We’re thrilled to announce the winner of our Bullish Blogger Scholarship is Emily Brown! Emily is an especially ballsy Bullicorn who will be writing all about #BullCon2013. In her first post, Emily tells us all about herself and why she’s attending the first ever Bullish Conference.
Last year on the day after Thanksgiving, I got on a bus from Pittsburgh back to Washington D.C. so I could work the Friday shift at a steakhouse on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. This year, I’ll be hauling out of the snowy northeast on a plane to Miami.
Mine is not a rags-to-riches story. Thanks to the lackluster job market, I was one of several servers in my establishment with a Masters’ degree. Since then, I hustled my way into a few internships and then into a full time job with blogging on the side. When I was slinging steaks my path was so clear; get the heck out of here and get a job with health insurance and vacation days. And now that I have that job, my path looks a lot harder to navigate.
So, like any self-respecting Millennial, I turned to the Internet for direction. Maybe, like me, you found GetBullish.com during that dull last hour of a Thursday afternoon typing, “why don’t I understand workplace rules,” or “when will I get a raise” into the Google search bar like it’s a magic eight ball. Maybe you too got out of the restaurant, or mall, or nannying job, and into the office, but are confused about how to take the next step. In a restaurant, hard work, efficiency, and being nice pay off—you get better tips (or happier customers, or smiling kids, or what have you). Those rules don’t necessarily apply in the workplace. We have to shift our way of thinking about our time, our value, and our lives.
I’ll be using the Bullish Conference in Miami as a way to push the reset button on my life. To be honest, since graduating from college, I’ve worked my tail off chasing that next goal—be it grad school, moving to a big city, or getting a brand name job—waiting for that big break. But I’m starting to realize the big break won’t come unless you change your relationship to your work, and not just where you are working.
I’m looking forward to gaining some valuable skills in time management, negotiating, and strategic life planning from Jen and Laura Vanderkam. I’m totally looking forward to cocktails on the beach. And I am so definitely excited to meet like-minded bullicorns who are traveling an uncertain path in a changing world with hope, self-assurance, and panache.
Would you like to join Emily and other like-minded Bullicorns at #BullCon2013? Register here!
