Lynne Sonney

I would say the majority of it is my willingness to figure things out. There's a million different scenarios out there, especially in the data world, with different root causes and different solutions. In my world, usually things are going wrong, you know, errors, and that's why we get called in. The main reason I think I'm where I am today, working for such a premier data consulting firm like Aimpoint Digital, a firm of 200 that's really high up there in terms of quality, is because when I don't know how to do something, I'm gonna figure it out. Sometimes that's trial and error, sometimes that's independent research, or calling up a colleague because I work with some very smart people. I will see it through to the end, and I don't believe that giving up is really an option.

This one I'll never forget, and it may sound a little cliche, but I was an intern back in a bank in Chicago, and on my last day my manager told me to find my people. I'm a huge advocate for work-life balance, so I don't mean this as recommending you get so close that it's unhealthy, but when I heard that from her, I took it to mean we look for people in an environment that we enjoy working with, people that we respect. She reminded me that we work more than we do pretty much anything else - 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week, it's unlikely you'll be doing anything else that long. If you're doing something that much, you need to be around people that matter to you and are providing a healthy environment. If the actual content of the job isn't perfect, and I've had those scenarios, the people matter even more because they're making up for maybe the sacrifice you're making on the content of the job side. But what some people forget is a perfect job, like the work is exactly what you want to do, if you're doing that with imperfect people in an unhealthy environment, it feels almost like a prison. I always think of what she said to me, because she told me to find my people, and whenever I interview somewhere, and I hope to not interview for a long time, I always look for people that I connect with, people that I want to talk to every day, and people I respect.

Two things. Number one, you belong here, especially if you're the only woman in the room. The data business world thrives on diversity, especially of developers and the audience of those developers. You are a part of that. It's hard when you're the only one, but it's important, even if you are, especially if you are. The second thing I needed to hear as a young woman is this isn't school. You're not going to get it perfect. A lot of young students, and I think women especially, are hard on themselves when they don't transition to work with straight A's. There's no A's or 90 percents in the real world. What I really struggled with, and what some others I expect do as well, is that you're not done when you turn something in. You're done when it's right, and that can be really hard coming out of an environment where you used to just turn it in and be done, and that was good enough. Sometimes it takes 3 or 4 iterations to be done, especially in data, or accounting, or finance, where it's really important to be accurate. I think we need to give ourselves grace. Perfection doesn't exist. We need to do better and be materially accurate, and that's good enough. But it won't happen on the first try, and that's really hard for a lot of people who were good in school.

I think consulting is always challenging with the fast-paced technology advancements, and I know everybody's probably saying this, but AI is no exception. I can't predict the future, but I don't necessarily think it'll take our jobs. I do think that is thrown out in fear a little bit. I do think it'll change how we do our jobs, and I sincerely hope it's for the better. We're right now dealing with a lot of hallucinations and inaccuracies that are preventing AI from being scalable. I hope that when we clear that hurdle, it'll be an asset that can free our developers and analysts from the noise that we don't want to do and maybe don't need to do, and keep us focused on the interpretation and the decision-making part of our jobs. There's probably not a world where we want AI to be making decisions for us. We still want that to be our analysts and the people who know, the actual people. I do think it'll change the future, but I do not believe it's gonna take over in the way that some people may fear.

I work hard to find the balance between being authentic and being professional. We spend a lot of our time with clients and colleagues, and sometimes we keep them behind this impenetrable wall. I find that when I'm working with my clients, when I share my humanity and they offer some back, those relationships become stronger. They trust me more, and we're able to work together better when we allow ourselves to be human. That authenticity, I think, is really important. There's definitely a time and a place for boundaries, and they're very important to keep in place, but I don't think we should forget that the people we're working with are people, too. That's harder in the digital age because we're looking through a screen, but whatever we can do to maintain that connection, I think, is really valuable to me.