Today marks two years at LinkedIn.

4 managers, 3 roles, 2 lines of business and 1 immensely grateful heart. I've never felt so inspired by a company vision and mission that is just trying to create a platform where you can land that dream job, learn something new, and highlight what you can do - we are connecting the world's professionals. All this is built upon a culture fueled by compassion, good work and transformation.

Speaking of Transformation, I came across a post I wrote but never published from my first 5 weeks at LinkedIn. I'm posting it now to show the Transformation that LinkedIn has enabled me to have, and also show the transformation that's possible if you just say "yes" and try to learn as much as you can from those around you:

Well, that was fast. It's been 5 weeks since I started at LinkedIn and I am officially past the onboarding period. To say that the past month has been one of excitement, fun and learning would be a massive understatement.

Excitement

I've been both a member and customer of LinkedIn since 2013. To be honest, I've sometimes felt that I am so lucky to be working in a time where LinkedIn is here, because how else did anyone find information on people and companies so quickly? I don't say this because I work at LinkedIn now. I say this because I honestly don't know what y'all did before LinkedIn.

I was living in Munich in 2014 struggling to find a job when a recruiter InMailed me and told me about a role in London. I had never been to London and didn't know a single person in the U.K., so as a near-broke 23 year-old, of course I said, "Sounds awesome, let's do it!". It was this platform that helped a recruiter find me even though I was in a different country and completely changed my life when I moved to London to start a new role in Sales.

I started working at Bazaarvoice and basically lived in Sales Navigator trying to find and connect with prospects who could benefit from our solution. It was this platform that enabled me to do my job and help reps drive business.

I then had a quarter-life crisis and thought I didn't want to be in Sales - I wanted to be a Software Developer, so I put all my energy into learning how to code and was left looking for a developer job in Sydney. My first week in Australia, I attended an event hosted by Microsoft for women in tech. One of the speakers was named Sara and worked at LinkedIn. I met her after the event and sent a follow-up "Thank you/nice to meet you" InMail the next day. A year later, I see a role on LinkedIn advertising a job at LinkedIn. I InMailed the only person I knew who worked there, Sara, asking for advice and a referral. It was this platform that helped me stay connected with her and help me land a role at my dream company.

So, yeah, I really don't know what y'all did before LinkedIn.

Fun

We have daily team breakfasts and lunches together. Our team went to Vivid together. For my first [in]Day we did an Amazing Race challenge across Sydney. I did a not-mandatory-but-highly-recommended super fun boxing class on the first day of work. Can you call this place work?

Learning

After two days of shadowing calls from SDRs and Account Execs my manager, Johnny, said, "Well, it's time for you to get on the phones." It surprised me because I felt ready.

Our VP Australia asked me, "What have you enjoyed the most so far?" and I quickly answered, "The breakfast! and working in a sales role with a globally recognized name. It's nice calling a prospect, saying you are from LinkedIn, and more often than not the person on the other end of the line is happy to hear from me, or at least open to having a conversation." Upon thinking about this more deeply I realize that I have definitely enjoyed the breakfast and the brand name, but something different and new to me has come about, and that's joining a company where the word Transformation means something and is lived and breathed into everything that we do. From the interview process, to onboarding, to speaking with my team about our Next Play: LinkedIn fosters a feeling of transforming yourself to be a better person tomorrow than you were yesterday. We know you are going to leave LinkedIn one day and hope that you go out into the world and take everything you have learned here and bring more to your future teams. I read up on the culture during the interview process and remember coming across a point that said "Culture is more than just a poster on the wall." I have yet to see any posters on the walls.

Transformation isn't just a word for your career, either. It's also about yourself, your body and your mind. I can't think of a more literal way to state this than putting in a fully equipped gym, complete with 7 classes a day, personal training offerings and a whole internal website based on the 6 tenet's of wellness: Thoughts, Breathing, Nutrition, Hydration, Movement and Rest. LinkedIn fosters a feeling of transforming your current state of health and wellbeing into being better tomorrow than you were yesterday. It has a knock-on effect to everything you do from how you show up for the team, for customers and for yourself.

How funny. As I am writing this, an email has landed in my inbox stating it's my one month anniversary at LinkedIn and to celebrate your success by taking some time to invest in YOU. I am invited to visit LinkedIn Learning to Transform Yourself Through Learning. Told you I wasn't kidding.

Transforming from the "newbie" on the team is also quickly coming to an end. We have our newest team member starting in one week.

In the famous word of Ferris Bueller, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."