Brittany Irwin

The best career advice I’ve received is: do it scared. Imposter syndrome has a way of convincing you that you need to feel fully confident or completely qualified before you take on something new. But confidence usually comes after you take the leap, not before. I’ve learned to say yes to opportunities that stretch me, trust that I can figure things out, and give myself permission to learn along the way. Whether I succeed or make a mistake, I grow from the experience. Some of the most rewarding moments in my career have come from pushing past that initial fear and refusing to let self-doubt make decisions for me.

My advice to young women entering this field is to be confident in themselves and learn from the women around them. Look around and pay attention - whether that's how they're acting in meetings, the way they dress, the way they work in general. Start emulating the successful women you see, and even the men too, because let's be honest, there are certain behaviors that men get away with. When I was a co-op early in my career, I would just emulate the other women around me. Look at who's successful and start emulating them. It's one of the most powerful ways to learn and grow in your career.

The biggest challenge in my field right now is getting everyone onto 21st-century technology and using it to their advantage. It's hard to find people who know how to use even basic tech tools like Google Sheets to its full potential in this industry. The 3PL and distribution field is very homegrown in a sense - if you start in the warehouse, you can work your way up, but then you might not have all the skills that someone coming from college may have. There's a very different skill set at play. Some people are really knowledgeable and know exactly how it actually operates in the warehouse, how the business really flows on the floor, and they're boots-on-the-ground kind of people who get it. But then they might lack the technological skills. On the flip side, people with technological skills might not have the warehouse experience. There's kind of a gap there, and there needs to be more development within the industry itself to make sure everyone's on the same playing field. That's one of the biggest hurdles the industry faces right now.

The values most important to me in my work and personal life are honesty and integrity. I'm a woman of faith, so all of the values that my faith holds true are central to who I am. I bring my faith to the workforce and to my personal life. But if I had to narrow it down, the most important ones to me are being honest and having integrity in everything I do.