Jennifer Funk, GCIH, GMON

I attribute my success 100% to the community and the people I surround myself with, both professionally and personally. Those relationships I built, the conversations I had, and my capability to be vulnerable have been key to getting from one career field to another. I think we put out so much scripted content like resumes and best qualities, but nobody really talks about the struggles. When you're able to be vulnerable and say, hey, these are some of the issues I'm having, you find a lot more community that's going to stick with you. It starts real conversations where people can actually help fix problems instead of everyone just talking about situations at face value. The community and network I've been able to build is directly attributed to any successes I've had.

The best advice I ever received was from my drill sergeant in basic training camp back in 2011. He said, 'Everybody puts their pants on one leg at a time.' For some reason, this just stuck with me. You look at people and think, oh, this person's better than I am, or they've accomplished so much, or they can do so much more than me, and you make these excuses and put people on pedestals to kind of put your own capabilities on the back burner. But everyone, at the end of the day, we go home, close the door, we have our problems. We all have the same processes behind those closed doors. There's nothing special about anyone else specifically that makes them better than anybody else. My drill sergeant was saying, look, I might be in this position now, you might be in that position, however, everyone puts their pants on one leg at a time. We're all just people.

Just do it. I think there's a lot of imposter syndrome, a lot of doubt. It's a male-dominant field, and I got it in my head at first that I was not capable because I wasn't built that way. But there's no such thing as built that way. It's all about choosing to dedicate yourself to the process and continuing to push forward, even when people push back, because there will 100% be negative content out there that makes you think you can't do it, and you have to ignore all that. Build a positive community with people that support you. If there is something that is perceived as negative and it's not valuable for the mission you're trying to drive for your own life, then you don't need to pay attention to it. Just leave the negativity behind, build your community, and drive for the goals that you want, because that's the point. No, it's not always easy, but it's how you're going to get from point A to point B.

The biggest challenge in my industry as a whole is that everything is changing, and it always has in tech, very quickly. It seems like it's changing every few minutes. I don't want to go on about artificial intelligence, because though that is something coming down the pipeline, I think the challenges it's presenting have always been there. It's just overhyped. The challenge of finding information, vetting your information, and making sure you're not allowing bias into your analysis have always been challenges. As for opportunities, I think the biggest one is being more inclusive. There's a lot of space to explore different types of hires that are kind of outside of the norm, like more women integration and exploring different types of work environments for people who are neurodivergent. They have a lot to offer, especially in creative thinking, but might not be able to work a standard work schedule that is societally implemented but maybe not necessarily the best way forward. Especially in tech, you need people that are motivated and self-motivated, and there's just a lot of great talent out there that I think is missed due to the societal constructs we have around work environment.

The values most important to me in both work and home life are humor, honesty, consistency, and communication. Humor is huge because you can have a great day or a bad day, and if you can take things at face value and find some type of humor or lightheartedness to any situation, you're going to be much better off than if you dwell on it and it becomes more of an emotional burden than it really needs to be. Honesty and consistency are critical too. Honesty's not always fun, it's not always the first choice, like having to say 'I messed this up' or having a difficult conversation with a subordinate. But clear communication and honesty paired together will drive any mission you have really far. If you're not direct, people can't read your mind. These four foundational pieces are what you have to drive through not only your professional but personal relationships as well.