3 Tips on How to Transition Into New Roles From T. Rowe Price’s Aminah Nailor
Aminah Nailor is not the kind of person that backs away from a challenge.
Whether it's learning a new coding language over one weekend or teaching herself a new application for a role, Aminah sticks to one motto: “Keep developing—Not just the skill set for the current job, keep developing yourself and be in a constant state of learning.”
After joining T. Rowe Price almost 4 years ago as a Business Systems Analyst, Aminah used her philosophy of constant learning to step into a new role as a Software Development Engineer in Test for the GBS-Distribution and Marketing Services - Individual Investor org.
Keep reading to hear more about Aminah’s experience embracing new professional opportunities and her advice for professionals transitioning into a new role.
Tip 1: Set clear goals and go after them
Before coming to T. Rowe Price, Aminah worked as a Business Systems Analyst for major companies in the telecommunications, finance, and broadcast media industries. In those roles she wrote requirements, identified risks, conducted application testing, gained big picture vision prowess, and project managed solution phases of software development projects.
Although all these roles had different scopes and demands, she used one strategy to excel: set clear goals. Setting goals and making a strategic plan for how to reach them can help you stay focused and excel in your career.
When talking specifically about engineering, she encourages people to “know what you want to do in the engineering job family. The options are plentiful, so know the skill set you want to have and master it.” Here, she highlights the importance of being in a constant state of learning. Paired with the next two tips, you can open up many professional opportunities.
Tip 2: Align with the company's goals
After 20+ years of experience in Business Systems Analysis, Aminah began to seek new opportunities in a company that shared a similar vision of professional and personal development. This led her to take an opportunity at T. Rowe Price— a move that would offer her the opportunity to learn new coding languages, earn certifications, and pivot into a new role. Outside of her BSA role, Aminah spent many hours engaged in community volunteer activities, taking on elected and appointed leadership opportunities along the way.
As a global investment management firm, T. Rowe Price is focused on helping clients achieve their long-term financial goals by strategic investing, an active management approach. Besides their rigorous field research and careful risk management, the firm credits the long-term success of their clients to the diversity of their employees. In 1937, the firm was founded by Thomas Rowe Price Jr. and four associates, two women and two men. This set the stage to continue growing their teams from all backgrounds, perspectives, talents, and experiences.
T. Rowe Price believes its success is linked to the success of the communities they reside in. Their community-based efforts come to life through financial support and associate volunteerism. T. Rowe Price wants to support people beyond the company and into the community, no matter who they are. This support to grow is what keeps her coming to work every day.
Tip 3: Be willing to learn
Transitioning from Business Analysis into Software Engineering is a major feat for anyone, but in true Aminah fashion, she didn’t back down from the challenge. With her eyes set on the opportunity, and the support of the firm, she picked up additional coding skills she would need to start test automation over a weekend. She also completed training in Selenium, which she paired with Python (another language that she learned at T. Rowe Price). Aminah’s tenacity and constant willingness to learn equipped her with the tools she needed to thrive in her new role.
Her responsibilities now include testing automation, writing scripts, working with developers, and supporting the 18 tools and applications that drive success to the company's customer experience. One specific application Aminah supported was SureTrack (now Asset Transfer), which converts clients from other financial service companies and facilitates the transition of accounts and fund transfers.
Apart from this major project, T. Rowe Price is continually investing in Digital Excellence and Data Programs that help meet the clients’ objectives. As of 2022, 60% of their technology budget is set aside for this purpose. The six major programs for this year boast the latest technology and are specific to digital excellence, advisory services, data activation, associate platforms, a new tiered benefits program, and growth enablement.
Paired with the excellent research and performance of T. Rowe associates, each of these programs support clients as they navigate investment options. Aminah further reiterates this as she was selected to be part of a team put together to work on the implementation of an internal asset allocation tool, initially rolled out in Q4 of 2021. This tool is planned to expand and become an external facing tool later this year.
T. Rowe Price is committed to finding the best talent from all backgrounds. If you want to know more about how you could fit in at T. Rowe Price, check out their tech event “Engage, Enable & Elevate”, fully led by technologists like Aminah.
How Sun Life’s Rosa Vega Identifies and Hits Her Goals—And 4 Steps for You to Do the Same
Rosa Vega says that working hard is in her DNA.
"It was always in me that I wanted to work," she explains. "It has a lot to do with my background. I came from a Central American country, and the U.S. is the land of opportunity. Why not make it happen?"
Rosa emigrated to the States from El Salvador when she was six and a half. She grew up in Queens and now lives in Long Island, not too far from the first place she was ever employed.
Rosa started working at 14 as a volunteer at Flushing Hospital. Several decades of hard work later, she's the Director of Client Relationship Services for financial services and life insurance company Sun Life.
It's the culmination of a big goal she had for herself: to become a manager.
We sat down with Rosa to hear more about how she sets (and achieves!) goals and how she encourages and enables her team to do the same.
Step One: Identify Your Strengths
Put Rosa in a room of people—be it in a hospital room or a board room—and ten minutes later, she'll know the life stories of at least half of them.
"I've always loved people," she explains. Her first manager had noticed the same thing.
At the time, Rosa was in her second rotation of GE's leadership development program. She was reporting to a woman for the first time, and, inspired by seeing her manager's success in their male-dominated field, had brought up her goal to one day be a manager of others.
"[My manager] sat down and said, 'You know, you lead a lot of projects, and one of your strengths is that you lead people even though they don't report to you,'" remembers Rosa. "That stuck in my head."
Step two: be collaborative
Rosa was able to reach her goals because she shared them with her management team. Now that she herself manages a big team of client relationship executives and client advocates, she expects her direct reports to do the same. "I value people telling me what they feel should be the right thing [for the business or for their careers]," says Rosa. "They're the voice of reason, the boots on the ground, the ones who know exactly what's going on."
"I want them to know there's nothing they can't come talk to me about," she adds.
Sun Life's culture supports that collaboration, explains Rosa, which makes it easier. "It's such a diverse company, and I've worked with so many different people—all are amazing, motivational, go-getters," she says. "When you work with people who are successful and always hitting their numbers, that motivates you to win, as well."
Step Three: Be Flexible
The pandemic taught us all a lesson that's especially useful when it comes to goal-setting (and -achieving): you have to be open to change.
"I never would have thought that I would be homeschooling three kids and doing my job," says Rosa of 2020. "With goals, you have to be flexible in terms of how you get there."
That's especially true for sales goals, which make up a big part of what Rosa's team is measured against.
Rosa encouraged her team to come together and share what was and wasn't working. "Every year is a new challenge, so everyone brings something different to the table, no matter their experience level," she explains.
For instance, during the pandemic, Rosa's team realized that their customers needed hospital indemnity and supplemental life insurance, and that they could adjust their sales strategies to get those options into the hands of customers—helping them hit their goals and also helping customers stay covered.
Step Four: Stay Committed
Staring down the barrel of a big number can be a difficult thing for a salesperson, and Rosa recognizes that. She gives her team three pieces of key advice when it comes to sticking it out and making it happen:
- Don't give up—but do pivot. "Sales is all about your approach. If you're doing the same thing and it's not working, change it," she says.
- Don't be afraid to ask. "It's okay to hear that 'no,'" says Rosa. "It's difficult to be in a situation where you wish you could have, would have, should have."
- There's nothing wrong with starting over. "There are opportunities to recreate the situation you need," says Rosa.
Setting up others to achieve their goals
Now that Rosa is a Director, her goals look less like "achieve a certain title" and more like "enjoy work-life balance" and "create space for others."
On the work-life balance front, Rosa has been focusing on creating separation between work and family life. That has looked like taking vacation days to spend time with her children, even if the only thing on the agenda is to go out for ice cream that day, and prioritizing family celebrations along with work ones.
Rosa is also committed to creating paths and opportunities for other people.
"I hire people who might not have a lot of product knowledge," she explains. "I give them an opportunity when I see that they want to do something different. I hire people that I think will be successful no matter what background they have."
She's more than willing to help foster the spark she sees in under-experienced but passionate hires. "I am in a role where I can coach, and I can mentor," she says. "And I have been doing this for a long time. When somebody has that capability, I don't want to penalize them [for lack of experience]."
Does Sun Life sound like a place you'd succeed? Check out their open roles!
12 Tips for Setting Better Goals
We asked 30+ women how you can make this your best year yet.
Resolutions are one thing. Goals are another.
How do you move from vaguely hopeful statements about what 2021 will mean for you personally and professionally to thoughtful plans that are likely to come to fruition?
You set good goals. Specific goals. Goals that tie back to your values, goals that can be tracked, goals that make you excited to get out and start working towards them.
We asked 32 incredible and accomplished women about the advice they'd share with anyone looking to make 2021 their year. Here's what they had to say!
1.Make goal setting a ritual.
Sure, a new year is just a change of date, an arbitrary way to mark time. But if we create meaning around it, it can become something else entirely. Carmen Kelly, Training & Development Team Leader at Quicken Loans, likes to see it as a real beginning. "I enjoy embracing the fresh, new year with hope of what could be, and a huge part of that is goal setting," she says. "Having goals in life is essential. Even creating goals for different areas of your life is key. This can help with making sure you are balancing out all critical aspects of your life that are most important to you."
Starting with reflection can help make sure that your goals are well-connected to where you are mentally, personally, and professionally. "I always start with reflecting on my past to gain better understanding of myself," says Ankita Patel, Principal Software Engineer at Clarus. "What my capabilities are versus what I really foresee myself doing in next quarter or so. It allows me to see where I stand, what difficulties I have faced, and to shift my perspective from doubting myself to believing in myself. It forms the baseline of starting fresh and helping me plan for my future."
For Jess Tsai, VP of Business Operations at VTS, the ritual of goal setting begins with a long journaling session. "I reflect on the last year and rate myself on a scale of 1-10 for how happy I am in these ten areas: health, emotional/mental, relationships (friends/family), love/romance, service, learning/personal growth, experiences, spirituality, career, and finances," she says. "In the areas where I scored lower, I reflect on why. Then I go through each area and write out in detail what my life would look like if I scored 10 in each area, and try to visualize that life and feel like I'm already there. Depending on my scores and what's most important to me right now, I set some intentions for where I want to focus for the year."
2.Build around your values.
Disparate goals scattered across different aspects of life aren't as likely to motivate you as one set of goals that coalesce around a theme, says Jac Le, a Senior Territory Sales Representative at Autodesk. "Whether or not you're conscious of it, values are the foundation of goals, dreams, character, and decision making," she says. "Instead of creating New Year Resolutions, I create a Theme that I want to focus on for the year, which is based on my values. It can be a word or phrase. From there, every goal set throughout the year is measured in alignment with that Theme to ensure that my goals are an expression and enhancement to my values instead of a stressor to check off."
If you're having trouble thinking of a good place to start from, or naming the values that drive your everyday life, Dipabali Chowdhury, a Learning & Development Specialist at MongoDB, has advice that can help. "The more self-awareness you can build, the more specific your goals will be and the more motivated you will be. Sometimes, we set goals without understanding what's important to us. We follow someone else's compass instead of our own," she says. She suggests asking yourself reflection questions: "When I was happy at work, what contributed to that joy? When and why was I frustrated at work? What mindsets held me back from achieving my goals this year? What challenges did I overcome? What are my natural strengths? What skills, knowledge, or behaviors do I want to build in the new year?"
Claire Lucas, Senior Manager, Services Operations at Elastic, suggests beginning with an end vision in mind. "I work backwards," she says. "I journal about my vision for the end of the year, trying to think about it uninhibited from any constraints. I then focus on creating a declaration for myself that will help me break through to reach my goals. The declaration ties together who I am today, and who I need to be in the future to fulfill this goal."
3.Consider making personal and professional goals in harmony.
You might have personal goals that are completely unrelated to what you do at work. That's okay! Great, even. But you do need to make sure that they are complimentary at least so far as how they'll be achieved, says Lee Ann Mangels, Senior Director of Program Management at Clyde. "Your personal and professional goals have to be somewhat aligned. If you decide to improve your time management in the new year, it will only work if the practice or process you start applies to your home and work life," she says. She gives an example: "Several years ago, I started taking 30 minutes on Sunday afternoon to review the week ahead. What meetings do I need to prepare for? What are we having for dinner? Do I have to coordinate any personal appointments for our family? Investing 30 minutes on Sunday has been a game changer for me."
4.Start big, then whittle down as needed.
Being aspirational when you make your goals is key—but so is creating a practical plan to achieve them. "I always try to look at the bigger picture [when goal setting]," says Beatriz Alvarez, Talent Acquisition Sr. Analyst - Recruitment Events Lead at Lockheed Martin. "I try to set a long term goal that seems impossible, making sure it is measurable, down-to-earth, and real—and most importantly, that it is motivating. Once I have my eyes on the prize, I strategize by setting up a group of smaller goals that will help me achieve it."
That being said, it's important to not lose sight of those aspirations, either. Amanda Fennell, Chief Security Officer at Relativity, has advice for finding the Goldilocks moment between too-easy and too-hard goals, finding the just-right pace where you're pushing yourself: "You never know how far you can go unless you set stretch goals. If I only set goals that I knew I could ace, it would be stacking the deck. I want to know how far I can push myself and in taking this approach, I have achieved some pretty amazing things. As Captain Marvel says: 'Higher, further, faster.'"
Yasameen Raissinia, APAC Commercial New Business Manager at Smartsheet, is a fan of the stretch goal, too. "I always like to push myself either personally or professionally to hit smaller attainable goals that add up to a big audacious goal. For example, I always try to set the goal of getting to the Presidents Club which typically has a goal post of 130%, which is massively difficult to achieve. In order to get there, I try and break down my weeks and my quota to overachieve, and try to give myself smaller goals around numbers of accounts, or contracts I close per week, helping me get to the major and impressive goal!" she says.
Bridget Barrot, Chainalysis's VP of Customer Success, has a three-step framework for getting that balance right. "The best lesson I've learned about setting goals is they need to be simplistic, realistic, and strategic," she says. "Simplistic: It's important to find things that are easy to measure, so that you can regularly assess them. Anything that requires too much work to analyze will set you up for failure. Realistic: Stretch goals are important, but it's also important to be practical about what you can complete in any quarter or year. When they get too lofty or too numerous, it's easy to just give up on them all together. Strategic: It's important to differentiate between goals and a 'to do' list. Goals can be a mix of big and small things, but they must be grounded in results rather than just a list of tasks to check off."
5.Write goals down.
"We're all familiar with the numerous studies that underscore the correlation between writing down our goals and our ability to achieve them," says Shavit Bar-Nahum, Senior Vice President of Leadership Development at Moody's Corporation. "The bottom line is, if it's not documented, it's less likely to happen, you are less likely to hold yourself accountable, and it's much easier to slip back into old habits and behaviors. So whether you are embarking on a new opportunity, learning a new skill, or increasing your sales objective, write it down. And not just for yourself. From documenting it in a system of record to creating a visual reminder for yourself, capture your goals in a way that you and others can see your intentions and can support you on your journey."
Going beyond writing down goals can help, too. Mary Kay Evans, pymetrics' Chief Marketing Officer, recognizes the power of writing down her own story: "One of the most challenging and rewarding exercises for me was actually writing out my story. Not goals in a bullet point list, but rather in a story format as though it's already happened. I began the year 2018 by writing the story I wanted to tell by January 2019. It was a narrative looking back on my accomplishments and challenges faced and how exactly I overcame them. By being vivid and specific, like a good narrative requires, I really had to bring my vision of the year ahead to life. It went beyond simply listing my goals to describing outcomes and how I would experience them. This preparation made all the difference as 2018 was a year of tremendous growth and accomplishment for me. It works!"
6.Find a way to track your goals over time.
The many women we talked to had different ways of tracking, but the unifying thread is that each had found a way that worked for them. Alisa Cash, Director of IT Solution Delivery at BCBSNC, sums up the key approach: "Do not set a goal that cannot be measured. This does not have to be an emphatic measurement (such as achieving 100% on time delivery = x; 90% on time delivery =y), although the more you can do this, the clearer resources tend to be."
For Sarah Morningstar, Ph.D., Data Researcher at Primer, breaking her goals into timely metrics helps. "I have found that I am more likely to achieve my goals if they include specific and actionable metrics; otherwise, it is hard to determine if I am successful," she says. "For example, one of my goals for 2021 is to practice more yoga. However, the term 'more' is vague and difficult to know when I have achieved it. Instead of more yoga, I decided I wanted that to mean that I will practice yoga at least two times per week. Over the year, I need to practice 104 times or 26 times per quarter to be successful. Each quarter I work backward from 26, I do more some weeks, and others it's less. I allow this flexibility because I know that being a mom and a working professional, I can't always control my schedule."
Amanda Sternklar, Marketing Director at State Listings, agrees, and notes that she checks in on her progress every week: "The most important thing for me is ensuring my goals are measurable, through metrics directly related to my own activities. That means that if I want to increase our blog following in the new year, my goals would look something like 'Create 3 original blog posts each week' and 'Be a guest contributor on 10 blogs in 2021.' That way, I can create a tracker—mine is a physical page in my planner, but there are also various apps that help with this—to see my progress at a glance. I review my tracker on the first Monday of each month to make sure I'm on track and figure out any steps I need to take if I'm not."
Amy Luo, Senior Product Designer at Lattice, likes identifying specific behaviors that she can easily keep in mind. "Be specific and focus on actions or behavior when defining your goals," she says. "Try setting a number you want to achieve or a completion date. It'll help keep you on track and you can clearly measure your progress toward the goal over time. For example, if you want to work on your writing skills, a general goal like 'Become a better writer' would be too vague and difficult to measure. A specific and actionable version could be 'Write for 30 minutes every day' or 'Publish an article every month.'"
For Stacey Chase, Senior Manager Internal Audit at Siemens, adding a visual element to her goal metrics is what keeps her on track. "I use a Kanban board on Trello to plan and organize my activity," she says. "In my first column I list my goals for the year and assign them a color. As I work on things throughout the year and add tasks I tie them back by color to the goal the effort is in service to. This helps me multiple ways. First, it is a visible reminder I see daily or weekly of the goals I have set. Second, I am constantly tying back my efforts and time spent back to my goals. Third, it gives me early warning that my goals or my efforts may need to be reevaluated if I find most of my energy is spent on things other than my goals."
7.Don’t keep your goals to yourself!
Many of the women we spoke to highlighted how important it is for your goals, personal and professional, to exist outside of your own head. "Be sure to share your aspirations with others and ask for feedback along the way—don't assume your supervisor knows your near and longer-term plans," says Wyetta Morrow, Executive Director, Human Resources at Raytheon Technologies. That's particularly true for goals that can be advanced at work, she notes, adding, "Our career journey includes a village and it helps to have others that can advocate for you when you may not be present."
And there's no need to limit that sharing to just your manager—what about all of the other people that care about you and want to see you succeed? Janet Higgins, Vice President of Regional Sales at Ciena, suggests broadening your circle. "Build a support group around you. Share your goals and your thinking with your trusted mentors and friends. Actively think about who you can leverage in this way. Chances are they would be more than happy to reciprocate. Seeking the perspective of people outside your industry who only have your best interests at heart and are willing to give you straight honesty is pure gold," she says.
8.Considering making your goals three-dimensional.
Writing down your goals is a classic approach, but if you have a creative bent or are a more visual learner, maybe going a step farther and making a concrete representation of your goals will help you focus on them. "Try creating a vision board that includes pictures and words of the mini goals and milestones you want to focus on to help you achieve your bigger picture goal," says Gursharn Dhami, Senior Global HR Business Partner at Stack Overflow. "If you make it visible, you may just feel more accountable to accomplish what you've envisioned for yourself!"
Brooke Kaylor, Program Manager, National Security Group at Primer, agrees with the power of seeing your goals around you. "Visualize it. Decide what it is you want to do and make it so real you can touch it, see it, taste it. When I decided to change my career completely, I put things into my workspace that reminded me of where I wanted to go. Articles, photographs — anything that kept my focus on my goal," she says.
9.Tackle the hardest things first—if that’s possible (ribbit).
There's an argument to be made for starting with easy wins, but Laura Ripans, Datadog's Director of Channels & Alliances, won't be making it. "Get the important things done first," she says. "For me, this is early in the morning when I have no distractions. Stay focused and concentrate on the things that matter most." She suggests reading Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy. "There's an old saying that if the first thing you do each morning is eat a live frog, you'll have the satisfaction of knowing you're done with the worst thing you'll have to do all day. For Tracy, eating a frog is a metaphor for tackling your most challenging task—but also the one that can have the greatest positive impact on your life," she says.
As it turns out, Claudia Petrocchi, Executive Director of HR Operations for CSL, is a big fan of the frog approach, too. "Years ago, someone shared a Mark Twain quote with me: 'If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first.' This quote clicked with me—it's so visual that it really helps me. Normally I would wait the whole day and think how awful this frog will be. But now, I'll eat the frog right away. For years I had a sticker of a frog on my laptop. So, if I had that crazy email or that crazy project, that would be my frog."
Sasi Murthy, VP, Product and Solutions Marketing at Netskope, has a visual trick to help you remember to keep that big, hard goal front and center: "Invest time in thinking about what you want to achieve, not how you will do it. Then find a jar and place a big rock or a few that represent these goals inside, and fill the rest with smaller rocks. This will be a reminder that we are most effective at anything we set out to do, when we give it the space in our 'mental jar' first, and follow it with the smaller goals."
That being said, make sure the hard thing you're going after is even possible. For Shelly Anderson Bodine, a Chief of Staff at SoftwareONE, remembering that she's operating in an environment where she can't control everything is key. "I once had a leader tell me you needed two things to get promoted," she says. "First, a position had to be available, and second, you had to be ready for the role when it was available. That feedback has always stuck with me throughout my career. I realized I really only had control over the latter. So each time I would move into a new role, I gave myself 6 months to acclimate. At that point, I evaluated what I could do to be better than the next person in the role I have and where do I want to go next. From there, I would create a list of things that would bring me closer to my end game, narrow down to the 2-3 most impactful, and those became my goals."
10. Goals aren’t set-it-and-forget-it.
If you set goals in January and ignore them from then on out, your chance of marking them "achieved" at the end of the year is low. "Try not to think of goal setting as a yearly activity," says Sarah Burke, Senior Director of Software Engineering at Ciena. "Achieving goals requires continual review and reassessment of priorities. Book some personal time in your calendar once a month to remind yourself to check in on how you're progressing and hold yourself accountable for re-adjusting. You are responsible for your success!"
11. Go beyond a 12-month horizon.
Many of the things you're most interested in—be it becoming a VP, launching your own company, writing a book, finishing an advanced degree moving to a different country, or any other number of goals—might not happen in just one year. Tami Early, VP and General Manager Sales—Major Accounts at Ciena, suggests breaking down your goals into "digestible and achievable bites." She uses the VSEM method: setting a 5+ year vision, a 2-4 year strategy, a 12-18 execution plan, and 12-month rolling metrics. "This method of goal setting allows me to think about my long- and short-term objectives, while holding myself accountable to measurable outcomes inside of a year," she says.
12.Treat yourself with grace.
You won't achieve all of your goals, and that's okay. As Megan Sykes, Contracts Manager at Elastic reminds us, "Don't set overbearing expectations on yourself. Afford yourself grace. While it's important to progress personally and professionally, we have to be adaptable to the circumstances around us (which can change over time) and live with integrity."
That's never been more important than after the year 2020. "I'm very goal orientated both personally and professionally," shares Amanda Eleuteri, a Sr. HR Business Partner at CarGurus. "Early on in my career, I would feel defeated if I didn't achieve my goals for the year. I try to be mindful that sometimes a goal is not achieved because priorities change. That was certainly the case in 2020 as needs in the business evolved and what I was focusing on shifted in response."
NSA's Meredith D., PhD, echoes the importance of revisiting, and revising, your goals: "Your goals are not meant to be set in stone! There are several factors that can require them to change, even dramatically at times. Be flexible and willing to change your SMART goals. Sometimes we can foresee that the goal is not going to be achieved in our original timeframe. Or we change our mind completely! This is not a failure. It is an opportunity to reflect and revise the goal given the new information at hand."
After all, it's about the journey, not the destination. "The process of working toward a goal is often more important than achieving the goal itself," says Stephanie Cheng, Product Engineer at Folsom Labs. "The shape or timeline of your goal can change as long as you check in with yourself and continue to consistently work toward them. It's okay if you don't achieve your goal on the first try. Working toward goals is really about building the muscle memory to form slightly better habits each year. With consistency, patience, and positivity you can build the tools you need to succeed."
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Think you may want to work with one of the incredible women highlighted here? Check out open roles at the companies mentioned:
- Apply for open roles at CarGurus
- Apply for open roles at NSA
- Apply for open roles at Folsom Labs
- Apply for open roles at Autodesk
- Apply for open roles at Clyde
- Apply for open roles at Lockheed Martin
- Apply for open roles at Relativity
- Apply for open roles at Smartsheet
- Apply for open roles at VTS
- Apply for open roles at MongoDB
- Apply for open roles at Chainalysis
- Apply for open roles at Moody's Corporation
- Apply for open roles at pymetrics
- Apply for open roles at BCBSNC
- Apply for open roles at State Listings
- Apply for open roles at Lattice
- Apply for open roles at Siemens
- Apply for open roles at Raytheon Technologies
- Apply for open roles at Stack Overflow
- Apply for open roles at Primer
- Apply for open roles at Datadog
- Apply for open roles at CSL
- Apply for open roles at Netskope
- Apply for open roles at SoftwareONE
- Apply for open roles at Ciena
- Apply for open roles at Quicken Loans
- Apply for open roles at Clarus
- Apply for open roles at Elastic
How to Achieve Your Personal & Professional Goals in 2021
6 Tips from Netskope's Director of Executive Programs Jennica Sims
Jennica Sims uses KPIs with the marketing team she manages at Netskope. She also uses them with her family.
"It might sound strange," says Jennica, "but it really means that I'm able to measure and analyze things that matter to me. My job and my family are very important to me." Jennica, who is the Director of Executive Programs at the cloud security company, continues: "If I'm able to reflect objectively on my work, but not other aspects of my life, then it becomes harder to realize progress in all areas. Setting KPIs at work and at home means I can reflect objectively in all areas and accurately measure progress."
To set those KPIs at work, Jennica follows a planning cycle and checks in regularly to make sure she is on track with those indicators (qualitative and quantitative). She does the same at home by sitting down with her kids on a regular basis to ask them what's most important to them. "It might be to spend 20 minutes a day reading to my children or having them read to us [my husband and I]," she says. "Or it might be something larger, like when my son came to us and told us he wanted to build and prototype a car that isn't dependent on fossil fuels or batteries. He's eight, so at this age, it's taking steps to achieve incremental milestones within a large, long term goal."
Jennica understands that not everyone is as much of a planner as she is. But she attributes her love for strategy and planning to having started this very early in life. "My father taught me how to play chess when I was four," Jennica says. "It's a strategy game and being able to see several moves ahead (and be proactive with your longer term approach) helps you be more successful in the end game. Everything about it is a learning opportunity, even losing." This has reminded her over the years to be proactive about seeking opportunities to grow and learn, and she encourages everyone to do the same—including and especially in 2021, as we'll (hopefully) be starting to come out of this pandemic.
We sat down with Jennica to learn how goal-setting impacts her work at Netskope and what advice she has for PowerToFly readers on how to set goals for 2021.
Learning to adapt
Jennica was excited to join Netskope because the company met her criteria for a new role: it had a "success trajectory," or a proven track record of being able to execute on an ambitious, innovative vision; she found fellow employees to be equally high energy and motivated; and she believed in the culture. Within a year, her growth-focused mindset and planning helped her grow from a manager role to a director. She now leads Corporate Events, Executive Briefings, Customer Marketing & Advocacy, and Online Community for Netskope.
But this last year of growth hasn't been without its challenges. Even as Netskope's cloud security offerings have become more vital than ever, Jennica and her peers in leadership have worked hard to figure out how to shift their management to an all-virtual setting and, more importantly, how to define business success in the middle of a pandemic.
"I think it's important for me to be honest," says Jennica. "I spent the first couple of months of the pandemic constantly iterating on a workable schedule as I took on new responsibilities at work and at home, helping to teach my children. It was a rough start."
She learned to adapt, though, and moved her planning cycle from an annual cadence to a six-month cadence, recognizing that things were changing fast enough to make long-term planning less than optimal. As goals changed, so did her markers of success.
For example, her team is responsible for Netskope's executive briefings (C-level experiences where Netskope's executive team collaborate with C-suite clients on security and networking issues). As those events pivoted online, the lift that Jennica's team could provide changed; they could plan the interaction much faster, but the offering wasn't initially as deep given the communication platform.
"At the beginning of the year, I had a goal for a certain number of collaborative briefings and now that outcome is a lot higher, but our focus is all about meaningful dialogue rather than the experience around it," explains Jennica.
6 tips for success in 2021: how to set and pursue achievable goals
Whether she's setting and pursuing goals for work, her personal growth, or her family, Jennica follows the same process each time.
If you're setting goals for the first time—or even if you're just looking back on goals for 2020—she reminds you to start this process with grace. "This is an unprecedented time, and you might need to recalibrate your expectations for what accomplishment looks like," she says. "If [you're] feeling overwhelmed, focus on fewer large outcomes. Instead, focus on smaller achievements to help build a baseline. Once that baseline is established, develop a few longer term goals to track, and check in with them frequently. [And] use the life tool of positive self talk. What you hear yourself say is what you ultimately believe to be true. Make sure that dialogue is healthy around goal setting as well."
And on to Jennica's six tips:
1. Start each day with gratitude. "Remembering all the things I can be thankful for puts me in a better position to handle challenges and unexpected roadblocks throughout the day," says Jennica. She shares an example of the power of a morning gratitude practice: the day of our interview, she woke up and prayed, remembering what she's thankful for, and credits that reflection time with helping her not lose her cool when her son decided to not get dressed that morning. "I think on a morning that I had forgotten to do that exercise, I would have been very frustrated with the fact that he hadn't listened. But I was able to remember a core tenant that's important to me: people first. He is a person, he has feelings. It's not worth getting upset over, and I can be grateful that he's my child and grateful that this is a learning opportunity for us both."
2. Do what's great, not what's good. "There are thousands of things pulling on all of us," says Jennica. "I'm sure you feel this way every day. You're going to wake up in the morning and all of your many responsibilities will likely surface at once, creating tension. Follow a routine, and ask yourself: does this map back to something central that I discussed with my stakeholders, be it at work or home, and is it central to what I'm trying to accomplish? If I'm doing something either professionally or personally that doesn't map back to a core goal, then I deprioritize it." This is prioritizing what's "great" and relinquishing what's only "good." For example, if you're volunteering with multiple organizations and realize you're feeling overextended, she'd encourage you to map back to your goals, identify the one or two organizations that are most important to you, and allow yourself to drop the others.
3. Be proactive. "Those who succeed start by trying," says Jennica. "If you don't start something, you definitely won't finish it. Planning helps with this too, and doing research prior to a new situation," she continues. "For example, I always ask for an agenda prior to a meeting. That way I can go in prepared and have a proactive voice in the conversation, or know if my role is meant to be active or passive. It requires extra work up front, but saves time and effort in the long run and allows you to prepare for and help drive outcomes."
4. Be curious. Jennica has no qualms about saying that she knew little about cybersecurity prior to joining Netskope. "I still ask questions all the time, and I'm 1.5 years in," she says. "You learn by asking questions, and being a lifelong learner is an attribute that will always help you grow. Having the humility to ask questions is an asset to your success."
5. Calibrate and communicate. "To know if you're meeting your goals, you have to have regular touchpoints where you measure your progress," explains Jennica. "There are many external factors and you need to be frequently iterating on what achievement looks like for you. If [I'm] not actively working on a specific goal, I check in monthly to see where I'm at with that goal and if I need to adjust timings or KPIs, and then communicate appropriately with those involved."
6. Set appropriate boundaries. You can probably tell that Jennica is driven by achievement. But she recognizes that while that's a strength, it's also a limitation. "Something I'm working on is seeing the possibility of burnout before it arrives and overtakes. I have a very busy work and home life, so making sure I set aside routine time for my mental and physical health is paramount," she says. "It's okay to have blank space, to have quiet time. For those who don't naturally build this time in, I recommend scheduling it."
Jennica recognizes that 2020 hasn't been the easiest year, and that acknowledgement is important when it comes to measuring success. "I have to remind myself, for every failure, there are several successes," she says. "When I fail (and I will), I try to fail quickly and fail forward, learn from that circumstance, recalibrate, and try again, tweaking outcomes or expectations. Reflecting on this year, I can look back at the things I didn't do, or I can remind myself that this year, I took the opportunity to overcome adversity and use what has been a gritty time to become stronger. Now I can use that strength and build on it in the new year."
Want to work towards achieving your professional goals alongside Jennica at Netskope? Check out their open roles here.
