In early 2022, I got a seemingly random message on LinkedIn from someone I didn’t know. It changed my life forever.

“Hi Andrzej, I’m Dani and (I know you, but you don’t know me and I want to make you an offer) so picture this. I might have a potential recommendation for an interesting role in a Polish tech org which could be a very good match for your profile based on what my peers have experienced about you. Would you be interested in that role? I’d be happy to recommend you. No strings attached”

Now, this would be unexpected in any context. But it hit differently because of what had happened a few months earlier. In 2021, I had actually applied to (the company Dani worked at) myself — through a chain of weird events (yes, there is an em dash in this sentence). My wife had received a job advert from a recruitment agency hiring for (the Company), and she thought it matched my profile better so she forwarded it to me. It did, and I loved the role so I applied.

I went through a (quite long long) recruitment process, and I waited. And waited, and also hoped. It was in many ways a dream job somewhere at the intersection of tech and sustainability, in a very cool Polish company doing interesting things. It really felt like this was the one, and it seemed everything was falling into the right places. Got very positive feedback about the recruitment, and was told I should expect an offer soon. I then waited some more. If memory serves me right, the first interview I had sometime in July. Then in October or November I got the news: no offer after all. (As far as I know, they never hired anyone for the role in the end.)

It crushed me for a while but it was what it was. Months passed. Life went on. Then winter holidays came around with lots of snow and little rest, and in the middle of it, I got that message I started this blogpost with.

I was hesitant. Who does that? Who messages a stranger with a potential life-changing opportunity and no strings attached? Well, turns out, some people do. And even though that’s a beautiful story in itself, that’s not actually what I want to write about today.

Back to the message. I was hesitant as hell but also curious. So I asked Dani to share the job ad. The role was Data4Good Lead at Appsilon and it made me very anxious (being anxious is a very recurring theme for me, just for the record). That Appsilon seemed pretty good at softare engineering and I had zero idea about software engineering. I had never heard of that R Shiny thing they advertised they were good at. I wasn’t programming and except for EcoVadis I never really worked in any tech company. I didn’t have a background in AI or stats neither.

And that was not all. Truth is, I was in a rough place mentally, and this was probably the moment I doubted myself the most in my professional life, so looking back every little part of that process was a case study in impostor syndrome.

So what did I do? I applied anyway. Why? The kind stranger who messaged me with the job ad, put me at ease. He told me not to worry too much about the role description. Yes, the job mentioned data viz and machine learning, and all kinds of sales stuff, but “understanding” didn’t mean “expertise.” And he was right because it turned out my transferable skills were there, even if I couldn’t see them clearly at the time.

So I got back from holidays (with a nasty COVID, by the way), completed the home assignment with a very heavy fever, sent it in, and did two interviews. A couple of weeks later I got the offer. I signed it very fast. It was super funny, because I played it cool in the call when receiving the offer (at least I think I did) but inside I was screaming with joy.

And it turned out to be the best decision I could have made. Hands down the most meaningful experience in my career so far. I joined a place full of smart and kind people, and did some genuinely impactful work with many, many opportunities to grow, challenge myself, build cool things, do good. Very fun!

When I messaged Dani to say I got the job, he congratulated me and said he hoped we’d stay in touch.

And we did, and over the years we talked, met, shared stories and memes. The good stuff. At some point, he coached and mentored me during my onboarding. Before long we became friends, and this is the main thing about this story.

Now that I am approaching the end, I am wondering why am I writing this? One reason is that I want to write more online because it’s good fun! But I also want to remember. Remember that this happened. Because a random message changed (nearly) everything in my professional life/career and a stranger became a friend. I don’t want to forget this precious memory.

There’s no neat moral here or lesson. Just this: Small, seemingly random encounters can change your life forever.

And I’m so happy this one did. It sure has rained a lot. Salud!