I spent nearly four months this year shopping for complete strangers, thousands of miles from my home, navigating completely different food and culture than I am used to, all while attempting to build a new life in the midst of a global pandemic.
And I loved it.
Only in 2020, right?
When I decided to relocate from my native country of Turkey to the United States, arriving in February 2020, little did I know I would spend a portion of the year serving as an Instacart shopper during a massive pandemic, purchasing and delivering groceries for others in my new home of Palm Beach County in South Florida. I learned so much – about American food, prices, how American markets work. I had wonderful people helping me to find items in the market shelves, adjust to different driving rules, figure out the many surrounding neighborhoods and towns, and the list goes on – everything was so different! I saw beautiful, gated communities in Florida while making my delivery rounds. My brand-new car logged 6,000 extra miles, I made almost 500 shopping deliveries, and although the money wasn’t mine, I spent around US$75,000 on groceries. And believe me, I took the job seriously, asking my customers if they wanted their bananas green or yellow, their avocados ripe or hard, and informing them about in-store deals. Not to boast, but I consistently earned five-star rankings. Another bright spot: the 13-hour days, seven days a week, of shopping and rushing to meet deadlines was my first job that improved my physical fitness. The work was not as complex as what I’m used to, but it was gratifying nonetheless.
In a way, this professional detour was surreal after I spent more than three decades as an IT leader in Turkey, where I established the country’s first IT audit department, worked on the first COBIT implementation at a large Turkish bank, was the first IT risk manager, and was one of the country’s first professionals to attain the core four ISACA certifications, as well as become a PMP. I have lectured on COBIT, information security, IT audit and IT governance in graduate programs at several universities, given speeches at international conferences and traveled around the world to deliver training. I certainly did not anticipate adding “Instacart Shopper” to my CV at this stage of my career, but then again, many of us have stumbled into a brave new world in 2020.
When I arrived in the US on my green card, I was in a contract role with Carrier Global HQ as an IT GRC policies lead, but the role was cut short at the start of the pandemic. With major surges in unemployment at the time and facing unforeseen financial challenges (it is tricky and very expensive to buy a car or rent an apartment in a new country with no credit score!), I joined the growing trend of Instacart shoppers to make some money as I continued seeking full-time employment. What I learned about a new country in my three and a half months as an Instacart shopper, from April to mid-July, proved as helpful to me in my transition as anything I learned from my MBA studies.
Speaking of my MBA, that’s part of the reason I’m back in the US in the first place. Although I was born and raised in Turkey, I attended a private American high school in Tarsus and later came to the US to earn my MBA. I enjoyed those experiences, so when I became eligible for retirement after a 30-year career in Turkey that included many years in the banking/finance sector before turning to consultancy, I figured, why not apply for a green card and go on with my career while exploring the US further? I have a daughter attending college in Turkey, so I also figured I could make things much easier for her to pursue a master’s degree in the US after she graduates in 2022.
Little did I know the impact COVID-19 would have on my American journey, but I am hopeful I have now returned to sturdier footing. In July, I was hired as a third-party risk assessment senior consultant at TD Ameritrade. Instead of learning about new products in the supermarket, I’ve been learning the products in the IT supermarket that provide services to TD Ameritrade. It is my first-ever remote job, but like everything else this year, I am adapting.
It has been great to be back in the IT space. The business transformation I have witnessed and been part of throughout my life is hard to fathom, starting with closely observing my father, who worked for a large bank. I have been fascinated by technology transformation since the days of typewriters, facit calculators, carbon transfer papers, and the first monochrome monitors being used, when it took three days for an email to be transmitted from one PC to another in the same room. I’ve seen the IT evolution right from the beginning, especially working in banking and finance, which has been a leader in automation and innovation.
For most of this time, ISACA has been a central part of my professional life. I was instrumental in the founding and board membership of both Turkish ISACA chapters – in Istanbul and later in Ankara as the founding president. Throughout my career, ISACA’s knowledge and designations have given me the courage to be at my best, and this year in particular, becoming involved with the ISACA South Florida chapter board as membership director provided much-needed continuity in a turbulent year. ISACA has always been there for me, and I want to always be there for ISACA.
This past week marked a major milestone in my American adventure. I am overjoyed that my wife and daughter have finally joined me in Florida after nine months (our original plan was for them to visit much earlier in the year, but the pandemic and being unemployed complicated our reunion). There is so much for us to do and to explore together. I am so eager to experience more of Florida – I love the fishing, the boating, the ocean, and the wildlife, and I’d like to learn golf. I also want to meet more people, including my ISACA South Florida colleagues, and enjoy more socializing once we move beyond the pandemic.
What a crazy year it has been! In the past 10 months, I feel like I’ve learned more than I learned in the previous 10 years. 2020 hasn’t always been easy, but it has been significantly rewarding.
