today was Fanny's last day at BlueSky. and this .. was a very, VERY tough one for me personally.

she was the same TAFE graduate batch with Nathaniel, but she could not land a job. i did not know about her until she liked a LinkedIn post that involved me and Sandra. viewed her profile, visited her portfolio site, and .. recognised her potential the moment i viewed the source.

i could not believe no one grabbed her yet. so i gave her the opportunity to join us.

few weeks into her work experience, we gave her a full time contract. i loved her work. i loved the way she goes about it. and i just loved her, fullstop.

for 8 years, i've always wanted to form a design team. with her onboard, i finally felt we were ready, and made plans for it. everything seemed to be going well when out of the blue (for me) she said she was moving on to another company. i shook my head. i told her there and then that in my 8 years of seeing people come and go .. she was the first one that's ever made me disappointed.

from the look in her eyes, i don't think she expected that at all. so i still had hope then, and offered some quick solutions. but the very next day, she decided it was best for her to take up the other offer - they could apparently give her a UI/UX mentor, which is something we could not offer.

i was hurt. i was angry. i was devastated. cos .. i want her on my team and not anyone else's.

fuck the big multi national companies poaching good talent from small companies like us.

i'm still slowly trying to come to grips with it. this week was better, and even started to talk and share some stuff with her again. but i almost lost it emotionally on Tuesday, when she asked for her official final day. but i managed to hold my tears in, and so did she.

i felt bad, so went to speak to Amel - and we convinced her to take up another possibly really good opportunity with someone we just met (former YouTube VP) who needed a UI/UX person for a 3 month contract. i do hope she gets this gig, cos professionally, i believe it would be so much better than the company she is going to.

i have always, and will continue, to want her to be happy and be the best at what i know and believe she could be.

i hope you find what you're looking for, Fanny.