Experience is often valued because of the lessons prior jobs have theoretically provided us with. While hearing about those lessons isn’t a replacement for actually experiencing it, we thought it would be very helpful to create a space where sharp and generous members of the community can come together to share stories and lessons learned at prior jobs for the benefit of others.
Jenny Low
Bartending taught me one of my most important salon skills: how to work and talk at the same time. Which is great news, because if I couldn’t, your hair appointment would take approximately seven business days and we’d only get through half of your relationship update. It also taught me how to read the room fast. Read More>>
Akanksha Holz
In my previous life, I was working in Product at Google and I picked up a lot of hard and soft skills that you can apply to life outside of tech. The most important lesson is to fail fast, which basically translates to not spending too much time in creating something and putting it out there in its most basic but functional form. Read More>>
Tiffany ‘Tiffani Michele’ Walter
One of the most important lessons I learned came from losing a job I genuinely loved. At the time, I was in a leadership role and took great pride in developing my team. I believed that a great leader’s job is to make themselves less necessary over time by building the capacity of others. Read More>>
Tracy Paye
One of the most important lessons I learned came from my time working as a personal trainer, and it completely reshaped how I view growth, success, and how I run my business today. The lesson is simple, yet incredibly hard to practice at first: you have to meet people exactly where they are. Read More>>
Shahrzad Razi
Early in my career, while working at a fast-paced firm, I learned a hard lesson about preparedness that fundamentally shaped how I run my own business today. We were in the final, critical push of a complex project, and the client suddenly requested significant, last-minute revisions to our drawings. At the time, the firm’s internal file management and billing systems were incredibly disorganized. Read More>>
Justin Lane
Well I’ve been working in customer service, delivery service & retail since I’ve been 16 years old and I’ve personally had plenty of experiences and stories working for American Airlines, Aldi, Office Depot, Amazon GameStop, Home Depot, Bed Bath and Beyond and other major retailers and each of them have been more different than the last. Read More>>
Lisa Avila
The lesson came from a nonprofit job I quit after realizing they would never pay me what I was worth. Read More>>