Tech Career Strategies: Depth, Rotation, and Grit
Key Points
- Tina emphasizes deciding early whether to specialize deeply in one tech niche or to cultivate a broader skill set, noting that both paths can lead to leadership roles such as distinguished engineers or product managers.
- She models a non‑linear career trajectory—starting as a developer, then moving through consulting, business development, marketing, and finally product management—showcasing how each role can build transferable expertise.
- Tina advises treating every job as a stepping stone, deliberately planning “leaves” by thinking 2‑3 years ahead about the next role to stay creative, collaborative, and ready to hand over responsibilities.
- Embracing the “messy” stage means getting hands‑dirty with new technologies, investing time to understand them deeply before gaining confidence and delivering results.
- Continuous rotation through different functions and technologies helps create a well‑rounded, adaptable employee who constantly adds fresh knowledge to their organization.
Sections
- Deep vs Broad: Career Advice - Tina Williams explains how to choose between deep specialization and broad skill development, illustrating her own path from assembler coding through consulting, business development, marketing, and product management as a guide for tech career growth.
- Hands‑On Learning & Elevator Networking - The speaker stresses mastering tools through personal experience to speak authentically with colleagues and using informal elevator conversations to build networks and discover career opportunities, particularly for women.
Full Transcript
# Tech Career Strategies: Depth, Rotation, and Grit **Source:** [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3AA-Jk9ZP4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3AA-Jk9ZP4) **Duration:** 00:05:50 ## Summary - Tina emphasizes deciding early whether to specialize deeply in one tech niche or to cultivate a broader skill set, noting that both paths can lead to leadership roles such as distinguished engineers or product managers. - She models a non‑linear career trajectory—starting as a developer, then moving through consulting, business development, marketing, and finally product management—showcasing how each role can build transferable expertise. - Tina advises treating every job as a stepping stone, deliberately planning “leaves” by thinking 2‑3 years ahead about the next role to stay creative, collaborative, and ready to hand over responsibilities. - Embracing the “messy” stage means getting hands‑dirty with new technologies, investing time to understand them deeply before gaining confidence and delivering results. - Continuous rotation through different functions and technologies helps create a well‑rounded, adaptable employee who constantly adds fresh knowledge to their organization. ## Sections - [00:00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3AA-Jk9ZP4&t=0s) **Deep vs Broad: Career Advice** - Tina Williams explains how to choose between deep specialization and broad skill development, illustrating her own path from assembler coding through consulting, business development, marketing, and product management as a guide for tech career growth. - [00:03:04](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3AA-Jk9ZP4&t=184s) **Hands‑On Learning & Elevator Networking** - The speaker stresses mastering tools through personal experience to speak authentically with colleagues and using informal elevator conversations to build networks and discover career opportunities, particularly for women. ## Full Transcript
If you're watching this channel, you're probably into technology.
You might even be thinking about a career in technology.
Well, today we have a special guest, Tina Williams, a woman to technology
who wants to share some of her sage career advice, starting with “skills”.
So in the area of skills, I think what you can
evaluate is whether you want to go deep or broad.
So when I mean by deep is that you may decide to enter technology
and you have a specific love of a specific area,
and you want to become the subject matter expert there and devote your career.
And I've seen a lot of women do that successfully and rise up
and become distinguished engineers and submit many patents.
It's a really great way to to have your career.
For me, I started out as a developer.
I was coding in assembler and PL/I long, long time ago
and I got to the point where I wanted more and I wanted to experience new things,
so I wanted to be more involved with clients.
I moved over into consulting.
I then moved over into business development
and then on into marketing and eventually found my way back to software.
And now I am a product manager.
So I've taken all of those experiences
along the way to apply now to being a product manager.
Oh, that's a great way
of starting deep and then using that as a springboard
into new sort of areas of technology.
That brings us to the next one, which is called “leave”.
What's that about that?
Well, it's not really about leaving.
It's about thinking about when you get in, if you're going to be moving
from different area to a different area, thinking about your end game.
So I always think about...
Like the next job is what you're saying, right?
Right. So I'm working my way out of my current position into what I'm going to do next.
You know, leaving open the door for me to go do something else.
And that's really gets back to my desire to be creative and innovative.
That's really where I'm drawn to
and starting new initiatives or transformations.
And so once I have that all in place and I have everything
operational, it's time to move on to something else.
So that's one way you can approach your career,
is to think about that as you're going into a new job.
I also think it makes you less controlling and more collaborative, also
because you're thinking about handing it over.
In fact, I would argue that, at least in my career,
I've always said every 2 to 3 years you want to be thinking about moving on
to a new role, a new responsibility, if anything, just to keep you being a more
well-rounded employee with more education, more knowledge that you can share.
That brings us then to “messy”.
So messy.
That's really to me about getting your hands dirty.
So as I moved around from different job to different job,
there was always a new type of technology that I was working with.
And so in order to become comfortable and confident in that area,
I first took the time to really understand the technology.
And so, for instance, I was a product manager within IBM.
I was rolling--helping to roll out a new CMS system across all of our
global organizations.
And so first, before enabling all of those different teams,
I took the time to really understand it myself
and actually be able to use the platform myself.
And now today I'm involved in an area of AI,
and so I'm taking the time now to really understand that platform,
get my hands dirty, understand how it works,
and therefore much more confident when I talk to my colleagues and clients
You are also are a lot more authentic
because you have experience with it, not just from reading but doing.
That's great.
So “elevator", that's a rather obscure title.
What's that about?
So it ties in with the rest.
Whereas if you want to move around in your career,
you're not likely to do that without getting to know people.
So a great way to get to know people is to talk to them in the elevator,
which isn't intuitive or always considered normal or proper.
But for me, I've met lots of people in the elevator at all different levels.
My peer colleagues and then also executives.
And I find that people are very willing to talk about themselves
and what area they're in.
And I've learned so much about different areas to explore
that I would have never found out about otherwise.
In fact, that's how Tina and I met--she was walking by the studio.
We got to talking about career and I said, “Why don't you come on and tell us
more about it?” So I'm really glad that you did reach out like that.
Well, you get the final word with the category “more”.
So this is
something I just think about for all women
and really for a lot of professionals
is that it's always good to ask for more.
Like always ask for what you want, always ask about
new areas, always ask for more money if that's what you think you deserve.
I always ask for new opportunities.
If you don't ask, then no one knows.
No one knows that you care.
And they may just...
It's not that they don't
respect or appreciate you, but they may not prioritize you.
It reminds me of something one of my mentors actually said
is that “you are your own best advocate,” so you need to be one.
Well, you get the final word
offering advice to the ladies out there who are thinking about technology.
What would you say to them?
I would just say technology has been a great career for me.
I've had opportunities to learn, which is something I really enjoy.
I've had opportunities
to fly all over the world and meet all kinds of wonderful people
through technology.
And it's just been a great career.
Excellent! Well, thank you very much, Tina.
Hey, before you guys leave, be sure to hit like and subscribe.
And also if you'd like to see some other topics, leave us comments below.
Thank you.
Thanks for watching.
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