Career switching is close to heart to both speakers (colleagues too) and myself who came from a teaching background before assuming a product operations role in a tech/ product team.
Alicia worked at Esplanade whereas Desmond was a photographer/ photo journalist and we all eventually wound up at the same place.
Identify your core values
For Desmond: it is putting people first. As a photographer — people from all walks of life, trying to do the best for them, trying to tell their stories in the most authentic manner.
For Alicia: stay humble and be willing to learn; be kind and take care of the people she works with. She expressed support for her product manager, engineers, fellow designers and product operations specialists in her product team. Giving thanks is severely underrated!
Own thoughts: be generous in giving thanks. Speak truthfully. We all have our own anchors and aspirations and it is incredibly empowering when it aligns with the place where we spent the most amount of time at.
