My Career Isn't a Ladder - It's a Lattice
How curiosity and the right leaders shaped an unconventional path to growth.
My Career Was Never a Ladder. It Was a Lattice.
I never mapped out my career. No five-year plan. No title I was chasing. No org chart telling me where I "should" be by now.
What I did have was curiosity—a willingness to raise my hand for what I hadn't done yet—and leaders who noticed that and gave me room to grow into it.
That's the real story behind my career journey in Human Resources. Not a ladder. A lattice, built one opportunity at a time by people who believed I was capable of more than my résumé could yet prove.
Early On
Early on, I worked in operationally intense environments where HR isn't theoretical—it's real time.
I didn't land there with a grand strategy. Someone gave me a chance to do something bigger than I'd done before, then stepped back and let me figure it out.
That pattern repeated itself.
At one point, a leader pulled me into the middle of a wave of mergers and acquisitions (M&A)—due diligence, integration, and the unglamorous work of stitching people and cultures together after a deal closes. I hadn't done that before either.
But someone trusted the drive I'd already demonstrated and gave me the opportunity to grow into work I hadn't yet mastered.
That's the thread running through every chapter since: leaders who gave me room to stretch, allowed me to make mistakes without letting those mistakes define me, and treated "I haven't done this yet" as a reason to invest—not as a reason to pass me over.
Chasing the Next Thing I Hadn't Learned to Do
Later, I intentionally chose environments that demanded that same kind of stretch—HR leadership roles within high-growth, private equity- and venture-backed companies. Each one brought a new industry, a different stage of growth, and a fresh set of unsolved problems.
I wasn't chasing a bigger title.
I was chasing the next thing I hadn't learned how to do.
Titles were never really the point. What mattered was whether I was still growing. Still being challenged.
The "sensible" move was often to stay put and wait for the next rung.
I rarely chose it.
Instead, I chose the lateral move. The harder assignment. The opportunity that made me a little uncomfortable.
Because that's where the learning was.
Becoming the Leader Others Were for Me
Somewhere along the way, I became one of those leaders myself.
I try to lead the way I was led: giving people stretch assignments before they ask for them, allowing them to make mistakes without making those mistakes their identity, recognizing potential early, and choosing to invest in it.
Empowering people isn't a leadership technique I picked up in a workshop.
It's a debt of gratitude I'm still repaying to every leader who did it for me first.
You Don't Need the Plan
You don't need a perfect plan.
You need the curiosity to keep raising your hand.
The willingness to be a beginner again and again.
And, if you're fortunate, leaders willing to bet on your potential and give you room to grow into it.
My career was never a ladder.
It was a lattice, built by leaders who gave me room to climb in directions I never would have mapped for myself.
Now it's my turn to create that same space for someone else.
