Key takeaways from my conversation with Reshma Saujani, activist, bestselling author, and founder of Girls Who Code and Moms First

By Kathryn Kaminsky, Vice Chair - US Trust Solutions Co-Leader, PwC US

It’s been a year of Candid Career Conversations on LinkedIn Live. In those 365+ days, I’ve had the pleasure to sit down with a variety of guests, from PwC senior associates to a former Thunderbird Pilot, and even my mother(!), to discuss both professional and personal advice as we all seek to navigate our lives and excel in what we do. I’ve learned so much from these experiences and, most of all, I’m so grateful to the audience members who’ve tuned in. Thank you!!?

To celebrate Women’s History Month this past March, I was joined by my friend, activist, bestselling author and founder of Girls Who Code and Moms First, Reshma Saujani.

If you missed our live conversation, you can watch a full replay here:

Here are a few key learnings I took away from our candid conversation:?

Embrace the negative feedback: We don’t want to protect ourselves from critical feedback because that’s what we need to learn, to grow, and to get better at what we do. To be great, we need to learn to let perfectionism go. Sometimes we guard ourselves from critical feedback when instead, we should embrace it to learn where we can improve and eventually get better at what we do.?

With your personal life and career, it’s okay to not have balance: We all strive for work/life integration, but some days our personal lives will require a greater focus than our careers and vice versa. And that’s okay! Every day, we make choices based on what needs the most attention in our lives on a given day.?

Rising about self-doubt: You may feel unqualified and unprepared but it's all about strategizing to rise above these emotions. Listen to pump up music to inspire you and boost your confidence. Learn to care less about other peoples’ opinions of you because you are the best judge of your character and work, not others. When those imposter syndrome feelings start setting in, find your strategy to break free - don’t let them overtake you.?

Be brave, not perfect: Oftentimes, we can eventually look back on failure and rejection to see how it set us down a certain path. But in those immediate moments after failing, it can be difficult to see the bright side. Take time to process the loss of an opportunity and lean on your people, your support system. The key is to not let failure break you even through hardship, and to remember that tomorrow or in the next few days, you can pick yourself back up and start anew.?

Many thanks to my friend, Reshma for imparting her real, unfiltered words of advice and wisdom.