Career Advice From 5 Women Trailblazers – In Government, Science, And Business

Forbes

2 days ago

As summer winds down, and many of us start to ramp back up to our normal work mode, it's also a good time to take a minute to take a breather to consider if you're on the career path you want to be on.
One way to do that is to listen to advice from people doing meaningful work that aligns with who they are at this moment.
In my conversations over the past year on Electric Ladies Podcast, I've heard a lot of extraordinary career advice for mid-career women in particular.
> Take a career detour: 'Many folks start to experience frustration because they have built such a wealth of expertise and have so much to offer, but they might feel just stuck.
In my experience, when I've been able to jump off that ladder and pursue something, a different context, a different platform, that lets me get unstuck. It's risky, but sometimes it just unlocks so much passion in an individual that to do exactly what you're meant to do and share all your gifts and be more successful than maybe you could have been in the other context.'
Hilary Doe, Chief Growth Officer of the State of Michigan. She's the first person to hold this new role in the United States.
> Every decision is not for life: 'Recognize that whatever you choose to do right now is not the end decision for the rest of your life. When you look backwards it's going to make sense, but when you look forward, it's going to be a crooked line.
"It's not going to be a straight line to somewhere, so do not to be too hard on yourself, do not try to seek perfection.'
Congresswoman Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA), is Co-Chair of the Bipartisan Solutions Caucus and Co-Chair of the Women in STEM Caucus> Go back and forth between public, private and nonprofit: 'For anyone, women especially who are interested in the energy and climate space, I would say that you shouldn't feel that you need to choose between the public sector, the private sector, and the nonprofit sector. I've been able to continue to build my expertise in the energy and climate space, but from multiple different perspectives.
"My advice would be to just not feel that you need to pick one of those lanes and, and to take the risk to bounce between those different segments of our economy.'
Claire Seaborn is the former Chief of Staff to the Canadian Minister of Energy and Natural Resources. She's now an attorney at Tory's LLP law firm.> Don't keep doing the same thing: 'Just jump in. Because even if it crashes and burns, it's experience and you learn no matter up and down inside it. But if you keep doing the same thing you've always done, you're robbing yourself of those opportunities.
"Even small risks – putting your hand up for a project where you might know 20 percent of what it takes to do it. Gosh, isn't that the best way to motivate yourself to learn something new?'
Zara Summers, Ph.D., is Chief Science Officer of LanzaTech, making cool stuff out of captured CO2.> Look for the holes: 'If you're working strictly in a business function, but would like to have more impact, see if you can work for a business who's doing some innovative work around sustainability. The sustainability team is always looking for partners. So there's an opportunity for you to get more experience and over time, potentially parlay your job into more sustainability work. Secondly, you could get on a board, a non-profit board that does a lot of work on environmental or just sustainability with corporates.
'My whole career, I've advanced [because] I've always seen where the holes were, how to look at problem with an opportunity mindset and volunteer to attack that opportunity and be willing to take a risk to do that and feel comfortable, which women struggle with at times.'Tensie Whelan is Founding Director of the NYU Stern School for Sustainable BusinessWhat 'holes' will you find to fill? What will you throw you hat into the ring to do, even if you aren't sure you can do it? What part of you will you 'unlock' over the next few months with a new choice (or two)? Where will your zig-zag career take you next? Which part of the economy will you explore next?
Food for thought.
To listen to the full interviews with these women, find Electric Ladies Podcast on any podcast platform, or click on the links above.