Whenever someone gives insightful career advice, half the time it’s addressed to their younger self, or an early-career professional in their industry. It often has this air of “fear not child, for I have made the mistakes so you don’t have to!” (Which is ironic, considering some of the best lessons come from our own screw-ups.)
This week I’m going to flip this on its head: I want to share advice from my career that anyone can benefit from.
A few months ago I was asked to give a talk about my own experience and career path for a university seminar. The professor who asked me explained how he thought it would be valuable for the students to hear from someone with a more unique experience than the more common straight-to-Boeing-for-two-decades story.
I put together a few “career lessons” for the final slide of the seminar, but honestly looking back they’re really not just for early career engineers. It’s advice for anyone at any stage of their career, and for jobs both within and outside of engineering, too.
So without further ado, my first piece of advice for anyone in a job with other people is this:
Be kind, be yourself.
Practically all of my career success so far has been due to networking: being in the right place, at the right time, with the right attitude. I met people, did solid work alongside them, and showed my integrity.
Now that I’m doing something brave and different as a consultant, they’re giving back what I gave and then some. The only reason I even decided to try this out was because of a handful of folks reaching out to me right after my layoff, offering work and asking for resumes. I owe so much to them. The relationships I made over the years are honestly the reason why my business has done so well so far, and I’m grateful for it.
Show up for your team as the best version of yourself you can. Own and embrace your responsibilities. Recognize when you make mistakes, and be eager to fix them.
And when you achieve success, share it with those who helped you. Engineering is a team sport, not a competition: seek to raise everyone up!
You never have to be the smartest person in the room. You just need to be enjoyable to work with. Sometimes it’s even to your benefit to not be the smartest–you’ll get the chance to learn from others, and it’s amazing how much you can grow when there’s space for you to.
Take a pause sometimes. Truly look at the people you’re working with and the ones you’re doing the work for. It’s easy to get lost in the deadlines and metrics and forget that we’re all a bunch of funny-looking apes who desperately crave connection and to be validated and seen.
Acknowledge the humanity in others, and doors will open for you.
In saying all this, I do recognize the privilege of this having been my career experience. I’m white, able-bodied, and grew up in a financially secure environment, giving me a foundation and opportunities many others don’t get. Life has not been perfect, but my “new game” settings made it a lot easier to navigate.