My brother-in-law saw potential in me I didn't see in myself at the time
Emboldened by my brother-in-law, I went to get advice from my school's career center. I learned about a pre-paid, technical learning program at a local community college in partnership with Amazon Web Services . It's paid for by Amazon and a third party, and trains high school or college graduates, veterans, and others with non-traditional backgrounds on technical skills for them to kickstart a career in tech.
As I look back at my experience, here's my advice for early-career talent who are starting their first apprenticeship, internship, or full-time position.When I first started at AWS, I had a great deal of imposter syndrome. It seemed like everyone else had a deep pool of tech knowledge and a lot more experience. But I had a strategy to win my coworkers' trust through hard work and curiosity.
Now that I lead a team, I want to start learning effective people management skills. That, along with more technical skills, will help me reach my dream: to one day manage a region at AWS, or a cluster of data centers in a specific geographic area. As an early career professional raised by immigrant parents, I didn't immediately prioritize building relationships with my coworkers. I was raised to put my head down and not rely on others.
And don't be discouraged if some people don't warm up to you right away. It takes time to build trusted relationships. You have to be patient with the journey.For example, once I felt I had enough technical experience, I was quick to try to help out any colleagues who might have needed guidance. But this wasn't giving them the chance to learn by doing it themselves.