Climbing the IT Ladder

Mary Finlay

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The Five Things I Wished Someone Had Told Me

By Mary Finlay on Fri, 04/04/08 - 3:51pm.

I recently was the keynote speaker at an IT conference at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. I shared my career story and then ended my talk with the five things I wished someone had told me when I was first getting started on my career. Here is what I said:

1) Strive to achieve your career sweet spot--that place where you are good at what you do and you love doing it. If you get to this place in your career, everything will fall into place for you.

2) Find people who will support you, believe in you, see talents and capabilities in you that you may not even see in yourself. Ignore the dream killers--the people along the way that try to tell you that you can't or you won't or question why you are even trying. I can't think of one person who has achieved success in their career that did it all on their own. You will need help; don't be shy about asking for it.

3) Find ways to continuously learn--read, discuss, pay attention to what is happening in all aspects of life around you and around the world. Be seen as a person who is up on trends, understands the bigger context of why things are the way they are. Be that person that makes others say--she might not know how to do this particular task today but I know she can learn.

4) The most successful people are the ones who are competent in their field and are good with people. A competent person is smart, knows their stuff, has good judgment, works hard at being the best they can be at their job. A person who works well with others is someone you want to be around--they are pleasant, kind, respectful, easy to deal with. We all know people who are competent but you hate being in the same room with them. We all know people who are really nice but aren't that competent. You need both. Make sure you are always working on both sides of the equation.

5) Self confidence is important. Believing in yourself and your capabilities will make it easier to try new things, to move beyond your comfort zone. It will help propel you along in your career. We tend to focus on what we don't know rather than what we have achieved and can achieve in the future. We all have different approaches to boosting our self confidence. Find what works for you and then get to that place where you believe that you can accomplish anything--yes, anything!