Nicole Petite

I attribute my success to my mom. This is not a what, it's a who. My mom is the strongest person I know, and her attributes alone have taught me about life and being in the workforce, how to become a chameleon, to be multidimensional. She has pushed me through to be able to ask questions without fear, to go into the CEO's office, to understand that we are all human. She taught me that if you don't ask, you will never learn, you will never know the answer. And she taught me that it's okay for people to tell you no. My mom told me hell no growing up, so when someone tells me no, it doesn't bother me at all. She is a verb in one word, a noun in one word, a plethora of things. Watching her move, how she has received things, how things have set her back, and how she continues to push, she has been that light for me to get me to where I am today in my career, in my personal life, in how I raised my kids. She has been that bubble that I have focused on to guide me through every genre of my life path.

The best career advice I've been given is to know who I am, and if I continue on with my craft, whatever table I sit at, it will shift to me. As long as I'm doing what I know I'm capable of doing, that table will shift to put me at it. I am bigger than where I sit. So it's okay for me to be who I am, and as long as I'm in my craft, the room will shift to me. I don't need to be afraid if I feel like I don't belong at a certain table. Where I belong, I will be there, and the room will shift to me. I've felt like I've had to change my demeanor or go in rooms and be silent based on who's in the room, or I can go in another room and someone will pull me and say, Nicole, we need you, or I can go in another room and someone else is loud, so I'm super quiet. But I've been taught recently to be myself, don't shrink, be yourself.

The advice that I give them now is to always be open to learning. Technology, being the main field that I'm in, is changing every single day. Be open to learning. Never be that person that sits in your bubble and think you know everything, because things are changing on a rapid scale, and you want your career to advance as much as your mind would allow you to expand it. Ask questions. Don't be afraid to go in the CEO's office, knock on the door, and ask questions. Always take a notebook and pen whenever you're going around someone that you can learn from or that you're having a meeting with. I know we don't use pens and paper anymore, but I tell them, still take a pen and paper in a room with you when you're going to someone that you can ask questions and you can learn from. Even if you're not trying to learn something, you can always learn something, even if it's what not to do. Always be prepared to learn something whenever you're going to have a conversation with someone. Always be willing to learn, be open to learning new things, make a decision then if you like it, but don't just say you don't want to do something if you've never tried it. Never stop learning. You're only as dead as when you stop learning. That's when things go downhill.

The biggest challenges and opportunities in my industry are both the same thing: innovation and being able to adapt to what's changing so much in the technology realm. Being able to adapt and knowing what's needed in advance can be an opportunity if you're doing enough reading and research to know what is to come, so you can use that as an opportunity. If you're not able to do that, it is absolutely a challenge, especially with AI coming into play. People are losing jobs, but also people are gaining opportunities with job and career opportunities, because as well as it is removing careers, it is also bringing careers. You have to be able to innovate and think ahead and learn the things that are coming this way and be ready for them. That's why I jumped on the AI train to begin with, because of all the things that are changing because of that tool. Now I'm able to teach that, now I'm able to work in those environments, so it won't affect me. I'm able to use that in my project management experiences and daily tasks. Being able to know what's coming can be a challenge, and it can also be an opportunity.

The values most important to me are integrity, loyalty, and communication, with integrity being definitely number one. There are things that I just will not do and things that I'm willing to do. My boundaries have been set. My name and my signature are very, very valuable to me. If I have to sign my name to it, integrity is the first thing that should come to anyone's mind that needs my signature on anything, because my name and my signature are very, very valuable to me.