One of the biggest milestones in my life was December, 2015 when my son graduated from college with a degree in Business Administration, majoring in Marketing and International Business. The day of his graduation, I was flooded with all kinds of emotions that I still haven’t been able to process.
It was a mixed bag of emotions because just a few months before, I experienced a huge career milestone by getting a job with IBM as a Social Business Manager. I had worked with Microsoft for two and a half years before that as a Community Manager for one of their projects at Microsoft Research. It was creative and fun, but it was a contract through an agency and it ended the beginning of 2015. Right after that, I wondered if I should continue working with the digital agency I had co-founded with a web developer, VizRED in 2009 or go for the corporate job.
While many people in my age have been in corporate for most of their careers and then crave to go on their own and become entrepreneurs, I yearned to have an experience in corporate America. I never pursued it because I was raising my son as a single mom since he was two years old. I worked as a realtor for 23 years until the economic downturn in 2008. Working in real estate sales suited me then because it gave me the flexibility to be at home with my son whenever I needed and take him to sports, picking up from school, events, night parties before he started driving at 16 years old and all the things involved with being a mom.
So as I was debating what I should do, I made the definite decision to look for a corporate job to fulfill that yearning I’ve had for many years. It took six months of intense effort and I landed the job at IBM in June. My first day on the job on July 13, 2015, again through an agency. And now, just over a month ago in February, 2016, I became full time employee. My role has included managing the social content for one of their segments in IBM Systems and launching the social media strategy for Latin America in IBM Systems, a business unit.
It has been an incredible year of learning and absorbing so much knowledge about all of IBM’s offerings and huge ecosystem. I feel incredibly blessed that, at this point in my life, I was given the opportunity to contribute my talent and skills I learned in the last eight years in digital marketing to one of the largest companies in the world. You can see some links from my recap of the first IBM conference I attended on my social media blog- BlancaStella.com.
Now, going back to all these wide range of emotions I referred to earlier and my son graduating…. I can sum it up in these words: I am grateful to God first and foremost. It wasn’t easy but I persisted. Everything else that I have done, working with small businesses, my brother and the other million things I did were a stepping stone to this, for my current path. Your path could be completely opposite than this. What is important is that you are following your heart to where you want to move forward to and trust it.
My son, who is now looking for a job and has seen my whole process of career transformation asked me on What’s App: “What do you think made that happen? And I answered him: “Love in my heart and God guiding me.”
What’s App with my son when I went to my first IBM Conference as an IBMer
I believe that God can guide you when you open your heart and surrender. When you do that, all you can receive is love because God is just that- Love. This includes receiving blessings from His/Her host of angels. Also, my mom is one of my earth guiding angels who never ceases to pray for me with the most utmost faith. And my son, who motivates me to no end to keep on becoming a better person so that I can inspire him to do the same for himself. There are many other people that inspire me and give me love. I am truly blessed with many friends that I have had for a lifetime and many new friends I have met in the last years in my new field of work. For all that, I am a lucky woman and extremely grateful. I wish for you all that are reading this that your continued journey in this life is filled with the same- just Love. Because love is the main ingredient that works magic. ;)
Artículo en Español: Bendecido con mucho amor en nuevos acontecimientos
Blessed with love in new milestones