Victoria Wigodzky

I would say mentors, for sure, just people. Very generous people that are willing to spend time with you, teaching you, making connections for you, validating your gut feelings, and also challenging you at the same time. Sometimes our gut feelings tell us I should just stay in my comfort zone, because this is so nice, like chicken soup. But sometimes you need a little bit of a kick, and be like, you know what? Enough chicken soup. Now you gotta try something out, even though you're not ready. Those people have been so important. I've noticed, especially in the last couple years as the sector has been struggling and so many people are out of work and rethinking their careers, many women especially in my generation and a little older are feeling like they have to start over. For a while, people were becoming more inward-looking and not so outward-looking to help others, just because of that feeling of scarcity. When I feel like I don't have enough opportunities, I don't want to share with others. But the best moments of my career have appeared as opportunities I didn't think were going to be there, because someone thought of me and said, you know what, this could be good for you. I hope that we move more in that direction.

I would say be okay with having different phases in your career. You don't have to follow that path that seems very clear and traditional right now, and climb the ladder in the traditional way that everybody climbs the ladder. It doesn't even have to be a ladder. It can be a smorgasbord - the most interesting careers are not ladders necessarily. I think, especially for women, we feel like we're always talking in terms of vertically - ladders, and ceilings, and this. What if it's just a little bit more horizontal and interesting and messy? Be okay with the messiness, because different moments of my career, it's been okay to take a step back and maybe not take that step up, but take a step sideways. As long as you keep yourself - as long as you and your gut and your heart are feeling like you're doing something that makes you happy, that brings up the best of your qualities, that you're really doing something that you love. That can be private, public, whatever it is that rocks your boat. But be honest about what it is that makes you happy in the day-to-day, and figure out a job that gets at that, whether it's on step one or two or five.

The biggest challenges right now is that the sector, the international development and international relations sector, is going through a major, major crisis of funding because of decisions made at the federal level - the fact that the government has shut down USAID. Most of the NGOs I support don't take U.S. government funding because of political reasons, so they weren't immediately affected, but year one, two, all the years that are coming ahead, the pool of resources is getting smaller and smaller. Now you're competing with those NGOs that did used to survive on U.S. government or European funding, because the European funders are going in the same direction. So the pool of resources is getting smaller and the needs are getting bigger, and I don't think that's a trend that's getting any better. In terms of opportunities, any major change - some changes were needed, and this kind of forced it. This is forcing changes, not in the right way in my opinion, but this is reality. So opportunities that organizations become more nimble, they really focus more on what their niche is. They ally themselves with others and see themselves as part of a bigger ecosystem, and they're much more clear about what their contribution is to the broader social justice field. I'm hoping that doesn't translate into siloed work, but translates into clarity on what my contribution is, what I can do with the resources I have, and how am I going to relate to others in my field, so that we all work towards a common goal. I think that's exciting, that possibility of having alignment and having different organizations and people contribute to a better world in a maybe more effective way. But the international human rights issues that I work on are not the sexy issues these days.