Critical Careers - Women Building Careers in Digital Infrastructure - Book - Page 52
What are some of the biggest obstacles
young people face in starting their
careers today?
One of the biggest obstacles young people face when starting their
careers today is the pressure to be perfect from day one. And I don’t
blame them. You want to do well, you don’t want to make mistakes, and
ideally you want clear expectations before you begin. But the reality is,
especially in fast-moving industries, it’s never going to be perfect. There
won’t always be a detailed roadmap and if you wait for everything to be
completely clear before taking action, you can end up stuck.
That’s where the relationship with your manager becomes so important.
A good manager understands that you’re new and that you’re there
to learn. But there’s also responsibility on the individual. You have to
trust yourself enough to make progress, even if it’s not 昀氀awless. Do the
work, take a view, and then check in with your manager. That ongoing
feedback loop between the two of you is how con昀椀dence is built.
I also think there’s a challenge around trust and expectations. Many
young professionals want autonomy quickly, which is a great quality, but
trust is a two-way street. It’s built through consistency, accountability
and showing that you can handle responsibility. At the same time,
comparison is an easy trap to fall into as it can make you feel behind
when you can see everyone else’s highlights.
If you can get comfortable operating in the space between perfect and
progress, that’s where the real growth happens.
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“Most people don’t realise how much
impact this industry has on everyday
life. Banking, healthcare, nearly
everything we do today depends
on digital infrastructure.”
Looking at your growth so far, which skills
— technical or non-technical — have made
the biggest difference for you, and why?
The biggest impact on my growth has been people skills. They
require experience and 昀椀nesse because you’re working with different
personalities, working styles and pressures. More than that, they require
self-awareness. It’s about elevating how you respond, how you listen
and how you adapt. Especially in management, you have to treat every
individual differently. What motivates one person won’t necessarily
motivate another. That’s not something you achieve once and tick off. It’s
something you keep working on every day.
Communication is a huge part of that. I’m very conscious of people’s
time. When I send an email, I think: if this is the only moment they have
to read this, is it clear? Is it valuable? Am I getting to the point? It’s about
balance and giving enough context without overwhelming someone.
The same applies in meetings, especially in a large, mostly remote
organisation. Managing a meeting, sticking to the agenda, keeping
people aligned — that’s a skill in itself. In a remote world, you can’t rely
on quick of昀椀ce conversations. You have to be intentional.
