I have the profile of a General Manager or Chief Operations Officer and have spent my career in professional services and corporate research firms. I started my career as a real estate attorney in Princeton, New Jersey. After three years, in a storyline twist that surprised my family and friends, I moved to Washington, DC to work with the Advisory Board Company, which later became the Corporate Executive Board Company ("CEB"). At CEB, I spent almost 15 years in a multitude of positions -- from researcher to presenter/teacher to team manger to business unit and then division leader on the Executive Team. My businesses specialized in research talent management and corporate legal/compliance departments. I had the privilege of building a small business within CEB and growing it to be one of the five primary divisions of what became a publicly traded company with over 5,000 employees. Over the last eight years, I have worked at a smaller firm, Hanover Research, as an Executive in Residence with a focus on coaching, advising, and problem solving with the Executive Team. I have a passion for talent development and management as well as product process and quality initiatives. In the spring, I graduated with my Certificate in Leadership Coaching from Georgetown University's Institute for Transformational Leadership. This most recent experience reminded me what it is like to be a student again and helped me to add a valuable perspective and new set of tools to my work supporting people as they strive to find what makes them most effective and happy in their day to day lives.
My advice to students...
As I reflect on my career, I have learned a few things that I would advise those starting out:
1. Be open to anything and everything. You never know where an opportunity will take you. And frequently, the road less traveled or not previously imagined is one that will change your life.
2. Identify the activities that make you happy -- and then become really good at them. In my career, I have always been careful to do the things that I like and work to acquire skill in those areas. Showing that you can learn and excel in a job created opportunity for me. I haven't always taken the most direct or obvious path to where I want to go, but I have been true to what motivates me.
3. Find the people you want to learn from and go work for them. Sometimes, finding the manager that you admire and can teach you what you need to move to the next level is the most important consideration in taking a job. I had a remarkable set of teachers along the way in my career, and I think about and quote them often. If you can't immediately work for them, build a relationship and seek advice over time.
4. All work requires tradeoffs, and how you make those tradeoffs will change at different times in your life. For example, it is hard to find people who love what they do, work fantastic hours, and make a lot of money. It is important to think about what is most important to you and solve for that as you make decisions across your career.
5. Always be building and cultivating your network. People are happy to help and counsel and keep you in mind when interesting positions open up, but you have to be having conversations or keeping in touch over time and not only when you need something.
6. Stay curious! Ask why. Learn about people and processes and problems and solutions in areas that interest you. Think about how you are adding to your portfolio of skills and knowledge with each new experience.