Tanya Franco

What is the one piece of career advice you wish someone gave you when you were younger?

A big piece of advice I wish I knew when I was starting my first job is this: Opportunities are given to those who are ready when the opportunity arises, not to those who say they want it but haven't been preparing for it at all. You want the story behind this piece of advice? Read along! I was 19 when I started my first job, I thought I knew it all, I was studying and working part time at the same time, juggling both was tough but I somehow made it work, it wasn't a hard job anyway. Time passed by and I finished school, switched jobs a couple of times and landed a good job at a big IT company as a contractor, my contract was clear since the beginning, it was for 1 year and 1 year only, after that I would have to job hunt again, but I was confident that my boss would see my unique spark among the rest and request HR to hire me immediately (ha!). Of course that didn't happened, a lot happened within a year but me getting a job there wasn't one of them, why? Because even though I was good at my job and I did almost everything right, I missed a couple of important things: 1.- I didn't sell my job: Have you seen those people who brag about their job to everyone? Well they are good at selling their job (I didn't say it was good), they make themselves visible and become a top of mind person in their bosses' head. 2.- I wasn't able to distinguish what was important to me and what was important to my boss: HUH? Yes, my boss told me what I had to do, they all do, but after he unloads on you, you get to decide and determine what tasks take up most of your time, in my case I wasn't able too see that my bosses' meeting with his direct reports was more important than sending a purchase order to the purchasing department. What's the difference? The meeting was important to my boss, the PO was important too but not for him. The outcome was that they were both sent out, but the PO took a lot of time and the meeting was sent afterwards, what did my boss saw? I asked for a meeting invitation at 9 am and you sent it out at 1 pm. This is called working smart. 3.- I wasn't preparing for anything: Don't get me wrong I was learning a lot but that didn't prepare me for anything, I didn't have clarity on what I wanted, I just thought that magically my post would convert from contractor to internal and I would keep doing the same, I was SO WRONG, what kind of strategy would a company need to do this? It doesn't really make sense, if you're outsourcing a position, that means you don't really need that position for a long time or that it is a disposable position! (DAH, 1 year contract ring any bells?) What I should have been doing, and this is my biggest advice to you my dear reader is that I should have had clarity on what I wanted since week 1, I should have aimed for a position that already existed internally in that department or any other department (that's what networking and cafeterias are for). So when the time came, the year had passed, I wasn't a candidate for anything, there was no opportunity for me and I had to leave the company. I was lucky enough to find another job soon, a job that changed my life, and made me grateful for not getting this job at the big IT company. Not all rejections are bad, sometimes opportunities have to pass by in order for us to find a treasure in the next one.

What is the biggest challenge you had to overcome to get to where you are now professionally? How did you overcome it?

Greatest challenge... I'm a system's engineer that hates programming (yes you read that right). The challenge? well... getting a job for starters! Here's the story for that: I was always very curious about computers, I was a full geek by the time I was 12 with my Pentium 2 computer and my awesome 15" CRT monitor, but I was never math-smart, there's probably something wrong in my brain, math and I just don't get along, this of course translated in poor programming skills and a total lack of understanding when it came to programming logic, but I survived college, that was actually the easiest part, the hard part was getting a job as a systems engineer that can't program. You'll think there's a lot of other things a systems engineer can do, and you'll be absolutely right, there's networking, data bases, server stuff and administrative thingies. I decided to go for administrative thingies, and eve though it took a lot of years for me to realize this, I'm going to set this easy for you: You need to build a profile, any profile. You can change your profile as many times as you want to, you can compliment your profile with as many things as you need, but you need to have a full profile. You know those RPG games where you build up your character? you put clothes on it, and as you go along you get better clothes, better weapons, better boots etc? That's how you build your profile! When you're out of college you've got your character with basic equipment, there's nothing special about anything on your character, there are thousands of other players that look exactly the same (get the point?). So you go into your first job and you learn new skills, you start building your character, BUT WAIT, you've got a weird new skill that doesn't really go with the rest of the things your character has, I used to have a sword but now I got a javelin, turning point alert! you either go with the javelin or drop it and go back to the sword, your choice. So basically building your profile is: Learning new skills, getting certifications, asking a peer to show you how they do their job because you want to learn, study on your own... Taking advantage of whatever you can lay your hands on and decide if you keep it in your inventory, you wear it or you drop it. And about the job... I got a job as an IT purchase person at a big retail company, it was perfect to begin with, but then I saw that there's a financial side to be taken care of when you purchase stuff for a company, so I learned that too, then I setup a bunch of rules and procedures because everyone needs order and control over money, then statistics came, forecasting, investments, projects, project management. You might think it all came with the flow, it might have, or I might have had something to do with it, I'm still a system's engineer that doesn't program with a master's degree and an awesome job!

Did anyone ever oppose your career plans when you were young or push you in a direction you did not want to go?

YES! I did! I almost switched careers because I was overwhelmed by my lack of talent for math and programming. I was pushing myself too hard on a university with a program for high achievers, and I wasn't one of them, I had to be very honest with myself and search for another university with the same bachelor's degree but a not so "I want to kill myself" program. At first, it was hard to admit it to myself and then admit it to my parents who were oh so proud of me, but it ultimately turned out great, I got to study what I wanted without so much pressure and today, almost 10 years after that, I can tell you honestly that no one really cares where you studied, they care about what you can bring to the table, and that has nothing to do with the university you went to.

What is the most useful piece of career advice you got as a student, and who gave it to you?

"I'd rather hire someone who has worked at a fast food chain, than someone who has no experience at all" This was an advice provided by one of my teachers, and boy was he right! Don't wait till you graduate to get a job, get a job anywhere while you're studying, you'll learn about deadlines, punctuality, respect, and all that pretty stuff people talk about, but you will also learn in your early and "forgive him/her he/she is young" years about dealing with dreadful people (clients mostly but also co-workers), avoiding gossip, dealing with awful bosses, rejection, and overcoming all of it for a terrible paycheck with hideous hours, why do you want to put yourself through this? Because when you get an awesome opportunity, a great boss or decent co-workers you'll appreciate them so much you'll actually be happier with your life, because you know worse.