How have the courses offered on the Advance Learning Center assisted you with any career transitions or achieving your career goals?
I’ve dreamt of working for Kimberly-Clark since I was a little girl, ever since women scientists and engineers from that company came to speak at my elementary school in Appleton. So, when I finally joined Kimberly-Clark in August 2022 as an engineering project manager, I wanted to be the absolute best because I’d finally landed my dream job. Though I lead projects, not people, I recognized that the role here was more people leadership than my previous project engineering roles, and the large engineering project teams needed to work effectively together under my leadership for the projects to succeed. I wanted to become a better leader for my teams, and the courses offered by SWE’s Advance Learning Center helped me improve upon giving and receiving feedback, recognizing my team’s accomplishments, being more inclusive, and leading hybrid teams. The courses also helped me to learn about the ways I had been discriminated against in the past, which helped me to overcome the self-doubt created by those experiences.
How do you measure your progress in your learning journey, and how do you set goals for yourself?
I strive to learn something new every day, though I recognize I will never be able to know everything. For me, the most critical thing is learning where to find the information or who is the expert to ask. My learning goals are always complete mastery of the subject, and I seek out learning anytime I encounter a new situation or feel that I could do better.
Which courses on the Advance Learning Center did you find most valuable or would recommend?
The course that had the biggest impact on me was “Navigating Successfully Through Workplaces Shaped by Subtle Bias” by Professor Joan Williams. I’m hoping we can make that training available to everyone at Kimberly-Clark in the future. I also found a lot of benefit personally from “Negotiate Like a Boss: How to be a Fierce Self-Advocate” by Selena Rezvani, ” Attract Advocacy of Influential Sponsors” by Jo Miller, “Get Out of Your Own Head: Understanding and Unraveling Stereotype Threat” by Madeleine Redlick, and “The Lies of the Imposter Complex” by Tanya Geisler.
In your opinion, what are the benefits of being a lifelong learner, and how do you think it can enhance one’s personal and professional growth?
I recently embraced the saying, “Forgive yourself for what you didn’t know before you learned it.” Admitting that you don’t know something, that you were wrong, or that you don’t understand something fully is the only way to truly learn and grow. When a person can identify their own weaknesses or faults, it opens the door to unlimited growth potential. Every day, there are new discoveries and new creations happening all around the world. You always need to be open to learning new things or you’ll be left behind.
