Meeting people for the conversations

‘Network within your company for future opportunities, both for you and the person you meet.’ A great piece of advice, although I see it a different way. When I ask the finance team for one-on-one lunches, I look forward to hearing about their personal stories and why they chose their unique paths. My favorite part about these casual conversations are ideas, passions, and how the two come together. Equally interesting is hearing each person’s ambitions as well as the spontaneous advice I’m given from time to time.

One of the conversations I will remember for a long while actually stemmed from these latter subjects. That afternoon, a director in the finance team began telling me about the many possibilities open to our generation upon graduation. He observed how various technologies (including enterprise software) already revolutionized several industries and how it would only be a matter of time before others like insurance would evolve as well.

Further, he brought this up to show me how I could leverage the power of disrupting technology in my career endeavors, even if I wasn’t a developer or engineer. He mentioned those who, years into their career, have gained a deep understanding of their respective industries. They are the ones who can see the flaws, the ruts, the inconveniences of the system they work with. Oftentimes, they have the knowledge but not the technical skills or access to skills necessary to make needed improvements. Meanwhile, many of us millennials come out of college bold, fresh-faced, and ready to put in long hours as we enter the workforce. We, however, lack experience and industry knowledge compared to the rest of the professionals.

Thus, my colleague encouraged me to work with those who did understand the big picture and could point out the cracks before others see them. Even if we lack field experience to identify problems, we have the resources to solve them through technology, the confidence of youth, or otherwise. But for all of our smarts, we can only create beneficial solutions if we manage to find out the actual issues.