A Story From the Trenches: My Journey to Knowing Myself

When I am asked to give an overview of my career background, I often call myself a “corporate gypsy”. Some people have criticized my use of this term, but it has always resonated with me and I chose to use it anyway. My path has not followed a straight line but has been a life of meandering is search of fulfillment and happiness and self- discovery. Aristotle said, “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom”. For me, the knowing yourself did not come easily.

I was the “smart kid” in school. I got good grades without having to study very hard. I did well in everything. When I was in high school, there was a big push for girls to take a college prep track of heavy math and science. My counselors encouraged me to take 5 years of math and 5 years of science in my 4 years of high school. Of course, I had to forego things like art, home-economics or other classes that were viewed as less valuable to an admissions office. I took a career placement test where I scored very high on spacial-relations and was pushed to go into engineering. I won a 4-year Air Force College full-ride ROTC Scholarship in Aeronautical Engineering. Smartly, I turned it down. I hated Calculus.

I ended up attending a local state college on scholarship and switched from an Engineering focus to accounting, which I am told is a common switch . I graduated in the Honors Program and was given the opportunity to join GE’s Financial Management Program, where you work a different job rotation every 6 months for 2 years. I did very well in the program but did not like any of the roles. The program was an immense gift, as I quickly figured out that I did NOT like accounting. It was past tense, very regimented and very analytical. I found it unbelievable boring. I started to stair step my career – I took a tax position at Kellogg and was able to move into a sales and optimization role which included managing their worldwide food donations. I was recruited to a growing tech company where I built a call center, got my Six Sigma Blackbelt, became a certified PMP and led hardware and software teams. I moved to Ameritrade where I got my security licenses, did strategy work and was the Chief of Staff to the CEO. I worked as a licensed insurance agent for Aflac. I did some consulting. All along the way, I would have components of work that I loved, but many components of my role I did not enjoy. Yet I was successful. But not totally happy.

Then I had the opportunity to participate in some amazing leadership training where we went through the Emergenetics assessment. This assessment was developed by the late Geil Browning, who was an amazing woman. Emergenetics tests your work preference. It weights your work preference into 4 buckets: Social (Red), Strategic (Yellow), Analytical (Blue), or Structured (Green). I was sure I knew how I would rank – heavy Analytics and Structured. I mean, look at all the math and science I had taken. I was a PMP, Six Sigma Blackbelt, Licenses Securities Representative (7,63,24,65) and Licensed Life and Annuities Insurance Representative. Of course, I would be Analytics and Structured. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

I am almost completely 50/50 Social and Strategic. I have some very small preference to Analytics and almost no Structured preferences. I was shocked! But after some reflection, some things in my life began to make sense. Why I hated the structure of accounting. Why I loved strategy work and flexible roles. I realized that my success as a PMP was not about my ability to build and track the schedule but my ability to foresee what was going to happen and to work with people to get the best outcome.

This assessment is not about what you are good at. It is about what you like to do. There is a difference. I was pushed in high school to take so much math and science. I got great grades in it. I do not like math and science. I like art, writing, and history. I am highly creative. I like to understand people and their behavior.

This leadership course changed my understanding of myself. It helped me verbalize what makes my soul sing. It changed the trajectory of my career. I quickly moved to a Sales Operations role, and then to Enterprise Sales. I now spend most of my time working with people on their IT strategies. I am much happier. I love my job. I pursue reading and art interest in my free time.

My quest to understand myself is still not over. I recently attended SWAT Financials sales training which has a different personality assessment. It has given me another lens to understand myself, and to understand other people, their behavior and how to best interact with them.

I would have never thought that the hardest subject I would every study is me! But the older I get, the more I realize that there is still so much to learn about myself. As I have travelled my path in life, I have learned that you must truly know yourself to not just be successful, but to also find happiness. Happiness helps you achieve a level of success that is not possible without it. There is nothing more important in this life than finding what makes your soul sing. Your soul will sing when you align with what you like, what you are good at, and when you align with your life’s purpose.

-Theresa R