Sophie McAuley

I would probably say it's been my foundation in working in government. When I was younger, I had a placement opportunity when I was in college to go and work for local government, and luckily enough I had a really great, strong team - they were all really hardworking, and I think that ethos and approach to everything, working with them in that environment, has really stood me in great stead. Every single day was different - you planned out your day one way, but it typically would have went another. That kind of on-the-spot learning has really helped me, especially for things like conference management where things go wrong all the time. I'm dealing with last-minute changes to things that we didn't foresee happening, and that's the nature of it. I definitely think my foundation in government, and especially because there's various lines of authority and reporting that has to be done in government - with taxpayers' money and everything else, there's a certain element of compliance - that's built me a real good foundation as to how I approach engagements.

When I worked in local government, I've been extremely lucky to have really brilliant female mentors and bosses throughout my career, and one of them had said to me, you never know when you're going to meet somebody down the road, you never know what kind of situation you're going to be in, professionally or personally, so it's essentially about treating every single person the exact same and showing that kindness and ability to collaborate and work together. A former boss of mine always said, make sure every single person that you come into contact with, because you never know when you're going to meet them next in life and in what capacity. I've found that even other mentors have essentially mentored folks that have become more senior to them - they'll say, my goodness, I taught him, brought him on, and he was younger, and now he's chief financial officer of this huge corporate. I think that's very true of business, because you just don't know what's gonna happen next.

I would say network, network, network. Anything you get to go to, in particular early on in your career, you might not be able to go to the conferences across the state or whatever it may be, but I would definitely say look into local networking events, anything where there's a chapter in your local vicinity. I think the biggest thing is networking and developing your network and really that relationship and building the rapport. Sometimes it's not fun to have to go out and do something late on a Thursday evening or maybe even on a Saturday or whatever it might be, but I think it's crucial that you take those opportunities where you can, because you just never know. A lot of my bigger work or bigger engagement has come out of the most random conversations that I never really thought were particularly going to go anywhere, but did. Just very ad hoc, you just never know what's around the corner. Go to Chamber of Commerce events and all of that kind of stuff - at the time it's more energy and time out of your day, but you just never know. You meet the most interesting people, the most interesting moments come out of those things.

Probably the A-Cubed Innovation Center that I mentioned, and that next generation aircraft fraternity being located here in LA and in El Segundo - there's so much happening at the minute. There's companies that have been maybe around 5 years, 10 years maybe, that have been essentially working a lot on research and development for a lot of these next-generation aircraft, the likes of SkyRise or VAST or some of these companies. I would say that is where a lot of the opportunity lies, because it's very tech-based, and anything where automation can be applied, I think that's only gonna be a good thing in terms of efficiency and productivity. Even with me in a lot of project management, it's really key for me to know what are the latest tools and platforms, how can I use them. There's always going to be various parts of my job, the people management side of things, that can't be done with a software tool, but the parts that can be automated, it's essential to stay on top of that. I'm a big advocate of demoing new products and listening to others and talking to people at conferences and saying, what are you using in your day-to-day? What's making your life easier?

I think it's working on projects that actually interest you, and I think that makes for good business sense as well. That probably comes with more experience and being in the working world longer - it's almost not picking and choosing projects, but I think it's very important to have a real passion and a real interest in what you're going to do, not just accepting something just because it's there. I think it's really about vetting and screening the opportunity. That also comes down to working with people that you want to work with as well. I think that's really, really key. I have been fortunate enough to work with really great women leadership throughout my career, and I'm mindful of that too, that sometimes that might not be the case, but I've been allowed to be selective in that way. It makes your work and day easier - you get up, you work a lot of hours every week, you've got to enjoy the people that you're around. Particularly if there's negativity or brain drain or any of that, it doesn't make for good work. You've got to work for a very, very long time, most people do anyway, and I think you have to be careful with who you work with and what you work on. I'm proud to be from a very small place in Ireland, and in terms of company values, there's lots of smaller companies but lots of transferable ideas. I'd take their approach to business and how they do business - across the board, they're very hardworking but also very personable with good communication. Developing those transatlantic partnerships is very important for me.