{"id":106,"date":"2021-11-18T16:18:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-19T00:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.careervillage.org\/articles\/?p=106"},"modified":"2023-06-09T10:09:22","modified_gmt":"2023-06-09T18:09:22","slug":"professional-spotlight-sherman-tam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.careervillage.org\/articles\/professional-spotlight\/professional-spotlight-sherman-tam\/","title":{"rendered":"Professional Spotlight: Sherman Tam"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sherman Tam is a Senior Marketing Manager for Western Digital and volunteer on CareerVillage.org<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Written by: Corina Chen and the CareerVillage.org<\/a> Team<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For senior marketing and innovator Sherman Tam, success in the workplace begins with striving for excellency. He first learned this lesson from his dad. He writes, \u201cMy dad motivated me for a career because he was a great role model to show me what I needed to do.\u201d As a role model, his dad didn\u2019t care what Sherman wanted to pursue as a career, as long as he was self-motivated and success driven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sherman continues, \u201cHe\u2026thought I might want to take over his business, but that wasn\u2019t for me.\u201d Ultimately, his dad wanted Sherman\u2019s best, and Sherman recounts how, \u201c He wanted me to attend college and get a professional job because owning your own business requires very hard and long hours. I did both, which is why I\u2019m successful, but also it made him very happy.\u201d Sherman adds, \u201cI think you need to be self motivated to be successful\u2026 but also a self-starter, determined, focused, confident and disciplined.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In high school, Sherman described himself as an \u201caverage student who learned more from seeing and doing than reading\u201d. This hands-on approach propelled him towards his tendencies of confidently taking initiative and being determined. When it came time to begin actively pursuing a career, he started his journey in the editorial department for a financial services company, but was quickly laid off. Faced with unemployment, a friend of Sherman\u2019s in sales told him her computer company was hiring for marketing positions. Despite a lack of marketing experience or knowledge, Sherman says, \u201cI got hired because they liked my positive attitude, willingness to take risks and ability to figure things out so the job gets done.\u201d These traits became transferable skills that applied to whichever career path Sherman currently worked. 25 years later and Sherman has continued to pursue a career in marketing full of learnings that have grown Sherman as a professional \u2014 \u201cI like being creative and working on many different projects to help increase sales.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His quarter of a century in marketing was not without challenges. To a student\u2019s question about the most stressful element of an office job<\/a>, Sherman admits, \u201cThe most stressful thing about working in any office is the politics and dealing with negative people. I\u2019ve learned it\u2019s best to stay away from both those things because they don\u2019t benefit you as a person\u2026Being confident, aware and strong with a positive attitude will help you navigate any office environment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sherman ends his advice to a student by suggesting one of the first business self-help books that helped him develop strong work habits: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People<\/em>, by Stephen R. Covey. He says, \u201cIt made me who I\u2019m today and I still practice the habits professionally and personally.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Sherman had a fulfilling career, he also had some regrets. When asked to describe a moment in his career that didn\u2019t go as wished, he replies, \u201cGetting comfortable in my job and not taking a risk to see what other good career opportunities are out there to push myself further.\u201d Ultimately, learning the benefits of pushing himself to get uncomfortable helped him to reach farther in his journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite having a linear career path, Sherman\u2019s years of professional experience have also offered a broader view of the professional landscape. Regardless of industry, Sherman believes that all jobs offer promotional opportunities based on achievements. To encourage a student who wanted to know her chances at promotion, he writes, \u201c If you work extra hard and consistently show more accomplishments than your peers, management should recognize an employee for a promotion. Creating a detailed personal development plan to review with your manager is a great way to help work towards a promotion. This will make sure you clearly understand what\u2019s required to get promoted and how to make it happen.\u201d He speaks from personal experience when he adds, \u201cI\u2019ve been promoted a few times following this practice and use it as a Manager today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately for Sherman, striving for excellence is rooted in sincerity. He writes, \u201cAlways be yourself, have a positive can-do attitude, work extra hard, be honest and respectful, but also communicate openly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Get FREE career advice from professionals like Sherman on <\/em>CareerVillage<\/em><\/a> or make a difference giving advice to youth around the world by<\/em> signing up as a volunteer on CareerVillage<\/em><\/a>!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sherman Tam is a Senior Marketing Manager for Western Digital and volunteer on CareerVillage.org Written by: Corina Chen and the CareerVillage.org Team For senior marketing and innovator Sherman Tam, success in the workplace begins with striving for excellency. He first learned this lesson from his dad. He writes, \u201cMy dad motivated me for a career […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-professional-spotlight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.careervillage.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.careervillage.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.careervillage.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.careervillage.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.careervillage.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.careervillage.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108,"href":"https:\/\/www.careervillage.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106\/revisions\/108"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.careervillage.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.careervillage.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.careervillage.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.careervillage.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}