Member Story: Career Development and Shaping My Future with Intention

Melissa is a Data Scientist.

What motivated you to focus on Career Development?

Starting a new job in a new industry not only challenged me to think flexibly about how to leverage my background and expertise in a new context but also turned my attention to the experiences I wanted to have in the new role and more broadly, how I wanted to shape my career over time.

Please describe some steps you took to improve and how you chose these steps.

I realized that I'd fallen into a pattern of reacting to the opportunities in front of me rather than taking a more purposeful approach to creating opportunities that could further my career. I then did some research to look for tools that could get me on track.

I started by completing a values exercise that helped me identify what was most important to me in terms of my career growth and trajectory.

From there, I reached out to others in my network to get diverse perspectives on how I might create opportunities for myself to get experiences that aligned with those career values.

What was the outcome of your work?

This process led to insight into what is most important to me in my career, which I've written down to keep as a resource I can refer back to over time.

It also helped me identify concrete next steps so that I can make sure I'm taking the right next steps today to get me to where I want to go down the road.

Any tips for others working on a similar topic? 

Start with the big picture then narrow your focus. What matters most to you when it comes to your career development? Starting with big questions as a north star to where you want to go can help clarify what you should be doing today.