"If we pause and if we give ourselves time to learn, we can actually grow tremendously during those transitions, whether they're easy or whether they're hard. I even tell university graduates these days, you think the transition is when you go through graduation? No, it's when you wake up the next day and you're saying, 'Am I really on the way to where I want to go?'"
"There weren't very many women at the time, and it was a rough-and-tumble world. Tech is still pretty tough. It was the boys' debate society. And I thought, 'okay, I can rise up, I can play this game.' And I did play the game and I did quite well-I was moving up the ranks in the company."
A billionaire philanthropist emphasizes that transitions are critical opportunities for growth when approached with intentionality and learning. She challenges graduates to recognize that true transitions begin after graduation, when they must evaluate whether their path aligns with their goals. Gen Z workers face increasingly unstable career trajectories, changing jobs every 1.1 years on average compared to three years for previous generations. The philanthropist shares her own experience at Microsoft, where despite initial success and advancement, she questioned her career direction around the two-year mark. Her approach demonstrates that pausing to reflect during transitions, rather than automatically moving forward, enables meaningful career development and alignment with personal values.
#career-development #transitions-and-growth #gen-z-employment #professional-reflection #women-in-tech
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