Cynthia Agbetuyi

I think growing up in a male-dominated field, you have to break barriers and be able to show the value that you bring to any organization. It doesn't matter if you're a woman or male, what your background is, what your culture is, you know, all of the diversity dimensions. It's be authentic, learn as much as you can, question status quo, and show the value that you bring. A lot of times, you know, growing up in a male-dominated field, you would have these men always touting about their accomplishments, and at first you're looking at them, saying, well, why are they so cocky, for lack of a better word? But you learn that you have to celebrate yourself and your accomplishments, especially when others aren't doing it for you. And so that's really important. A lot of times, we assume that somebody's going to recognize and notice, but we have an attention span, we have a retention period, and it's up to us to be able to continually show the outcomes of the work that we do, to really ensure that people, whether they're seen or unseen, see and hear the value that you're providing to the organization. Not just the task, but what is that true outcome? And I think that's what I've been able to do, is be able to prove my worth through a lot of hard work and dedication.

The best career advice is to continuously have the intellectual curiosity and always ask the why. If we don't know why, we don't know whether or not we're doing something right or wrong. We don't know how to process improve. We don't know what the end goal is. And it's okay, you know, don't be afraid of failure. Failure makes you stronger. It gives you the tips to either reflect on lessons learned, or realize that, you know, maybe that's not the job for you. And that's okay too. But if you're gonna fail, fail early, and you know, work on those actions to be able to get to that next step, whatever that journey happens to be.

Don't be afraid to ask questions. Don't be afraid to ask to have a mentor. Don't be afraid to reach out to somebody in a higher level position to have a conversation, to see what they do, and how they got there. A lot of times I've experienced we're afraid to reach out to somebody that's in a higher position because of hierarchy. However, what I've learned in my experience is in many cases, not all, but in many cases, those individuals are willing to talk to you, candidly, have a conversation, give you advice. But have a plan before you go to them. Make sure you have questions that you want to ask them and lead that conversation. But be curious. And you never know how that interaction might impact your ability to be seen for something down the road, whether good or bad.

The biggest challenges are, and I think this happens in any field, but sometimes when you go into an organization, they have their set go-to people. If you have new leaders that have come into the organization, they want to bring people that they know can do the job, and may not always open up doors for somebody who may have that skill set, but they don't know yet. So the quicker you can set yourself apart and show that true value, it's not about, like I said, I did this, it's about, I did this, and this is how much it saved the company money, or this is how much time it reduced, or, you know, whatever that quantitative outcome is. That's gonna be really important for your career growth and success.

Honesty, integrity, and accountability are my top three values that are most important to me in my work and personal life.