Unintentional Networking: How I Landed My Disney Dream Job
Networking has always been an important part of the professional world. And being an introvert myself, it’s filled with anxiety, thought distortions (Thanks, Noom 😉), and an intense battle over flying my nerd flag. Even though we were told to do this, would our career be over if we just didn’t network?!
I’m not here to ponder the debate between this philosophical question, just to offer a different perspective on how I networked my way into my dream job without even knowing that I was actually networking.
The year is 2020
Fall has given way to the Winter chill and the Bay Area rain. It’s been a bazillion years since I’ve set foot in the Lyft office on Berry Street in SOMA (South of Market), though in reality, it’s only been 6 months. At this point in time, I’ve said goodbye to a number of my teammates, virtually, of course, as they decided to leave Lyft for other adventures. This prompted me to take a step back and really ask myself where I thought I wanted my own career path to go. I knew that Lyft was a great opportunity for me to become the systems designer that I knew/wanted to become. But after 3 years, I questioned if I was still being challenged and growing both professionally and creatively.
Enter Disney+
When this app was launched in November 2022, it took my household by storm. Being a huge Lucasfilm, Marvel, & Pixar fan myself, it was easy to find comfort in all the stories within the Disney+ series, movies, and, as my daughter calls it, docu-memories (documentaries). In all honesty, my master plan was to retire in Southern California and work as a Cast Member at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim. But when I posed the same question that prompted a lot of my teammates to ultimately leave Lyft, I knew Disney+ was that stretch goal for me.
Life continued, of course, and I decided to remain at Lyft to help rebuild my team. And rebuild we did! 11 months after I found myself the lone wolf systems designer on my team, we were back at full strength of 3: Runi Goswami, Michael Yom, & myself, alongside our amazing manager, Linzi Berry. We also finally hit publish on a massive blog post about Lyft’s design systems resources that I had started writing with former Lyft systems designers, Evan Maeda and Matt Spiel.
A week after publishing it on Tap to Dismiss’ Medium blog, Figma, yes, THAT Figma, reached out asking us to participate in their first ever design systems focused conference called Schema. At this point of recounting my story, I have to pause and just shake my head how crazy it all went down. I started writing blog posts to share my experiences in design systems with the design community; sort of a way to give back with the hopes others can learn from them. But to get an invite to speak at a Figma hosted event wasn’t something I expected at all.
Before I knew it, I was checking off one of my bucket list items of speaking at a design conference. The cherry on top was the marvelous folks at Figma brought all the speakers together for a dinner in Oakland, CA, the night before the conference and I got to meet some legendary Figmates in-person, like Sho Kumamoto, Jacob Miller, & Rogie King, as well as someone who’d help me fast track my Disney+ goal, Jen Yee. Jen was speaking on behalf of Netflix whose design system, Hawkins, is one that I admired. It might have been less than a 10 minute chat, but we quickly bonded over our common love for Star Wars, Star Wars themed tattoos, and the 501st Legion, the worldwide costuming group, which I’m a member of.
I didn’t know it at the time, but I was actually networking. But the thing is, it didn’t feel like networking at all: it was just 2 people obsessing over Star Wars. And yes, it may not be as easy as this all the time but when you can connect with someone on that hobby/passion/shared experiences level, then the networking part is a bonus.
We didn’t exchange information that night, but became LinkedIn friends and as Schema happened the next day, we virtually cheered each other on as our sessions were revealed to the world.
Months later when I learned she eventually left Netflix to become the Director of Design Systems at Disney Streaming, I was over the moon for her! I also counted myself lucky that she told me before sharing the news on her socials but when she finally did, that post blew up! I can’t deny the fact that after she told me the news, I felt that the door was now slightly ajar for my next career move. Though I was ashamed how my mind went to “how can this help me?”, I focused on celebrating her next adventure and hoped the universe would start working behind the scenes to make my dreams come true.
Fast forward to April 2022
Jen and I meet virtually to talk about a role on her team. I couldn’t keep my excitement at bay during our talk because I really wanted this but we moved to schedule interviews. I actually had a week worth of virtual interviews starting with a panel interview with the design systems and design engineering team. It ended with 3 individual interviews throughout the week. It definitely was the most intense interviewing process that I’ve experienced but after a 3 week wait, it finally happened. My wish to join Disney+ back in late 2020 became a reality.
It’s astonishing to think that all those little events that don’t seem to have any connection at all attributed to getting me to this point. And don’t get me wrong, I thought about joining Disney+ everyday and even reached out to folks who were working on the design systems team to gain insight into the things they were doing and the overall design culture. I can say with confidence that something that I put my mind towards actually materialized and I’m still pinching myself that I work for The Walt Disney Company.
I still believe that I was at the right place at the right time when I got the chance to join Disney Streaming. That might be the imposter syndrome talking though. But looking back, there were literal baby steps to get me here that started when I set my mind on wanting to work on Disney+. From there, my actions and decisions got me closer and closer to that reality:
- [Late 2020] The Pandemic prompted mass attrition that made me realize I wanted to work on the Disney+ product
- [Early 2021] I chat with a few Disney Streaming Cast Members that actually answered my LinkedIn messages
- [August 2021] I collaborate on and publish a blog post to the design systems community with past and present Lyft systems designers
- [September 2021] Azra Daniels at Figma invites my systems team to participate in Schema, their first design system focused conference
- [October 2021] I meet Jen Yee at the speaker dinner
- [March 2022] Jen tells me she’s joining Disney Streaming
- [April 2022] Jen informs me she’s hiring for her team
- [June 2022] I join Disney Streaming 🎉
This journey embodied that saying I heard growing up,
You can achieve whatever you put your mind to.
And I truly believe this. Unfortunately even though I wanted to work on Disney+ so badly, it took 2 years for it to happen. So patience is something I had to make an ally of. But when the stars are aligned and timing is just right, magic happens.
This is the origin story to a 3-part blog series titled “That Cast Member Life”. Stay tuned as I continue my story, reflecting on my first year working at Disney Streaming.
Jeremy is a Bay Area native who loves all things design systems. He took the “long way round” into design, taking educational stops in the manufacturing and printing industries. These experiences give Jeremy a unique perspective on design and he relishes in giving back to the design community in any way he can.
