Diana M. Fernandez

I attribute my success to discipline and drive. I was an athlete, playing tennis starting at age 3 and competing in tournaments at 5, then went to college where I played softball and tennis. It's about driving discipline. I have to admit and be transparent, the drive is falling off, so I have to say that discipline is what keeps the drive going. I feel like I've settled because I really, really like what I do, and now I'm just trying to widen it and explore where I can share what I've learned. So I would honestly contribute it to discipline and drive, but discipline first, then drive. As an athlete, you learn to power through stuff.

The best career advice would have to be from my mom. She always said, you shouldn't worry about what other people think, and focus on your performance. It's easier said than done when you're young and coming into the workforce, but she was right. Worrying about what others think is counterproductive.

My advice to a young woman entering my industry would be, no matter what you do, no matter who you're in front of, you definitely have to be disciplined, be authentic, and be flexible. It's not so much being true to yourself, it's being flexible. The world is constantly changing, and with the discipline and the drive, you have to be flexible to anything that comes at you, and learn how to pivot quickly. A lot of students are very upset with AI and booing at their commencement ceremonies, but they have to realize that every generation has an issue. Kids that graduated in 2004, 2005, 2006 dealt with the 2008 crash. Everybody goes through a catastrophe. The whole point of college is getting a foundation that comes out of high school, and then you refine it in college. It's about coming out with theories that can be applied in a practical world. Even though there's AI and supposedly layers of jobs being peeled back, I also look at the advantages and avenues they have through social media and different ways to get into a workforce, entrepreneurial space, or contracting space. It's a matter of being creative. I've never expected my college to give me a job. It was never guaranteed. What was guaranteed were the skill sets that I got out of it and that I refined. My first job was McDonald's out of high school at age 12. I got my BA and Master's late in the game, and I've been working and doing my thing. It's about discipline, seizing opportunities, and flexibility. If I didn't have that flexibility, I would still be stuck in retail. I went from McDonald's to retail to insurance, legal secretary, marketing, and then information technology. I didn't follow a map. I was flexible.

The biggest challenge is AI. It really is. We have a lot of people out there that are portraying themselves as project managers and program managers because of the assistance of AI. So how do I separate myself from that world? I do it with real-life stories, meeting people face-to-face, and going in depth into my world as a project manager and providing more real case studies of what I've done. The biggest challenge is AI in my world, but I don't have a fear of it. I've taken on that challenge, and like I said earlier, I'm adapting and layering that into my world and my portfolio and how I manage projects. The person who's going to be hired or considered for a job is the one who's going to be able to use AI to incorporate what they do for that job. So it's not necessarily replacing somebody, it's more about having that one extra thing you're ticking off your resume that you have as a skill set.

Authenticity is by far very important to me, just being authentic and making sure that I'm always real. I think the other thing would be kindness. I am a very unique PM in the sense where things happen and there's always a solution around it, so we don't need to panic. When someone admits to a mistake, the best course of action is just to fix it and make a point of not doing it again.