Best advice for a career in tech

(upbeat music) - Okay now I'd like to hear from all of you about the piece of advice that stuck with you throughout your career. - So I can take that, for me it was all about taking risks in your life and understanding that you don't live one life you live many lives and you can be successful in each of the lives that you live. So I started off as a developer, took on an account management role moved into product management and now I'm back into education and training. But in the process what I've also done is, I've published a Amazon bestseller. I started my initiative Eva, which has empowered women of the world. And it's all about you know, understanding where to let my creative juices flow and kind of picking them up and running with it. Also, it's important we as women put a lot of pressure on our jobs as one relationship to keep us happy. And that's a lot of pressure on one relationship. We should not expect our jobs to be all encompassing and the single source of happiness for us, or success for us. - I think for me, it has been taking care of yourself before you take care of others and the work. I learned it in the hard way, you know, it was a journey two years ago, I had some health issues and I had severe knee pains. I could barely get through the day and I was working crazy hours and by then I had two kids actually. And I was struggling and then I finally, it was a moment of realization that I want to achieve a lot of great things in life, but this is the moment where I have to take care of myself and it's okay to step back. It is very important to know when to slow down and when to move fast. If you cannot do that in your personal and professional life, it's going to just get tougher later in your life. - Because it's not a sprint that you're running. - Yeah. - It's a marathon, right? - Exactly. - And you have to pace yourself on it. - Yap, yap. - Well the best advice I got was even when you're really good at something to let go and move on, I was really good at developing these materials these video materials and I was kind of a perfectionist about it. And nobody could do it as well as I could. They took all my time, all my energy and I couldn't do anything else. And someone said do you want to be doing this 10 years from now? Because it's part of what you want to do. And maybe you do it better than the next person, they'll do it 10% less as well as you do. But if you don't let go, you will never see what else there is for you to do in your career. So even if you love something and you're really good at it consider letting go for what's next. And that was the best advice I ever got. - So I was just going to weigh in on what she said, 'cause self care is like a big deal for me. One of the core things that I really hope everyone will focus on is self care is very tied to self esteem. And I think for me, the one piece of advice I keep telling myself in my head is know who you are. Don't let other people define you. Half of the stress in our life is we're looking for others to approve of us. It took 20 years for me to get a point where like I'm okay, like saying, I know why I'm onboarded. And I don't expect people are entering that. You cannot, even though you know it you have to bend to the pressure because you have to go. But like the most important thing find that one thing in you that you will not compromise on like stick to that. And if you define yourself by that you won't let anyone else define you. So if it's a simple thing like I will always do the right thing, I will be ethical, right? If that's the thing that you will hang your hat on stick with it and then no one can shake you. Whatever else I say, just like, is it going to be ethical then I can live with the other stuff, right? - I think my piece of advice kind of speaks to the part where you're saying young people coming in don't have that much like control and like gumption to do or not do, but the best piece of advice I ever received and I will never forget it, and it's like a saying, it's, if you stay ready, you don't have to get ready. And what that means is if you're constantly like preparing yourself on this path to what you want and you're constantly kind of getting ready and learning, and you kind of know what that North star is for you at this particular time, when the opportunity shows up, you won't have to be like okay, I need to do this and I need to get this organized and I need to figure it. You're already ready. And so you're kind of first in line for the things it is that you want. And so I constantly still say that to myself, you know, if I want, you know, this dream job by this time, or I want this goal by this time, if I stay ready, I don't have to get ready. And so I'm just constantly in prep mode of where I want to be. - And just to add to that Megan, I think Vel said it's basically you shouldn't get too comfortable in what you're doing. Because then you're really not reaching your true potential. You often we get complacent and like, you know, just be happy. In that process what happens is you stop learning. When you stop learning you stop growing, right? Because you don't know what's the limit of your career growth opportunity. So it's very important to like, don't get comfortable. I keep saying, put yourself in uncomfortable places go and reach out to stretch goals because you never know what's out there for you in store. - An opportunity shows up and you're not prepared to take advantage of it. - Exactly. - Then that's dangerous. - You're reminded me of some advice I got that I didn't like but was really helpful for me. Someone said, "If you want to be liked get a dog." And I was like. (all laughing) Because I did so many things because I wanted people to like me. - Yeah. - And I didn't realize I did, until she said that to me. And it really kind of made me pause, but it was true. There's so many times I think I tried to make others happy and forgot my true North, what I was up to, and I think I did my worst work when I was just trying to make others happy. And sometimes don't like that feeling of standing up against the status quo, but if I don't it's even worse, so to me that was the best advice I got I didn't like to get.