The Guy with the Sign: Where am I now?
By: Daanish Soomar
Tags: Job Search, Advice, Careers, Creativity, Motivation

My Sign Story

The power of social media. The power of good people. That is precisely what I realized during the longest job search of my early career back in the Summer of 2018.

Rejection after rejection. Automated robotic email after email. Hundreds of recruiters, applications, and “get to know you” meetings later, I was still nowhere near a job. “There has to be a better way,” I thought.

Around this time, I was scrolling through my LinkedIn feed and saw a post of a homeless college graduate with a strong background in software engineering from California holding up a sign which said, “Homeless, hungry 4 success, take a resume”. That was cool I thought, I read through his story and found out that he received hundreds of job offers and interviews from that idea. Inspired- that was when I decided, enough waiting around, time to take action.

I went to the nearest Target and bought a poster board and some markers. I headed towards the library and printed out 100 copies of my resume and created my sign (see above). “On a mission: launch career, take a resume.”

It definitely worked. Over the course of a couple days and spending 2 hours each in the skyways, I had handed out 75+ resumes, made numerous connections on LinkedIn, generated a lot of buzz and met some incredible people. Despite the buzz, I still had no job offers at the end of the 2 days,” what if this was just a waste of time?” I thought to myself as I was being told to leave the building by security. It was time to wrap up and technically I found out that I was not allowed to hold my sign in the buildings as it is not permitted by the rules.

As I was heading for the exits, I heard someone say, “excuse me, sir!” I turned around and it was Robert Gerads. Robert introduced himself to me and exclaimed how unique and different my sign idea was. After learning about what I was looking for he said that he wanted to do me a favor: he asked me to hold up my sign so that he could take a picture and post it on LinkedIn for his 12,000 + connections.

My phone started ringing and my notifications went crazy! The response was overwhelming from Robert’s connections. I finally started getting interviews and job offers. One of the comments on the post was from Anne Cooper at Anaplan mentioning they are looking for motivated people for their Product Support Team. The interview went well. I was most impressed by the work culture, people, and values of Anaplan. They also were impressed by me and presented an offer. All signs pointed in the right direction. I accepted the offer and started my journey in the Anaplan Ecosystem.

My time with Anaplan

I spent approximately 2 years in my role with Anaplan. What I came into Anaplan with was the soft skills and intangibles such as hustle, drive, networking, building relationships, and love of learning. In turn, the role provided me an opportunity to learn the ins and outs of the Anaplan Ecosystem, Model Building, and Data Integrations. Additionally, I met fantastic people in this role, including 2 people who I consider mentors and friends Jon Ferneau and Zack Fennessy.

I am extremely grateful to Anaplan for the opportunity to launch my career. I gained a lot of technical skills throughout this period. Ultimately, I reached a point where it was time to make a change from the post-implementation side to the implementation side of Anaplan. Building things, rather than fixing things that break.

My New Role

I am pleased to share that despite a turbulent 2020 for everyone, I am grateful to have transitioned to a new role as part of Slalom. From the moment I joined the company in late March, the values, culture, and accolades Slalom boasts proved to be the real deal. Despite a global pandemic, never once did I feel any sense of panic from the company, instead it turned to protect its most valuable asset, its people. I am sure others here will agree with me, that they will always remember how well Slalom treated them during the pandemic for the rest of their lifetime.

From a personal standpoint, I have been able to transition to the implementation side and work directly with clients to help implement Anaplan business solutions that meet their needs. I have grown tremendously already since I joined Slalom, the experience on the ground has really allowed me to sharpen my skills and has elevated my ability to navigate complex problems. In addition to this, I have also had time to pursue and develop my certifications portfolio with courses such as The Anaplan Way, Level 3 Model Building, and Microsoft’s Data Analyst Certification. This ultimately led to me becoming a Certified Anaplan Solution Architect!

Where am I now?

2020 has indeed been a journey personally and professionally for all of us. Through this experience I have learned many important skills about social media marketing, networking, and human resources. Additionally, I have learned a lot about myself- no longer will I accept rejection, failure, or adversity. As they say, if there is a will, there is a way.

What do you think of my story? What are some creative ideas you have seen or attempted with regards to the job hunt? I hope this has inspired some of you to go out and take ownership of your career and not be afraid to think outside of the box! Most importantly, do whatever it is that makes you happy.

I am happy to connect with anyone regarding my story and share more information as I am always willing to engage and connect! Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you would like to learn more or if I can be of any value. Thanks for reading!