Advice We Would Have Handed out 20 Years Ago

Not long ago, Michelle Santos challenged the Careers over Coffee group to talk about advice they would have given themselves 10 years ago. We wondered about 20 years ago.

You remember 1994, don’t you? The year Lion King and Forrest Gump came out.

Oh, and PlayStation. Maybe you had one of these:

And maybe you had some hair like this?

We can’t help you there, but our volunteer mentors share some 20/20 hindsight for their 1994 selves on the Mentor Program webpage.
—Sandra Kleinsasser, mentor

What career advice would you give your younger self? If you could go back in time and talk to the person you were 20 years ago, what would you say?

I would tell my younger self to realize that all experience is good experience, even if it does not appear so at the time. I’d also tell JT Junior to invest in herself. When we arrived in Austin 20+ years ago, I considered going back to school as I tried to figure out what I was going to do with my career now that we’d uprooted ourselves from northwest England to Central Texas. However, money was extremely tight (the word penniless comes to mind!) so I chose not to pursue the idea. Although today I’m happy with my life, I do wonder how different things might have been if my younger self had been bolder, and worried less about finances.
—Julie Tereshchuk

Twenty years ago, I had a toddler and a fulltime newspaper management job. And we were moving into a new house. I would have handed myself a margarita and repeated the mantra I’ve shared with so many over the years: “Do one thing today that will make tomorrow better.” In my case, I think I could have improved my very narrow point-of-view by connecting more with those outside of my immediate work circle. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t regret my career for one minute. But more knowledge about other branches of the communications tree would have given me a valuable appreciation for the landscape.  Even one hour a month could have added up to a lot of worthwhile perspective in
—Sandra Kleinsasser

The best things in my career have come from investments in things that don’t pay off in money. For example, I spent untold unpaid hours teaching myself AutoCAD (a computer-aided drafting program) and prepping to teach classes in it. The payoff was gaining confidence standing in front of a room. And realizing I’d much rather be a technical writer than a draftsman! More recently, I’ve landed in a couple of extremely challenging work situations. Investments I’d made in relationships with my family and friends paid off a thousand-fold in the love and support that sustained me so I could successfully navigate through those situations.
—Julie Wickert

We’re Here to Help
Need some career advice? Wondering how others have handled a situation? Got a question or comment for our mentors? Contact us at wcamentors@wcaustin.org. Our volunteers are glad to help. Confidentiality will be respected.