Career Advice

Our HR group was asked recently to support a local high school program and talk to a class about what it is like to be in the workforce and what skills they will need to be successful. I couldn’t help myself I had to sign up. If it wasn’t for a program like this one, I likely wouldn’t have the skills that I do today.

In my mind, my experience has been an exceptional one. The speakers came from a locally owned oil and gas company and after a few sessions with my class I got up the courage to ask if the company could donate money to my bid to attend Close Up – a program for high school students to visit Washington DC. The response was not to offer me money, but the opportunity to work 20 hours for a $100 donation. The cost of the trip was $1,100 so this was a drop in the bucket, but I went with it. The deal was to see what I could do and I knew it, it was clear to me that if I could prove myself in the first 20 hours I could maybe get a more permanent job out of it. I filed, I learned to download data into spreadsheets. This was my first experience with a PC since all we had in the schools were Mac’s. It was a great lesson in learning to work with people and do a variety of jobs. I became a part time employee and worked over holiday breaks and when I would return from college in the summer. This computer experience gave me an advantage when I began college and all throughout. I had the practical experience and real world examples as a result to apply in my courses. I ended up working for the company seasonally for 5 years doing everything from filing, computer work, answering phones, sorting mail, you name it.

When I was in my senior year of college I began tutoring for the athletic department, on many topics but primarily math. This was ironic to those around me since I always struggled with math, but I went with it and began to get better and better at the concepts as I myself was the one explaining them. It was this position in addition to my college degree that gave me the opportunity to begin teaching computers at a small adult school while working on my master’s degree. I started out teaching Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access and began prepping my students for the Microsoft Certification Exams. Unsure why they were coming back without good scores when I knew they had the concepts I began taking the exams myself and I began to learn how to take the exams and in turn teach to them. There is strategy involved after all in outsmarting a computer program regardless whether it is in the format of a video game or a test. Once I had taken all of the exams I discovered that you could become a master certified instructor by passing all exams and teaching for two years, and so I got my certification in Office 2000 while teaching.

A few years later when we moved to California I had begun looking for work and leaned on what I knew best which was teaching. In the fall of 2004 I began teaching for CSUCI part time as an instructor teaching Comp 101 – Introduction to computers. There is nothing like repetition to ensure you know what you are talking about. Teaching 4 sections of the same course meant I would teach on the same topic 4 times a day, nothing is more mind-numbing than that – but at the same time I came to realize it helped to really solidify what I knew and my confidence in presenting it to other people. Upon getting hired as an Engineering Administrator for my current company I began to scale back my teaching and eventually took a break from teaching. It has only been in the last two years that I have returned to teaching part time and currently teach an online course for upper division non-computer science department on the Survey of Online gaming.

My experience in improved greatly as I began working at Meggitt, my first big corporate job. I learned what the engineering group did, supported them, booked travel, developed reports, and took it all in. I took an administrative position with a Masters degree not because it was as good as I thought I could do, but because it was in an area of interest to me and my way of getting my foot in the door. Clearly I have not chosen to work for the perfect company, but no doubt one that has given me plenty of opportunities to grow an learn. I have had opportunities to learn the business and implement systems where previously there had been paper. I continue to do this type of work at a corporate level, and change management remains one of the biggest challenges.

My career is not an expansive one, but it has taught me to push the boundaries, do more than was asked, and never say something wasn’t my job. I have looked at every new job as an opportunity to gain a skill or insight that I would save for future reference. I am highly appreciative of the confidence and opportunities that those around me have had which have enabled me to grow and develop as an individual. In any job you have your expectation of the experience will ultimately shape your performance and your future. Hopefullly I can convey that to the high school student I once was.

Technology vs. Tradition

It boggles my mind.  Maybe it should, or maybe it shouldn’t.  Why do businesses take perfectly good tools and break them to fit the broken process.  Why does logic have to leap out the window every time you put a tool into the mix?  You see my job is to find the tools to enable the business.  I put hard work and research into the tools, evaluating them, getting past the sales people, making sure that how we roll out a system meets the needs of the majority not the loudest screamers.  Adopting technology means you have to change the way you do things.  You have to define a process, revamp a process, and make it better.  If we were doing things perfectly we would not have an 80% turnover rate in our management.  Heck, I f we were doing things right, we would all be commanding larger salaries and using the latest tools and be on the cutting edge of technology.

Regrettably, we are not.  Considering the industry we are in it is a shock, and it worries me a little that the technology being used to support the development efforts of our commercial aircraft in the sky is sub-par.  Not because we can’t afford it or don’t know it’s out there, but because we don’t understand it, and besides it’s comfy in this here bubble. 

It is amazing that one person can derail the use of a system and in essence render it ineffective and useless with one email, based upon one conversation with one corporate lawyer, 10 months or more ago.  What is more appalling is the inability to figure out who to talk to about the issues; informing oneself not just up the food chain, but down and laterally too.  The irony of all irony is that I was forced to sit through a 5 minute online “ethics” training that very day about good communication and not discounting people’s input.  

Assuming that everything remains static or will remain so is to be blind and repeat the same mistakes over and over.  Unfortunately many people get paid on that very premise, built careers on it even.  There is comfort in that lack of understanding, and lack of ability to move forward and progress.  “We’ve always done it this way” is our mantra, our comfort zone, our way of spinning out wheels.

The ambition of a mother

The ambition of a mother is constantly challenged by the passive aggressive behavior that can be equated with competition and the cattiness with which women consistently hold each other to higher standards that any man ever could. The method by which women consistently cut each other down and prey on the weak. It is the self doubt that women have that they feel the need to transfer onto others, which despite the fact that we live in an era where we will raise our daughters and granddaughters to do anything and be anything. We look at others and doubt. Doubt that they can handle all that they have taken on, doubt that they can afford that car, doubt that they will be willing to collaborate professionally.

I consistently see this in women I deal with of all ages, cultures, and backgrounds. Professional women, stay at home moms, women with kids, women without kids. I find this behavior coming from my own mother, and even myself. It’s contagious. Just when you’ve told yourself not to be judgmental, or be nice, someone starts up, at the office, the park, on the phone, and suddenly you’re caught up in the tornado.

I bring this up because when I step back and take a look at this behavior, it counteracts all that is good about what it means to be a woman in this day and age. It disregards the fact that if we could only manage to work together better, to pool our resources, to trust one another more willingly, we could be so much more. We could do so much more.

This mothers day, I want to acknowledge the influence strength, and love that my mother has given me. More importantly, I want to be the best role model I know how to my children. I want to channel my ambition to be more, to do more, to help others more into a successful career, not because I want to leave my family behind, or because they are unimportant to me. On the contrary, they are my world, my life, and my greatest achievements. They are also a work in progress, and will continue to be for many years to come. The best way I can influence, strengthen, and love my children is to show them that hard work, resourcefulness, and charity make us all stronger.

I won’t feel guilty for not being by their side 24x7, I know that they have a loving father that is there often times when I am not. All I can do for my children is to not be judgmental of other peoples’ choices in how they raise their children or live their lives. We all have our reasons, we all make our choices, and we must all be accountable for those choices.