Jobs & Careers Month: What is the most important thing you have learned during your career?

[Angelie Stephens]

For the final week for Jobs & Careers Month, in the spirit of Leaning Into Learning, we’d like to hear about what you’ve learned over the years in your career! What do you think is the most important thing you've learned?

Have you honed your interpersonal skills and learnt how to be an effective team member? Perhaps you’ve learnt how to use software (Jira? Confluence? 😉 ) that’s become a valuable skill to you? Maybe like me, you’ve learned the value in advocating for what you believe in.

Whatever you’ve learned over your career(s), we’d love to hear more about it!

[Randy O_Neal]

Listen 10x more than you talk... or more.  Even after nearly 40 years in the industry, this is the hardest lesson for me to enforce on myself.

A close second is to listen to hear and understand; don't just listen to determine when you can start talking.  What appears to be listening on some people's part isn't actually listening; rather, they are simply waiting to talk and formulating whatever they want to say... they're not hearing a single thing being said, even if it is the answer to the question they are assembling in their mind.

[Laurie Sciutti]

YES YES YES!  "Listen" was going to be my reply 🙂

[Dave Mathijs]

I couldn't agree more @Randy O_Neal 

[Sayed Bares [ServiceRocket]]

Keep learning something new each month. Allocate some of your time on learning and yes it can include something that is not part of the industry you are working on. 

It is not learning just for the sake of learning but rather fun and gives you confidence and satisfaction.

[Angelie Stephens]

Such fantastic points, Randy! I especially like the part about listening to hear and understand. I'm going to try and take this with me too 😊

[ABR]

Exactly my thoughts! Along with 2 other learnings!

1. Growing in skills and knowledge is imperative to stay relevant.

2. Only those who are not afraid to fail, shall succeed.

[Laurie Sciutti]

Aside from listening more, I have learned that it is OK to say "No".  Not every request is necessarily a good one with which you need to follow through....

[Angelie Stephens]

I totally agree, Laurie! Knowing your boundaries is so important.

[Trudy Claspill]

I agree with both @Randy O_Neal and @Laurie Sciutti  about listening and saying "No".

Another thing that I think is important is to ask "Why?" Why are we working on this instead of that? Why is this task important? 

And along the same lines asking "what problem are we trying to solve?" That is really a "why" question, just phrased a different way to prompt a different way of viewing the topic.

[Angelie Stephens]

Great point, Trudy! Asking the right questions can give so much insight 🙌

[Manoj Gangwar]

Never stop learning — that's definitely an important career lesson.

[Angelie Stephens]

You're so right, Manoj! 

[Kai Becker]

My two most important things:

• If one door closes, there is always another one that opens 🚪
• Never stop exploring and learning - gaining new knowledge and skills is key to move forward 🔑

[Angelie Stephens]

Love these, Kai! 😄

[Bert van Dijk _TMC_nl_]

I always underestimated the time it costs to come up with a solution.

[Angelie Stephens]

Sounds like an important lesson, Bert!

[Amanda Barber]

Oooh, another chance to share my favorite quote! This has served me well in my career transition (over the last 3 years) as well as in my personal life. 💜

[Angelie Stephens]

I absolutely love this, Amanda! This is something I've struggled with in the past, so I'm going to keep this quote in mind. Thank you for sharing! 😊

[ABR]

Wow! @Amanda Barber That's a winner!

[Craig Nodwell]

Wow, great answers so far.  So many saying the same things I'm thinking, sure makes a person feel like they're not alone.
And that on top of never stop learning is my point.
You are never alone, reach out, ask, ask, ask, ask.

A Tree Should Be Planted For This.

[Peter Van de Voorde]

For met it's a pretty simple thing that learned over my almost 20 years in the business:

"It's always about people, never about technology."

In the end you're working with people and for people, so you have to truly understand people to excel at what you do. Which btw is much harder than understanding a technology, people are very very complicated.

[David Blank]

I love the other lessons learned above and all of them resonate for me.

Along the same lines as what @Laurie Sciutti said: Always understand and communicate the priority. 

This helps me know when to say no and I am sometimes surprised by changes in my stakeholders priorities (and them turning the no into a yes by swapping the priority with something else). 

[Andy Gladstone]

There are so many lessons I have learned in my 20+ year career. But if I had to pick one it would be:

EMPATHY > OUTCOMES

Not all outcomes will be what is desired. The team or individual may miss the mark - by an inch or a mile. Be empathetic. Understand what happened and why, don't berate or be judgmental - set the stage for future success by understanding the reasons for failure.

Here's a bonus lesson:

DELEGATE TO ELEVATE

As an SME or manager, you may be able to do it faster, better, or with more efficiency. But if you don't delegate and show trust in your teams and reports, you stagnate their growth, sense of self and satisfaction from their jobs. Don't just push down the menial work you DON'T want to do, provide opportunities for others to contribute to what you WANT to do yourself. They will know that you are trusting them with something important to you, the team or the company and will almost always surpass expectations for themselves and you.

[Rae Foote]

• Bet on yourself and you'll win every time (this was actually advice given to me by a wise woman I met at a cafe) 
• Most people aren't as smart as you think they are, they're just confident. Confidence (not arrogance) will get you far. 
• Follow what fuels you. You're not married to one career just because it's where you started. Chase the things that make you excited and motivated and let your career shake out from there. 
• Culture. Is. Everything. The most mundane job can be made worth it with the right people. You spend 40+ hours a week with some of your coworkers. Your relationship with them matters and can make or break a workplace. 

[Cassie the Jira Mechanic]

It is totally okay to not know every answer to every question. What matters is the willingness to find the answers.

[Benjamin]

Stay curious and don't be afraid to take risks.

[Sue Wilson]

Document requirements, even for what seems to be the smallest of changes.  This is in part to ensure you are delivering what your customer has requested and, maybe more importantly, a bit of CYA.  Throughout my career as an admin, I've learned A LOT!  But, the one thing that I now know is to check thrice & configure once or there could be trouble, even if it's in the mind of the one making the request.  You never want to get caught in the "that's not what I asked for" trap, so document, document, document....then deliver.

[ABR]

@Sue Wilson
Sure as hell it works as classic CYA! I live by the your last line!