Man, thinking back to mid-2022, specifically that July, it was a wild ride. Before that, for a good while, I was just slogging through my old job. You know the feeling, right? Just doing the same stuff day in and day out, feeling like I was stuck in a groove that wasn’t going anywhere. It wasn’t bad, exactly, but it just wasn’t lighting me up anymore. I felt this itch, a real strong one, that I needed to shake things up, big time. It was a low hum at first, then it started growing into a full-blown roar in my head.
Then July 2022 hit, and something just clicked. Maybe it was the summer air, or just the accumulated frustration, but I remember waking up one morning and thinking, “Enough is enough. I gotta make a move.” It wasn’t some grand plan, just a gut feeling that if I didn’t try something different now, I’d probably regret it later. That day, I actually opened up my old resume. Talk about a relic! It was so out of date, probably hadn’t touched it in years. I looked at it and just shook my head. This was gonna be a project, for sure.
First thing I tackled was that resume. I spent a few nights, after everyone else was asleep, just staring at the screen. I wasn’t just listing duties anymore; I was really digging deep, trying to remember what I actually accomplished. What problems did I solve? What did I build? It was tough recalling all those details, but I pushed through, rewording, rethinking, trying to make it sound like I actually did something useful. It felt like a massive self-reflection exercise, more than just updating a document.
While I was fixing up the resume, I also started poking around online. I had this idea, a kind of side interest I’d always thought about turning into something more. Let’s just say it was in a completely different field than what I was doing. So, I started devouring information. YouTube videos, blog posts, online forums – anything I could get my hands on. I was trying to figure out if this new path was even remotely realistic for someone like me, coming from a totally different background. I remember spending hours just lost in these rabbit holes, soaking it all in during those July evenings.
Then I decided, screw it, I’m just going to try learning some of the basic skills needed for this new area. I found a couple of free online tutorials and just started chipping away at them. It wasn’t easy. Sometimes I felt like a total idiot, messing up simple stuff. But I kept at it, doing the exercises, building little dummy projects. It was clunky, really rough around the edges, but I was building something, however small. Each tiny victory, like getting a piece of code to run or understanding a new concept, felt huge.
I also started reaching out to people, not in a formal “networking” way, but just old friends, folks I knew from college or previous jobs. I’d just shoot them a message, asking what they were up to, casually mentioning I was thinking about X, and if they knew anyone in that space. You’d be surprised how many connections you already have, just waiting to be tapped. Some conversations led nowhere, but a few gave me some real good insights and even a couple of soft leads.
Armed with a spruced-up resume and some new, albeit basic, skills, I started sending out applications. Man, that part was a grind. You spend ages tailoring a cover letter for each job, hitting that “submit” button, and then… crickets. Dozens of applications, and most just disappeared into the void. It’s seriously soul-crushing, makes you question everything. But I just kept telling myself, “One yes is all you need.” So, I kept refining my resume, tweaking my cover letters, trying to make each one a little better, a little more specific to the job.
Finally, towards the end of July, maybe bleeding into early August, I got a call back. Then another. And then an actual interview. I remember the first one, my heart was pounding out of my chest. I prepped like crazy, researched the company, practiced answers out loud in front of the mirror like a total lunatic. It felt ridiculous, but I did it. Then came the second interview, and it felt a little smoother. I was still nervous as hell, but I felt like I was starting to hit my stride a bit.
And then, it happened. I got an offer! It wasn’t for a top-tier position, and it wasn’t a massive pay bump, but it was squarely in the new field I wanted to get into. It felt like a massive weight lifted off my shoulders. All that grinding, all those late nights, all the rejections – it finally led somewhere. That entire July of 2022 felt like a blur of trying to juggle my old job, learning new stuff, and navigating job applications. It was stressful, no doubt, but looking back, forcing myself to take that leap, even when I wasn’t sure where I’d land, was the best decision I made. It’s funny how sometimes you just gotta jump and trust you’ll figure out how to fly on the way down.
