4 Take Aways from Tableau

Tableau is a company and product that I truly love. Tableau is workplace that I have called home for the past couple of years. Last week, I left Tableau (by choice) and I found myself in a state of reflection unlike my previous experiences following a life change. I have never felt more grateful and in awe of my experiences at other companies as I do from my experience at Tableau. Don't get me wrong, I am grateful for all of my experiences prior to Tableau but I believe experiences become more rich with time and intention. This experience was most certainly a rich one. If I could sum it up my experiences into 4 take-aways, these would be it.

1. Don't get lost in everything and find your rocks.

When you see every problem as an opportunity, it's easy to get lost in everything. Whether you are a problem solver and you tend to get lost in trying to solve all the problems or you are goal-oriented and tend to get lost in accomplishing all of your goals; You are not doing anyone a favor, including yourself, by getting lost in everything.

Focus. Select 1-2 goals or problems to solve that are important, critical or just simply motivating for you and dive in deep. I pursued opportunities to make big impacts and I delivered the best success when I was focused and my priorities were clear.

With that said, I am not perfect and there were times I struggled to be focused and set boundaries. Thankfully, I found my rocks at Tableau. When you join a company, find your rocks. These are the people who will help you troubleshoot and be honest with you when things are going wrong. These are the people who know when your strengths start to become your weaknesses and the people have your best intentions at heart.

In my last weeks at Tableau, my rocks showed up stronger than ever. The outpour of love, support, authenticity, and care for my happiness was almost unreal.

2. Create a personal mission and own it.

Believe in the company's mission but don't forget to build a personal mission. I believe that everyone has a unique opportunity to add value in a company but it takes self-awareness and intentionality to discover how your unique skills, characteristics, and interests can make a difference. Discovering my personal mission and keeping that mission top of mind provided me the fuel to invest myself wholeheartedly in this company.

My personal mission at Tableau was to "find new ways to attract talent top talent, deliver the best candidate experience, use data to improve processes, and educate my business partners on how to grow their skillsets as recruiting partners." This mission kept me motivated everyday, learning everyday, and evolving my skillsets everyday.

3. Finding the right rhythm of collaboration between your partners and your job is so important. As a business partner, there is nothing more dangerous than lack of collaboration.

Prior to Tableau, I worked at a start up and collaboration was simple. We were in 1 office, with 2 floors, and there was less than 150 employees. Additionally, I loved collaborating with others and consistently sought out opportunities to do so. Joining Tableau, there was an immediately learning curve and I had to learn how to effectively collaborate within a global company. Thankfully, teamwork is in the DNA at Tableau and my business partners helped me to understand the rhythm of the business and identify the right opportunity for collaboration that would deliver the best results. When my partners thanked me for the work that I've accomplished, I truly believe that I couldn't have done it without them.

4. Recruiters are not just a resource to use to meet a business goal. Recruiters have the opportunity to be highly-skilled, strategic business partners.

When I first transitioned my career to recruiting, I believed the role would blend my sales and customer service skillsets perfectly. On the other hand, I was unsure where a career in recruiting would take me for the long term but saw myself eventually transitions to the HR Business partner career path. Update: I am a recruiter and I fell in love this with career. Over the past few years, I've learned that there are so many ways to diversify your experience and skillsets as a Recruiter. As a Recruiter, you have the opportunity to be a valued, strategic, business parter. Recruiters can be innovators, change agents, influencers, and a key part of the businesses overall success. You have the opportunity to deeply change the lives of the people you support and candidates you work with. Working at Tableau has provided me the opportunity to become a business partner. I am so excited to take that mindset and skillset with me to my next experience.