Linda Knop

I attribute my success to my mom and dad, and my husband. My dad never graduated from college and worked in a copper mine for 30 years. My mom is from Denmark and came over with my dad when he was stationed in Germany. Both of them were always advocates for education, and we're very competitive with it. My brother is a doctor, my sister has her master's degree, and we are always competing about who's going to be better. Since my brother got his doctorate, I have to get one to beat him, and he was going for a second master's degree to be even with me. Now we're using GPAs as a way to one-up the other. They've always taught us to constantly educate yourself and read everything. My husband has been a huge advocate for me during my education. In fact, he was the one that pushed me more towards the doctorate. He retired from the military after 25 and a half years in the Marine Corps, so he's at home with the dogs, which makes it easier.

The best career advice I've received is that it's okay to make mistakes. It's actually better to make mistakes because if you make mistakes, you learn from your mistakes so you don't repeat those issues again, but I think it's important to make mistakes, and that was the one piece of advice I received from quite a few of the leaders in my different positions . Also, quality, not quantity matters when it comes to the quality of your work. And always maintain professionalism and courtesy, treating everyone like you would like to be treated, no matter who they are.

I tell them, don't settle. Always improve yourself. Always strive to move towards advancement. I personally don't sit still for very long because I'll learn something and then I get bored, so I move to the next thing. I'm always trying for a promotion within a year to a year and a half to two years. Never settle and just get comfortable in one position. Always challenge yourself is probably the best advice. Always challenge yourself.

The biggest challenge right now, because I work for the federal government, is when they basically put a hold on all job offers. The president had done that, and I think it was to re-evaluate everything that was going on, and I'm not sure if they've opened that as far as the opportunities for advancement on different positions. You can't really move up if there's nothing to be offered. We also just had the shutdown last year where we were shut down for 7 weeks and weren't at work.

A huge value to me is my religion, which I definitely hold onto. But honesty, integrity, and just being a good overall human being to everybody is also important. Everybody deserves to be treated equally, and there's no reason not to. With the world how it is now, with everybody kind of screaming and yelling at each other and differences in opinion, I just think if you treat people with courtesy and kindness, that says a lot about a person. My dad always gave me and my brother and sister a motto: one, education, that's something that can never be taken away from you, no matter what, so always educate yourself. And two is, hope, pray, and don't worry.