Women at Chime chime in: The best career advice I’ve received
In celebration of Women’s History Month, we sat down with four women at Chime to hear the best career advice they’ve been given, as well as which resources have helped in their careers.
Here’s what they had to say.
The best career advice I’ve ever received was…
A VP once told me to think about each role you step into as an “S”: In the beginning, you’re at the bottom of the S — learning, but not necessarily adding value. Then you move to the middle of the S, where you’re still learning, but also adding value. At the top of the S, you’ve stopped growing but you’re adding the most value possible — it’s somewhere at the top of that S that you want to look for your next role or opportunity. The length of time that takes will be different for every role you step into, but beware: Too often, people stay in a role they aren’t growing in anymore and stagnate. Or, on the flip side, they learn a lot but haven’t had a chance to really make an impact and add value. Leave a role better than you started in it for both yourself and your team.
The piece of career advice I offer to other women is…
Don’t think of your career as a straight line. Think about each step as a brick that you’re building a wall with. Sometimes, it can feel as though you’re veering off of the road you wanted to be on or that you need to continue this straight, upward trajectory. But you’re a lot stronger and will have a lot more insight and experiences if you take on new things, fill in skills gaps, and take on projects and roles that may fall outside of the straight line you pictured. So don’t compare yourselves to others, don’t look at job titles — instead, focus on building your career wall, and that will make you unstoppable!
The resources I recommend women invest in to advance their careers are…
Mentors and sponsors are huge — mentors to help guide you, and sponsors to champion you.
The best career advice I’ve ever received was…
Several women mentors throughout my career have all offered me this advice: Negotiate like a man. Believe you are valuable, expect to be compensated fairly for your work, and learn how to advocate for yourself. Also, you can be both nice AND a strong negotiator.
The piece of career advice I offer to other women is…
Become your own best advocate. Know your value and make a compelling case for what you want.
The resources I recommend women invest in to advance their careers are…
Mentorship has been a big one for me: Find people you respect whose counsel you can seek out when you’re faced with an important decision you don’t know how to make. You can also learn a lot from people you respect just by asking them about themselves, their careers, their values, and why/how they’ve made the decisions that they’ve made.
My favorite negotiation resource is Haseeb Qureshi’s Ten Rules for Negotiating a Job Offer.
The best career advice I’ve ever received was…
Someone’s idea of you doesn’t mean that is who you are. If they are threatened or defensive and treat you poorly, that doesn’t mean you are threatening, attacking, or a poor performer. It means that person doesn’t see you because of how they see themselves.
The piece of career advice I offer to other women is…
If you are not being taken seriously, go sit at the grown-up’s table.
The best career advice I’ve ever received was…
To treat everyone with respect, because you never know who someone knows or might become themselves. Generally, I love the sentiment of honoring who someone could potentially be in the future rather than who they might seem in the here and now. So many people that I knew early in their careers have moved on to accomplish great things. Treating everyone with honor has given me an incredible network that wasn’t actually even planned.
The piece of career advice I offer to other women is…
Women doubt themselves more than men and won’t speak up unless they are 100% sure of themselves. My advice is to question that fear of being wrong and see speaking your mind—even when you’re not sure of something—as a way to process externally with others.
The resources I recommend women invest in to advance their careers are…
I just started reading Deb Liu’s blog and am enjoying it.
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received? Let us know in the comments!
