A few weeks ago, I got asked to participate in a little research project with our talent acquisition team at Zapier.

They're exploring something called opportunistic hiring, which is basically identifying talented people you'd love to hire before you technically have an open role for them.

The idea is to build relationships with strong people and match them to opportunities as they come along, rather than only recruiting when a position opens up.

I ended up at Zapier after someone from the team reached out to me while I was working in my last role at beehiiv (which is what made me a good person to chat to about this).

We spent 30 minutes talking about what made me open to a new opportunity, what I look for in a company, and what ultimately convinced me to make the move👇

At the time, I was SO happy at my job. Literally cried in front of my manager when I quit #embarrassing 

But I was what's called a passive candidate: someone who's employed and not actively job hunting but miiiiight entertain the right opportunity.

My take is that being content where you are (a luxury, I know!) actually puts you in a better position to evaluate when fun new opportunities come across your desk.

You’re not running away from anything, but you get to decide what you want to run towards.

(Also true in dating, but that's a newsletter for another day)

So here's how I evaluated this unexpected opportunity: 

1. Will the work actually challenge me?

Is there an opportunity to do something new and interesting? Will it stretch me and push me outside my comfort zone? Or is this just my current job in a different font?

2. What will I actually gain from this?

Compensation and experience, sure.

But I was really drawn to:

3. Am I willing to make this work? 

I'm of the mindset that you can make (almost) any decision the right decision.

I can't control everything about a new job, but I can control how much I put into it. And I knew I was willing to work hard and put in the effort to make this one successful.

It's exciting to conquer new things!

And even if, despite all my best efforts, it still didn't work out…well, I'd just do something else I guess lol 🤷🏻‍♀️

One of my life philosophies is: I'm never really looking, but always open.

With jobs, boys, Friday night plans, you name it.

You don't have to be actively looking for something new to be open to something interesting.

And manifest with me real quick: Good things always fall into your lap at the right time.

The trick is knowing which ones are worth picking up 🧠

Stay open and stay curious!!!

Speaking of opportunities…

The talent team at Zapier is actually looking for some people to help with external research on this as well!

We want to chat with startup-minded, quick-to-learn, AI-curious, ambitious people. Or anyone who might have opinions or good insight on opportunistic hiring!

Super low-pressure and informal chat.

Note: This is NOT recruitment or an interview with Zapier. You'd just be helping us out :)

If this is you, reply to this email with your LinkedIn profile and I'll set up the rest!

This is going to sound so insane, but the average person picks up their phone 186 to 205 times per day (that’s once every 5-11 minutes during waking hours)

I've noticed I have my phone in my hand while doing EVERYTHING. Walking, waiting for someone, waiting for my food in the microwave. And I'm not even doing anything important, just scrolling to pass the time.

Recently, I challenged myself to stay off my phone while waiting for a friend to show up for our dinner reservation.

Ended up chatting with the table next to me, they gave me some good NYC restaurant recs, AND they shared their baklava with me 🙂

So my advice is literally just...don’t have the phone in your hand so much, and see what happens.

You’ll be much more present in the moment and you’ll also get free dessert.

The generational divide deepens…

Apparently, Gen Z isn’t saying “LOL” anymore?!?

What the Zoomers actually mean by this: it’s dumb to use “lol” as punctuation or padding at the end of a sentence because it can feel insincere or unnecessary

When Gen Z is actually laughing, they tend to go for emojis (💀,😭, 🤣), or express genuine humor with a phrase like “I’m dead,” “I’m cackling,” etc

Personally, I’m still lol-ing out the wazoo.