A Temporary Career: From Caterpillar to Butterfly

It is hard to believe that I just celebrated 25 years in my career, at a job that was supposed to be temporary. I took the job at Ericsson in the summer right after I graduated from college with my bachelor's degree and while I was trying to figure out where I wanted to do my master's degree.

It was a good job for someone who was on track to become a librarian, as I started in Ericsson's library. The next thing I knew I looked up from the shelves and five years had passed and I moved into doing more Competitive Intelligence and less Librarian-type work. Then I found myself in charge of the department.

As the tech world ebbed and flowed and had its ups and downs, I cycled between having staff and being alone. Through it all, I kept telling myself - one more year. And then it was 10 years.

Three years later, I made my first real career move as dictated by a resume by moving out of simply working for the North America team and moving to working for Global. There were ups and downs and I promised my new boss I'd give him a year to change my mind about staying. Five years later, I'm now saying - ok - I can make 30 years!

I never thought that I'd be the type of person who would find a company and stay for the long term. Not because I didn't think I could do it, but because I know I get bored. Luckily for me, my job at Ericsson has never allowed me to be bored. I'm constantly challenged, have puzzles to solve, fires to put out, issues to deal with, people to help and the determination to not let the problems win.

Don't get me wrong - Ericsson is an amazing company and one I consider myself lucky to work for now. But if I had to go back and tell myself sitting in a cubicle in a high rise building what to expect, I don't think I'd really know what to say.

I've been given a lot of advice over my career to date, so I want to share some with you - most of which you've probably heard before:

Point One

Steve Jobs said "Good leaders surround themselves with people who are smarter than they are." Don't be afraid to be the dumbest person in the room, and don't be afraid to show it. Ask those around you when you don't know. Not only does it show humility - but it lets others shine and when people can share their expertise with another - you can learn a little bit about them. (Either they're arrogant and treat you like an idiot - so you know to not ask in the future; OR they truly teach and coach and they become an ally to be there when you need help.)

A funny story here. I had an engineer, very early in my career ask for a book on ATM. I was so proud of myself when I told him we had nothing on automated teller machines. I finally felt like I'd mastered this telecom engineering thingy. Forty-five minutes later my boss at the time rescued me from the white board where he had been explaining all about Asynchronous Transfer Mode - ATM. After that If I ever had a technical question - I went to him.

Point Two

People don't leave jobs, they leave bosses - this is true - but if you have the attitude that you aren't going to let the idiot win - you can outlast them. If you can't - question your determination and job choice. And remember, the boss failed at point one.

In my case, while I have a direct boss, I also have his/her boss and then their boss as my boss. So I have three bosses. Inevitably, I have a personality clash with one of them. I know this - it's my character flaw. I own up to that.

I own up to wearing high heels so I could be as tall as one of them so he had to look me in the eye, or in the case of another I could look down on him.

I own up to procrastinating on certain things to force a boss to make a decision, because if I gave them time - they'd procrastinate - but if they only had 24 hours to decide - I could get an answer.

I own up to running an experiment with one to see what color dress annoyed him more (turns out blue and green was truly calming - black was a wash, but if I wore red or pink he was irritable). [I also learned to type with fingernails quietly, since the clacking annoyed him - and my coworkers learned if they could hear me typing - I was annoyed.]

And I'm grateful for my friends who say to me when I get frustrated "Are you really going to let the $%@^& win?" [No, I'm not.]

Point Three

You can learn just as much, if not more, from a bad boss as you can from a good one. Not that I've had many bad bosses - but what I did learn was what not to do.

I'll be honest - this is one of the ones that took me the longest to learn. But that also goes with hindsight is 20/20. I look back on some of them - like the one with whom I ran the color experiment - and realize that what I learned was that you have to make your own fun sometimes. If work isn't fun - find a way to make it fun.

I really should have charted the experiment and done it in a more controlled way because it would make for an awesome psychology paper - but I didn't and it was enough to get me through two weeks of strategic planning working 12+ hours a day stuck in the room with the same people.

This is also the one point I've probably shared with most people. If you dislike your boss, figure out why - and figure out what they do so you can do it better. Eventually, someone will realize they can't do it. [Or they'll get bored as they are no longer the smartest in the room (see point one) and move on.]

Point Four

The grass is greener on the other side - again another truth - but in reality if you stop and think about it - all the issues you have in your job now - you'll have those same issues at another company. The question is - do you want to deal with those issues with people who you know and have worked with before, or do you want to deal with them with people you've pretty much just met.

Personally, I'll stick with the mess I know, than jump into something that looks better, pays more or seems to offer a solution to my current problems - knowing that eventually I'll have the same issues.

Which means - figure out what annoys you and either fix it in your current job or find a way to fix it so you avoid the problems before you start a new job..

Point Five

The best answer to any question asked is "I don't know, but I can find out." This will get you out of any meeting without looking like an idiot. It also buys you time to come up with the answer.

Which also leads me to - don't be afraid to say you had to look it up. With the explosion of AI - don't use it to make you look smart - it will always backfire on you. Cite your sources. As awkward as it may seem, admitting to looking it up really does make you look smarter.

I remember when one of my bosses looked over my shoulder and watched me do something - and then said "That's all you do? I thought it took more work."

What he didn't realize is that skimming through a list of reports and picking the ones to share actually really did require more work - I'd already done the hard part of writing the query to get back the results. I just smiled and said "It does, you just don't see me working my magic." [Lesson learned - don't work on other projects during meetings.]

Final Thoughts

I could go on - but five points make a nice round number that easily divides into 25. However, I will share one more. Never stop learning. I know - sounds like common sense. I may have had only 4 official titles in my career, but my job has never been the same day after day or year after year. And that is why I have stayed at the same company for 25 years, and why I want to stay for at least 5 more. (Nothing says I don't hit 30 and say - well, what's 5 more...)

So the last piece of advice I'd give you is don't be afraid to learn something new Either I'd choose to learn something or be prompted to learn something and the next thing I'd know, my job would morph. It might be a small shift or a big one, but my job would change and I'd have a new challenge. So with that, I leave you with the collected knowledge of 25 years:

Don't be afraid to morph. Be the caterpillar that becomes the butterfly.