A lot can happen in ten years

As of last week, I've been at LinkedIn for a decade.

That's half of LinkedIn's own history and the bulk of my career. It's no exaggeration to say I wouldn't be who I am without this company, born out of the PayPal Mafia in 2003 and still thriving twenty years later.

LinkedIn is a perfect example of the tortoise and the hare: As Reid Hoffman 's early pitch deck shows, so many of the early Internet's market leaders are long gone (Friendster, anyone?). But not LinkedIn. I missed out on the earliest days, but what I've seen in my ten years is a company that moves steadily and thoughtfully and never loses sight of the value it can bring to members.

I think that's also a great model for navigating your career. But, presumably unlike LinkedIn's illustrious founders, I've spent much of my career... making it up as I go along.

And, to be clear: I don't think that's unusual. Those moments of "I have no idea what I'm doing" have gotten me to where I am now — where I sometimes still feel that way, but I also find it much easier to look back and see how far up the mountain I've actually climbed. I'm not sure if imposter syndrome ever goes away, but I can tell you that it does get better.

--

My journey with LinkedIn started at a company called Pulse, a news-reading app founded by Akshay Kothari and Ankit Gupta . At the time of the acquisition , we were a couple dozen people?— double the size of my previous employer, Hipstamatic. I was a Bay Area startup kid, and I had no idea what it would mean to work inside a business with employees in the thousands.

I also had no idea what it really meant to be an editor. I've always been the "word person" — I studied rhetoric at UC Berkeley and got my career footing as a music blogger, writing for outlets in the US and UK. At Hipstamatic, in addition to running our social media, I served as co-editor-in-chief of our monthly iPad magazine , a full-length publication about all things culture, mobile photography, style, music and more. At Pulse, I had my hand in everything from social media and blog content to press releases and even a regular Sirius XM appearance sharing top news stories of the week.

So when Akshay told me I would join this great team at LinkedIn called Editorial, my first response was, "Cool!" And my second was... "Huh?"

And there I was, thrown into a team of ten or so journalists, trying my best to figure it out.

I'd like to say that I found my way quickly; in some ways, I did. I immediately adored my new colleagues, although I was intimidated by the impressive slate of publications they came from: Fortune, the Associated Press, Forbes, Wired, the Wall Street Journal, to name just a few. I jumped into social media and developing our digital community, which helped me build my confidence?— here was something I knew I could uniquely contribute. It made the learning curve feel like a gentler slope.

But I still remember my first editorial meetings and news standups, where we talked through stories and coverage plans. For a while, it felt like they were conducted in ancient Greek. I could talk endlessly about trends in entertainment, social media or technology, but M&A? Earnings calls? Market movements? Completely foreign.

And so, I learned. I immersed myself. I pushed. When I think back on my entire career, this is one of the things I'm proudest of — the girl who didn't go to journalism school and came in with a lay person's understanding of business news ended up at the helm of our flagship news product, the Daily Rundown, and ultimately leading our entire Daily News team for North America and the UK. It took years, and a lot of hard work, but I did it. I got there, and I fell in love with news in the process.

One of the hardest parts of that journey was internal: I'm confident now in my news judgment and abilities, but that was hard won. It took me years before I'd even grudgingly call myself a journalist. I don't have the degree, I told myself; I haven't worked in a "traditional" newsroom. But I was doing the work, day in and day out, alongside colleagues who'd spent years on news desks.

In the end, it was those very colleagues who convinced me that I had earned the title. (I have to give a special mention to John C Abell , my journalism Mr. Miyagi, who's been an incredible teacher, friend and champion for me all these years.) They encouraged me and gave me perspective; their evaluation of my skills was considerably more realistic than my own. They also helped me realize that zigging where others zag is a benefit, not a detriment. I have a different vantage point on news, content and community, and that's a good thing.

If I think of all the moments where I've questioned myself or my value, it's the people who have gotten me through it. There's been understandable pushback in recent years about the notion of your team or company as your "family" — but one thing that phrase means to me is an environment where you feel secure enough to be vulnerable. To fail. After all, it's easier to climb the mountain when you know people are behind you if you stumble.

--

At LinkedIn, growth is a constant state. If I did my own oral history , I would talk at length about the strategic shifts that saw Editorial go from fewer than a dozen to 250+ people across the globe. The journey I took from San Francisco to London, and from being the sole editor in the UK to part of a team that can't fit at one big table anymore. The launch of a whole new function, community management, that marries my skills and passions and has brought even more fantastic colleagues into my life. Or the things that haven't changed in ten years: Our aim to help members succeed in their careers and connect to opportunity. (There'd also probably be a whole section just on our approach to news coverage during Covid.)

Maybe someday I'll write it all down. The value I've gleaned from LinkedIn and the list of people who've made my journey so fulfilling would hit the character cap on this article several times over. But if I had to distill it into a few key lessons, it would be these:

1. Embrace change. Our brilliant editor-in-chief, Daniel Roth , talks about being "passionate but loosely attached," and I've found that to be a great mantra. Allowing yourself to be flexible means you'll be open to opportunities when they arise — and they will!
2. Cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset. Whether you're at a startup, scale-up or big corporate, it helps to think like an entrepreneur. Be proactive: Do you see a problem you can solve? A gap you can fill? Speak up and offer a solution. Not only will you bring value to the business, you'll burnish your reputation and end up on exciting new paths.
3. Don't put yourself in a box. "Self-limiting beliefs" are real. It's not always a lack of confidence; sometimes you just don't see yourself a certain way or don't think you meet all the qualifications . Whatever the reason, don't cut yourself off from chances to grow. (And don't put growth in a box, either — it's not just about promotions!)

Candidly, I keep waiting for everything to feel old-hat. After ten years, shouldn't my job be, well... boring? Not in the slightest. I'm still learning every day, whether that's how to be a better manager, how to influence product development, how to drive strategy or a million other things. And my colleagues remain my best teachers.

Will I be at LinkedIn for another ten years? Who knows — but we continue to push the envelope and I still love climbing the mountain.

--

To everyone I've encountered on my LinkedIn journey: Thank you for being my teachers. And, of course, a particular thanks to Daniel Roth for teaching me more than I could have dreamed and always being in my corner.