Sienna
siennabates.com ∙ github ∙ mastodon ∙ twittersecurity and privacy enthusiast, researcher, AMC A-lister
Academia to Industry
Background I have been thinking a lot about my experience transitioning from academia to the tech industry and my misconceptions of how prepared I actually was. I realize now, that I was prepared in all the wrong ways and what I would do if I could go back and do things differently. Writing - From minimum word counts to being as concise as possible. - The corporate dialect - I understand but can’t quite speak or replicate myself. - convey thoughts directly and efficiently. - To leave feelings at the door. Deliverables - There is rarely a template. - Many tasks do require some bit of magic to pull answers out of a hat. - Make sure to clarify what is internal vs external deadlines. - How many revisions are needed. - Some companies prefer deliverables in a certain format - pptx. - Some companies prefer text heavy vs not slides. Communication - Everyone is different. - Coming in it was typical to be expected to bend your preferences in favor of others. - It is okay to speak up if you feel someone is not respecting your time. - Learning everyone’s communication styles is hard. - You may not always work with someone who matches your work/communication style. - Don’t be afraid to suggest things that might improve processes. - For the love of god document the things you would need to inform someone about if they came in the middle of a project. - You probably cannot be yourself. - Professionalism is still necessary even if you think something is stupid. Overall things that helped - Finding a mentor to trust. - Befriending people around the same age. - You can be social even if just with those you think you’ll like. - You dont have to make small talk with everyone. - Find someone who you can ask all your dumb questions to. - Be honest with your manager about the things you’re struggling with, self awareness shows you’re trying to make an improvement. - Find someone who is in the same position but higher up that can validate your thoughts, feelings, and intuition about a topic or process. - I still believe the corp world would be better if people were just real about things.