One question we receive often in the Bridging the Gap community is around how to immigrate into a new country and find a business analyst job.
I’m so grateful to Eno Eka for sharing her personal story to finding a BA job just 2 weeks after arriving in Canada.
But while we set out to talk about immigrating, this video became so much more. It’s really about the mindsets and strategies you need to make any sort of progression in your career, and how to accelerate that path for yourself.
Listen in and you’ll discover:
- How Eno transitioned from accounting to business analysis.
- How Eno found her first BA job (a lateral move) in Canada just 2 weeks after relocating (and even after her personal luggage didn’t make it to Canada).
- The strategies Eno employed to be well-connected professionally and well-qualified for BA jobs in Canada, even before she moved.
- How Eno thinks about the ROI on the investments she makes in herself, and how she made those investments while earning a Nigerian salary.
- The accelerated business analyst career path she’s created for herself, and what mindsets were essential to make those happen.
Connect with Eno Eka on LinkedIn
For those who prefer to read, here’s the full-text transcript of the interview:
Laura Brandenburg: Hello and welcome. This is Laura Brandenburg here today with Eno Eka. We’re going to talk about immigrating to a new country. I am super excited to hear your story as well as have a resource. We were chatting a bit about we get questions about this at Bridging the Gap all the time, or people who are in this transition and maybe are a part of our programs, or considering what investments they need to make in their career to take the next step. I’ve never really felt that I had a good answer. It’s not something that I’ve been through personally or helped somebody through. And so, I’m really excited to learn more about your story as well as be able to share some really good strategies with others. So, thank you for being here, and welcome.
Eno Eka: Thank you for having me, Laura. It’s a pleasure to be here to share my experience and sort of encourage people. Thank you for doing this for your audience as well knowing that there are a lot of people who are immigrating, people who are also trying to make that transition.
It’s two topics at the same time – making that transition to BA is not easy, and then moving countries as well. So, I’m happy to share my experience and help anyone who is experiencing this or who’s about to start this journey as well.
Laura Brandenburg: I was going to actually ask two questions, but why don’t we just share. Start with a little bit about your journey. What prompted you to immigrate? What was the process like? Were you a business analyst before or did you make both transitions at once into business analysis and into a new country? Which, you’re right, is like two big transitions altogether.
Eno Eka: It is two big transitions. So, I didn’t start out as a business analyst. The truth is, like, hardly anyone I find that in their past life started as a business analyst. I started my career as an accountant. I actually studied accounting. I have a Bachelor’s in accounting, and I was working in accounting. But when I got into this organization, I was working in the project management office and doing typical project accounting and the spreadsheets. And then I got more into project controlling, the finance part of things, and I kind of found what the project managers did was really interesting.
I noticed an opportunity for a spot to assist in the project as a project assistant, so I started with project management and then took a project management course and actually found that interesting. After doing that for a while, I was speaking to a friend of mine. I’m like, “Oh, I think I enjoy this, working on projects more than doing the typical bookkeeping and finance stuff.” And he’s like, “Well, you actually, really should be a business analyst. You have the core standard business analyst skills.” I’m like, “What’s a business analyst? What’s that? What do they do?” And I go start researching and looking up blogs and on YouTube and whatever trying to get more insight towards business analysis.
When I got it, I’m like, “Wow, so this is really what I do. These are the things that I do.” Leveraging the skills I already have, like my communication skills, my personal skills, my domain knowledge. I was like, okay, I think I’ll be a better business analyst than project manager. That’s how I made that transition into business analysis. Taking courses, getting my certification, my CBAP certification, and getting opportunities that put me directly into tech projects. I just found myself working on tech projects, software projects, and before you knew it, I had moved from accounting into tech, just like that.
For anyone whose listening, you want to make that transfer into business analysis, understand that nobody woke up one day and said, “Oh, I want to be a business analyst.” It just happens. But the truth is, whatever you studied, whatever you’re doing right now, it’s still part of the foundation and it’s going to help you in your career because you definitely have transferable skills. That’s really how it started for me.
And then, a few years after, I came to Canada. So, I made that transition because now first, and then I moved to Canada. And then it was a different terrain, different country. As an immigrant learning the culture, learning about the way things are done, organizational processes, everything is different. So, grabbing all that knowledge, learning from people, people’s experiences, getting people to mentor and coach me along the way. Those were two big transitions, but is it possible? Definitely. Yes, it is possible.
Laura Brandenburg: Yeah. What was that process? I just want to affirm when you say, “Oh,” it’s just like, you don’t, necessarily, say, “I’m going to be a business analyst today,” and it just sort of happens. I see this. That was my experience, too. I started doing the role before I was in the role. And it’s something when I first interview people for my book, How to Start a Business Analyst Career. I thought that was just my experience and that I was the weird one. And then it was like the story that I heard most often of how this career change happened.
Eno Eka: It is.
Laura Brandenburg: We often advise people to just start doing some business analysis and kind of get that train going and often, all of a sudden, those opportunities snowball.
Eno Eka: That’s true.
Laura Brandenburg: Yeah. Now, but in terms of moving to Canada, what was that process like?
Eno Eka: Well, moving to Canada, I came to Canada through the, it’s called the Federal Skills Program, Express Entry. So, this program is for people who already have work experience, you already have higher education. At least a bachelor’s or a diploma or a master’s degree. You speak good English because you have to do an English test. They also rank you based on your age. So, those were the criteria that you had to pass through to get your educational certificate evaluated to be sure it meets the Canadian standards, and also take an English test.
Once you do that, you apply and then once you’re selected, you now have to go on to do some other tests, like do a medical test, getting a police record to be showing you have no criminal record, and ensuring you have enough funds to support yourself because, of course, they don’t want anybody who’s going to come and be a liability to the government. So, ensure you have enough funds to support yourself, and then providing documentation to show you actually went to school and to show that you’ve been working for at least more than three years.
I had to go through that process of the application. Once I got my visa, then it was time for me to move and to relocate. You, basically, just have to book your ticket and arrive and plan your arrival. But the good thing was, and the smart thing I did was before I arrived, I started researching about business analyst roles in Canada, what employers were looking out for, and this is something I tell a lot of people. Once you know you’ve got your visa, or you’re about to get your visa, start preparing ahead. There’s really nothing like getting everything you need.
I noticed the kind of certifications the employers were looking out for. The CBAP certification, which I already had. Learning more about agility, agile and SCRUM, learning more about the tools that were being used. Basically, looking at the job descriptions and seeing what employers were asking for and then looking at the gaps and seeing how I could close those gaps.
I started taking online courses and improving myself because I wanted to make sure that I was employable when I arrived in Canada. Because it’s one thing to arrive, it’s another thing to be employable because sometimes what you’ve been doing in your home country may be totally different process.
And then joining professional organizations, the IIBA, the Calgary Chapter was valuable for me. So, I tell people look out for professional organizations as well, or if you’re sort of a domain subject matter expert, you’ve been working in domains for a while, there’s definitely some professional organizations you can join that could support you, go for your meetings, network with people, ask questions, if there are certifications that you can take.
I took a certification course as well in financial services just because I had some experience in financial services and I wanted to make sure that I just had everything to give me an edge.
Doing all those things kind of helped to set me apart and kind of help me get started early in my journey. So, in about two weeks of arriving, I got a job. And how did you do it? I’m like, “Well, I’ve just been preparing for so long and networking with people and basically putting in the work.”
Laura Brandenburg: Before you actually moved.
Eno Eka: Yeah.
Laura Brandenburg: Part of those chapters, part of those associations, networking, talking to people before you moved.
Eno Eka: Exactly. And improving myself, too. Because I wanted to make sure that I was a good fit for the Canada work environment. So, understanding the culture, how to, small talk is a big deal here, so you want to make sure you know how to do all the small talk. That wasn’t a challenge for me, but really, just learning more about the culture, understanding how my resume should be structured, the kind of things that should be seen in my resume because what we use back in Nigeria is the CV, which is what is used in England, or colonized by Britain anyway. We kind of follow a lot of British ways of doing things. So, we use the CV.
But what’s used here is the resume, so understanding how to have the Canadian standard resume, using LinkedIn to network with people, taking advantage of associations here. There’s a lot of networking events, and just getting to know people in my local community and telling them, “Hey, I’m new to Canada. I’m a business analyst. These are the things I’ve done. If there’s anything in your purview, I’m happy to chat about it.” That kind of thing, it was valuable for me in my early days, even though I still had my own struggles.
Like when I arrived in Canada, I lost my bags and I had to, yeah; I lost my bags when I arrived in Canada. But because I sort of prepared my mind, I wasn’t exactly scared for the future, like, what’s going to happen. Am I going to get a job? I knew that I would be fine because I’d arrived prepared and I knew that. I had everything that any employer would want and that’s why I remember the interview that got my first job, I got an offer on the spot. So, yeah, it’s possible.
Laura Brandenburg: Yeah. Oh, my goodness. I keep going back to you are in a new country. You lost your bags permanently or did you ever get those?
Eno Eka: I never got my bags back.
Laura Brandenburg: Oh, my goodness. Like everything you brought with you?
Eno Eka: Yes.
Laura Brandenburg: Wow.
Eno Eka: Except for things I had in my hand luggage, but everything that I checked in, yeah. Lost on my connecting flight into Canada. Yeah. I mean it was tough. The early days were not the sweetest days. As a new immigrant, you have to get used to the community. Getting lost. Not knowing the trains and buses and how to make sure you’re working with the times. Not having any family here and, basically, just walking through learning things myself and through the people that I met here as well.
I met amazing people who helped me as well, but it’s really about a lot of mindset work. A lot of mindset work has to be done.
Laura Brandenburg: You talked about that. What were some of the important mindsets?
Eno Eka: Oh, for sure. One thing that I tell people, first of all, is that know that you already have what it takes. You have the experience already. Whether you work outside of North America, it doesn’t matter. But you already have experience. Leverage your experience. It’s really how you communicate your experience to your employer or your potential employer on your resume, your Linked In profile, during your interview. Have the mindset of, “I have what it takes.” “I have the skills required for this job. I can provide value.”
Whenever you’re speaking to people, speak from a place of value. That’s something I had to learn as well. Because in my first interview, I knew I didn’t do so well in that interview. I could have really done better, but because interviews are done differently back home compared to here. Here, it’s a lot of behavioral interview questions. Getting to know more about your competences less than the technical skills that back home, it was more about those technical skills and you would have to do like a little test to actually prove yourself.
But here, it’s really different. Knowing how to actually communicate the value was really, really key for me. What I tell other people is that you already have the experience. You just need to know how to communicate it and meet the employer where they’re at and think, “I’m here. I can help you. This is what I’ve done in the past. These are my skills. These are my experiences. These are my accomplishments as well.” And then educating them about where you come from and the projects you’ve worked on.
Whenever I go into an interview, I always humor my interviewers. I tell them about my challenges or my projects, the kind of projects I’ve worked on, and they will be like, “Wow, that’s amazing.” I’m like, “Yeah, you should come to Nigeria. This is how it’s done here. It’s different.” Educate them on your culture. Educate them on the processes that you use back home, and I know that for a lot of systems it may be different. But the truth is, at the end of the day, it still does the same thing. Even though you use a different financial system, right, so I worked in a bank for a bit and our banking software was different. However, the banking software still does the same thing on the front end and the back end. So, you should be able to explain to the employer, “This is the banking system I worked on and I implemented. This is the front end and the back end is what it does. However, I’m very sure it is similar to what your banking system does.” And then explain to them, meet them where they are, and then they see the value in you.
These are the things that I tell people. Don’t think that all…I have tons of experience and move countries, now I have to get an entry-level job. I don’t think so. I don’t think you have to do that. Look at the gaps. Find how to close those gaps and then communicate your value in a way where you meet the employer where they are.
Laura Brandenburg: Yeah. And I was going to ask if you made a lateral move when you came to Canada, or even a step up.
Eno Eka: No, it was a lateral move. It was a lateral move at first and then, of course, more opportunities started coming my way.
Laura Brandenburg: And I love what you said because what you’re really talking about there is believing in yourself. Even people that I help with career transition that aren’t going through the challenges moving to a new country, that is still something that affects us a lot, I think, as an analytical profession is that analytical mindset can turn and become very critical. Find all the reasons that you can’t do that thing vs. all the reasons you can. It’s so critical.
Eno Eka: Right. I know. We like to analyze everything and be like, “Oh, well, I can’t do this role because they ask for this tool and I don’t have the experience using this tool.” Well, I’m like, “But you use this other tool. Tell me more about it. And be saying what he does and I’m like, “It does the same thing, it’s just called different names.” So, why don’t you go in there and explain that to them and tell them, “I’ve used this project management tool. This is what it does. And I know you use this here in your organization. And because I have experience doing this, I am 100% sure that in no time I will no my way around it. I’ll definitely play around with it and I’ll get used to it.”
So, it’s all about that belief. That’s why when I got the success that I did and just growing rapidly in my career. A lot of people are reaching out to me saying, “How were you able to do this?” “How were you able to start a career in business analysis?” Or, “I was a business analyst back home, or I was a project manager back home, but when I arrived to Canada, I was told I had to start from the bottom, like, you know, go get an admin job. That kind of thing.” I’m like, “No, I don’t think you should because your experience is still valid.”
I asked them questions. I’m like, “Okay. Tell me about the projects you’ve worked on.” And then when they tell me about the projects they’ve worked on, I’m saying, “Wow. You definitely have something to offer. You just need to actually put up your hands and step up to it. Use your Linked In profile. Optimize it. Create a good resume and apply for these roles.” Don’t think that because, “Oh, I don’t have experience working in Canada or in the U.S., then, I can’t get that job.” It’s a lot about the belief and the mindset and that’s very key as to what I also teach people because I find, like, that’s a lot of the work. It’s less about learning how to write a business case and a BRD and create use cases. Those things are what you will still need to do as a business analyst. But the belief in, “I can actually do this,” to make that transition, it really starts from the mind.
Laura Brandenburg: The other thing that I, the pattern I noticed just from you sharing your stories, you also made a lot of investments in yourself in training and time in terms of networking. This is not just like a whimsical change. There must have been some real deep sense of “Why?” behind it, too.
Eno Eka: Oh yeah. I tell people, I say, you want to continuously improve yourself. You can’t remain the way you are. I’m not the way I was last year or two years ago, five years ago. You have to continuously improve yourself, especially if you want to become a business analyst. It’s a very dynamic career path. You can’t just say, “Oh, I mean I took a business analyst course back in 2010. I’m good. You have to continue to improve yourself. That’s what I did. I continuously invested in myself and I still do to increase my value. Because as you increase your value, you increase your earnings.
As we see, Laura, with people who take the business analysis courses and they get like a $20,000 salary increase. It’s amazing. Just because they increased their value by investing in themselves by taking the business analysis course. And really, that’s what it is. I invest in myself taking courses, certifications, getting coaches to help me. That’s what I tell people. I say, when you’re working with a coach, you’re basically saying, “Here, I want you to invest yourself in me as well. I’m investing in you, so you can invest in me. And you always see the return on your investment.” I have. Seeing lots of return on my investments.
I remember when I was going to get my CBAP certification. A lot of people told me, “Why do you want to get the CBAP. It’s not a popular certification.” It wasn’t for a long time. “What is this business analysis thing? It’s expensive. Why don’t you just go, you’re an accountant, get your ACC and become a CPA or a CGA? That’s a better career path for you. Everybody knows what a CPA does. You can get a job as an accountant or a financial analyst.” I don’t want to do that. I want to be a business analyst.
Then, in my journey, I had to travel to Ghana, to another country, to write the CBAP exam. Had to pay for courses. My flights. A lot of investments into getting my CBAP certification years ago. But today and tomorrow, I’ll still reap the benefits of being the CBAP. I’ll still reap the benefits of taking courses, having coaches to guide me in this career path. So, investing in yourself is so key.
If you’re listening to this, there is nothing better than having someone to coach and guide you because you won’t make the same mistakes. You have someone to ask questions, get clarification so you don’t make the same mistakes that they made, and then, also, you’re able to make the right decision.
Something I find, a lot of people don’t have is sometimes a lot of people feel, “Oh, I can self-study, get my certifications, or learn things on YouTube, or free courses, which is true, but there comes a time in your career that you need to make some strategic decisions. When you have an interview, you need to know how to negotiate your salary. You need to know how to communicate your value. All those things are things that you learn from other people and with practice, you get better at that.
I was speaking to someone recently who was able to negotiate his salary and get a higher offer. After the first offer, the company gave him, and that’s because I shared some tips with him saying, you know, the fact that you have experience, you’ve gotten some certifications, leverage that and communicate your value to this organization and see if they give you an offer. He was scared at first, because he was like, “This is my first job.” I’m like, “Negotiate.” So, having someone to guide you through this process is so key.
In my early days, people were like, “Oh, I want you to help me.” Blah, blah, blah. I’m like, “I’m really super busy.” Like I have a lot of work. “I will pay you to coach me.” I’m like, “Wow. Okay. I will listen to you now.” But it’s been amazing; helping people get their first jobs as business analysts without any prior Canadian experience or anything like that. Really leveraging the experience and the skills that they have. And the truth is, a lot of people have this.
When people say, “Oh, I don’t know if BA is for me.” And then I tell them, “Okay, go to YouTube. Watch these videos on YouTube. Read these blogs.” I send them your blogs; I send them your videos. I tell them, “Okay, buy this book on How to Start a BA Career.” Stuff like that. And then they come back and say, “Wow. I’ve been doing this for so many years.” I’m like, “Yes, you have. So, why don’t you consider starting a career and letting all the tools and techniques that you need and learning how to,” I actually practice this now, a day in the life of a BA, basically. Yeah.
Laura Brandenburg: Yeah, and there’s just one thread I want to tie together and maybe this is a bit of my experience. I’d be interested if it’s yours too. But you talked about owning your worth, and then we talked about investing in yourself.
Eno Eka: Yeah.
Laura Brandenburg: They go hand-in-hand, and I’ve made some really significant investments in my professional life, in my personal development. And I feel like I’m always the different person just on the other side of that transaction. Just when I was like, “Oh, run it on my credit card,” before I start seeing the value. Because it changes you. You’re like, “I’m worth it.” It’s a commitment, too. And the reason you get the ROI is because when you make that investment, you’re committing to yourself that you’re going to that next level.
Eno Eka: And even people who have businesses. You have Clear Springs Business Analysis is your business. I also have my business. But I find when I invest in myself as the leader of the business, and as the principal owner of that business, the business, in itself, also gets to prosper, it gets to blossom and bloom because I’m working on myself, too. I don’t know how it happens. I don’t know if you’ve seen that as well, but as we invest in yourself, too, and you’re learning more, and that’s something a lot of people don’t know. They would see you. I’d say, “Oh, Laura, she’s been doing business analysis for so long. She’s great at this. She eats, sleeps, breathes business analysis.”
There you are. You invest in yourself, too, because you want to become better of yourself every day and it’s clear. It shows in your business. It shows in how you have grown as well. That applies to everyone. So, don’t ever feel like, “I’ve got this. I took a course years ago and I’m good.” You need to continuously invest in yourself and improve yourself. There’s a lot to learn when it comes to business analysis. There’s so much. It’s so broad. You can’t think, “I’m the guru and I know all the perspectives. I can work as anything.” No, that’s not true. You want to make sure that you know where your strengths are and leverage your strengths.
That’s also something I tell people. Leverage your strength. If you have experience in a domain, you have experience in a technology or a software, whatever it is, leverage that and get into business analysis. I know that’s one of the things you talk about in your blog post about how to start a career in business analysis with no experience. You talk about the fact that if you have domain experience already, leverage that and then start doing business analysis work in your role.
Like I tell other people, if you’ve learned how to write a business case and you’re not a business analyst, try writing a business case for your project and send it to your manager. Try writing a BRD and send it to your manager and say, “Hey, I’m learning some new things and I thought I’d just share with you some deliverables, some documents I’m creating.” That also helps to build your confidence, and that also helps to give you that exposure you need in the organization.
Laura Brandenburg: Yeah. This might be a…I didn’t prep this question for you. But when we’re talking about investments, because I get, literally, I get caught here as a business owner. Coming from Nigeria where the currency is so different and then moving to Canada, can you share, how did the financial aspect of being able to make the investments in where you were going? Are you okay sharing kind of what, like the mindset around that or the logistics around that? How did that even…how is that even possible?
Eno Eka: I know. So, working in Nigeria, it is Naira, which is way lower than U.S. dollars where I have to pay for the courses or my certifications, but a lot of that stuff. I mean it was a lot, but I was working. But the thing is I’m very conscious about investments and investing in myself. I’ve always known that the best investment was in me, that any other material thing because as I invest in myself, I know my knowledge, especially, it will reflect in everything around me.
I get very frugal when it comes to saving. I save and I have a budget. It’s something I tell a lot of people. Have a budget, an annual budget, that you set aside for personal development. Now, it doesn’t have to be training or certification. It could even just be personal development for yourself. So, taking a course in practical skills – communication skills or speaking skills, whatever it is, but have a budget that you set aside for education for your personal development. That’s something that I was constantly doing. I was setting money aside every month from my salary for my goals. I knew I needed over $1,000 to get my certifications or take a course, or whatever I would set that goal and contribute towards that fund for my education, for my development.
Even though I wasn’t earning the best of salaries, I made sure that I was able to make that savings and invest in myself. No matter how much you earn – a lot of people say, “Well, I don’t earn so much.” Well, no matter how much it is, just set a goal. Have a budget and put funds aside for your personal development. There is nothing better than that.
Now, I’m not saying you shouldn’t go on vacations or buy a nice car or all those things that you like, but the truth is you have to weigh things and look at the scale and see if I invest in myself, say, $1,000 in myself today, or $2,000 in myself today, and this investment in the next six months or three months would yield me another job where I get a $20,000 salary increase, what’s the return on the investment? From $2,000 to $20,000. Look at that and say, “Is it worth it?” And if the answer is yes, then, go for it.
I don’t second guess myself when it comes to personal development. I’m always like, “Take my card.” That’s really how I am when it comes to personal development. And even when I arrived in Canada, I wasn’t earning so much. But my first year in Canada, I spent over about $15,000 in personal development, but that has made me a better person. That has made me different. That has really set me apart from a lot of people and things that I do as a consultant, as a business analyst because I’m paying people to learn from them and also to be a better person as well.
No matter where you are, no matter how little you earn, save for a personal development. Trust me. It will be worth it in the end. I can tell you.
Laura Brandenburg: And you kind of alluded to this, that you made this lateral move, but then there have been several jumps.
Eno Eka: Oh yeah.
Laura Brandenburg: Before we kind of let people know how to hear more about you, do you want to just kind of give us the snapshot view of what some of those jumps have been?
Eno Eka: Oh yeah. From accountant to working in the project management office, and then business analyst, business analyst into working as a proxy, product owner working as a proxy SCRUM Master learning about agility, and then working as a senior business analyst, or a business analysis specialist is where I found myself now just making that move. And then working as a consultant and teaching business analysis as well are things that I found myself doing.
Sometimes I look back and I’m like, “Wow, is this really me?” Because I still remember the early days when I look at the bubble, I’m like, “What is this?” “Where is all this from?”
Laura Brandenburg: When that came out and that was the reaction. It’s like “Wait.”
Eno Eka: You know, I tell some people I’m like, “I wrote BABOK. I wrote the older version. The older version was not fun. This version is way better. The older version. That was not fun. That was so technical. Sometimes I was like, “Oh my God. What is this?”
Laura Brandenburg: That’s awesome. If people want to work with you or just learn more about what you have to offer, where would they go to learn more?
Eno Eka: So, you can reach out to me on LinkedIn. I’m very active on LinkedIn. Eno Eka is my name. My website is www.enoeka.com. You could also reach out to me on, I have YouTube, but I’m not exactly. But you can search me on YouTube. I have some videos on YouTube, but I’m really more active on Linked In. I’ve found that’s a great space for me to interact with other professionals. Linked In is really my sweet spot. So, search for me, Eno Eka. And then my website is www.enoeka.com.
I’m passionate about business analysis. I love business analysis. I teach business analysis. I like to share my story and encourage other people to start a business analysis career. So, as you heard me share, I used to be an accountant and now I work as a business analyst, and I work in the tech space. So, trust me, you can do it too. I had never written a line of code in my life before. I don’t intend to ever write code. I don’t like those black screens. But I love helping organizations, I love recommending solutions, and I see myself as a problem solver. I’m a solution provider. That’s how I see myself. And I teach people how to do the same using their experiences and their skills that are transferable to start a career in business analysis.
Laura Brandenburg: That’s awesome. And I will say, I love being connected with you on Linked In because you do share, like, inspirational posts, but they’re also…and I do a lot of mindset work, but I often, like it’s like, “Oh, right.” There are a lot of good reframes and keeping everybody on track. I really appreciate that about you.
Eno Eka: Laura, in the early stages of my BA career, I don’t know if you had this, but I struggled with imposter syndrome because there were people who had computer science degrees. They’ve been in the technical space for so long, there were so many jargons they used to speak, and I’m like “What?” I would be like, oh, I’m the youngest here. I’m the newbie here. How can I prove myself? I used to be scared to go into those meetings. It was a struggle for me, but I used to tell myself, there’s a reason why you’re here. You can provide value. Do your research. Learn more about this technology. Ask questions. Understand that you’re still valuable, whatever you have to offer. Leverage your strengths. Knowing what your strengths are.
I knew early in my career what my strengths were and how I could leverage my strength. I really knew how to manage my stakeholders. I knew how to communicate, and I was really great at my documentation. And I made sure that my powers, I leveraged those powers. And then working with the team members who had technical to help me, my documentation as well. I knew those were things you learned as you grew your career. I knew those feelings of fear when you see those job descriptions, when you get into those meetings. Trust me, you’ll be fine.
Laura Brandenburg: I love that. Thank you so, so much. If you want to learn more about me, you can find me at BridgingtheGap.com. And if you want to learn more about Eno, you can find her at enoeka.com. Thank you so much for being here.
Eno Eka: Thank you so much. Bye.
