When Blackness and the Workplace founder Jessica Pharm ’10 realized that her job wasn’t working for her, she set out on her own and created a career that does. An expert in corporate know-how and navigating sticky professional situations, Pharm offers the following tips for folks seeking to take their careers into their own hands:
- Have a strong sense of self — but be patient. “That takes time. [You have to have] self-confidence, first and foremost. That was something that took a while for me to build from the professional point of view.”
- Have a goal. “What is it that you want to do?”
- Make a plan. “A goal without a plan is just a dream. […] You have to have a plan on how to get to where you want to be.”
- Just do it. “If you’re waiting for things to be perfect, you’re never going to do it. I created a website and a podcast in the middle of a pandemic and this crazy horrible year in 2020, and I didn’t know it was going to succeed. Sometimes you just have to say, ‘Look, I’m going to do it and keep at it and keep working on it every day.’ […] Don’t wait for things to perfect, because they’ll never be perfect.”
This story originally appeared in the February 2021 issue of Badger Vibes. Learn more about this monthly email newsletter from WAA, and sign up for the mailing list.
