcoming events
Beahvioral Interview Prep
Lay the groundwork for landing the role by nailing the behavioral interview. Join us for a prep + practice session. We'll go through a list of common questions, best practices, and practice our responses with fellow community members. We know prepping for interviews can feel daunting - doing it with a crew holds you accountable, ensures you get developmental feedback, and is just more fun.
Wednesday, March 1st at 6pm EST
Community Members Only
Register here
The Commons Alumni Panel
We're bringing together a group of all-star alumni of The Commons to share their career stories including tips on how to make the most of The Commons, and answer your Q's in this candid and intimate office-hours style session.
Tuesday, March 7th at 7pm EST
Community Members With Select Seats for Non-Community Members
Register here
*If you are not a community member and want to attend, reply to this email.
International Women's Day Panel: Advocating for Yourself at Work
In celebration of International Women's Day, we're co-hosting a power lunch panel on advocating for yourself at work. Tune in to hear from our very own Ally Bashir & Loren Cohen (+ others!) on topics like advocating for yourself in entry-level/new roles, gaining buy-in, and building a leadership mindset
Wednesday, March 8th at 12pm EST
Open To All (and free)!
Register here
Past events
ICYMI we recently hosted these events. Members can find recordings on our platform.
- Automating Workflows: Part 3: Alexis Lopez, Business Operations Tech & Automation Manager at Spotify, rounded out part 3 of the automation series by focusing around building Slackbots to aid in workflow automation.
- Mentor Office Hours: Mentor Office Hours are a chance to connect with two senior voices of our community and ask them questions on anything you're currently tackling: whether that be your job search, pivoting into a new function, or a challenge you're facing on-the-job. This time, panelists included: Milda (Strategy & Operations @ HelloFresh) and Madhav (Payments Operations Manager @ GlossGenius).
We are OPEN to new members! (for a short time only)
Today, we opened up enrollments to new members who will be joining our community and upcoming Sprints!
What does that mean for you?!
- Already on the waitlist? Keep an eye on your email from admissions@jointhecommons.co for an update on your status (check spam)! If you applied before February 28 and haven't heard from us yet, reply to this email and we'll get you sorted.
- Haven't yet applied? If you haven't yet applied (or aren't sure if you have), apply to join us now. If you're not sure which Sprint to pick, just apply via a general application and we'll make a recommendation.
If you receive an acceptance, we highly recommend acting on it quickly. Cohorts are filled on a rolling basis. If you need more time, let us know via email. Our March Sprint Cohorts
Below are the Sprints running in March. They kick off between March 17th and March 20th.
We're also now accepting a limited number of Community Only members. If you're interested in joining the community only (instead of participating in a Sprint), you can also apply via the waitlist below.
Apply to Join The Commons
HOT TOPIC
Salary Negotiations 6 Months into a New Role?
There's nothing better than having an entire community to rely on when you're tackling something new at work. Here's one of the many topics the community tackled together recently ...
Big thanks to Saumil, Zayn, Haley, and Raza for chiming in on the advice! 💚
Some thoughts:
- Wait for 1 Year: "It's possible but unlikely IMO and I would wait to bring it up till you hit the 1 yr mark."
- Check Your Data: "What are you using for "market rate"? A better gauge is how your pay compares to other employees within your company in similar roles/levels."
Check it Out + Add To The Thread
Your weekly level up
Hot Jobs from the Community 🔥🌶
Our job board has been filled with tons of exciting roles lately! If you're in the community, you can reach out to the individuals via Slack to learn more about the role and secure a referral. Non-community members can apply directly via the links below.
- Parker is hiring for a bunch of roles like Chief of Staff, Head of Finance, and Founding Product Manager | NYC
- Research Analyst at Impact Lab, an early-stage startup in the philanthropy space | Remote, US | Our mentor Jan can make an intro to the founder. Check out the post here.
- Float is hiring a Product Operations Manager | Remote/Toronto | There are a few Float folks in the community, find them by searching #intros or the Directory (or ask Charliepat!)
- Two open roles at DoorDash where you'll be working directly with community members:
- Senior Associate, New Verticals, Strategy & Operations | NYC, Seattle, LA, SF, Chicago | Community, ping Carolyn if you're interested (on her team!)
- Senior Associate, New Verticals Partnerships at DoorDash | Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver | Community, ping Patrick (he works there!)!
This is just a preview of the jobs that our community collectively posts. If you want to see more, check out our (new!) job board: https://www.jointhecommons.co/jobs
Building A Personal Website 🖥
Abhi kicked off a thread asking for advice on building a personal website, and ya'll had a lot to share! Check out the full thread and a quick summary below.
- Domain first, website second
- Use a free template and keep it simple for the first attempt. Chances are you will change/edit soon.
- e.com, Canva, Notion, Webflow, Semplice ("but I recommend not to get bogged down by html, css, etc for the first site")
- "Publish as you go. Do not fear pressing publish. The truth is that no one will care. I am halfway through mine and its published with the wrong photos. No one noticed so far 🤷🏻♀️
- "Try to finish it over a weekend. If its taking longer, you are overthinking it (speaking from experience here)"
- As for showcasing projects, "Try to highlight 1-2 skills and something different in each case study. So you can show diverse experience"
Focusing on a great product + the right metrics to drive growth ⚙️
Read the article and add your thoughts directly in the thread.
What gets wetter as it dries?
Check out the answer here.
No Unanswered Threads Here 🙌
Tired of joining Slack channels where your question goes unanswered? Not here 😉
From the big asks to the little things, The Commons community is always eager to lean in to support. Here's just a simple example that popped up in Slack recently...
Could use some help from the community? Ask away in the #community-advice channel!
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