Take Your Talent to Work
Discover how embracing your natural talents and authentic self can transform your career into something truly fulfilling.
People often ask how they can have a job or career that they like, inspires them, isn’t boring, and allows them to grow. This suggests that the answer is outside of you rather than within you. I believe the latter is true.
Consider this: we are each born with personality and natural gifts. It’s a wonderful thing, and you can’t take it on and off like an article of clothing. I take that back… you can, but I don’t recommend it. You’ll end up unhappy and dissatisfied if you do.
How does an artist and a history major end up being a data subject matter expert in a corporation? That’s where my path led me. In my mind, I separated making money and supporting myself from utilizing my natural talents of drawing, writing, and acting. Sure, it worked for a while, but eventually my gifts found a way to wriggle out of me and present themselves in my job.
One of the sections in our self-performance evaluation (I guess you could call it a KPI) was to “think outside the box.” I don’t think my manager and VP understood that I would take them up on that! I educated end users on our complex data warehouse and found a way to make it easy, continuous, and funny. How did I do it? Simple. I was me. I didn’t suppress my natural talent. I decided to take it with me to work every day. And you know what? It resonated with people.
Data governance and enterprise data professional with nearly three decades of experience at CVS Health, where she served as an enterprise data steward and subject matter expert in big data warehousing, data standards, and project support. Her work included acting as a data librarian and helping shape standards across enterprise initiatives. She also brings a long-standing commitment to service through earlier…
