I would love to present at that conference, but I need more experience first.
I am interested in leadership, but I have never supervised anyone.
I have an idea for an article, but I don’t think I know enough to write about it.
I would consider applying for that position, but I don’t meet every qualification.
How many of these have you said to yourself?
For academic Support professionals, these thoughts can be especially familiar. Our work requires us to recognize what we don’t know and continually improve our teaching and programming. We are accustomed to approaching our work with humility, seeking out how we can improve.
But sometimes that humility follows us into our careers in ways that are less productive. It often manifests as waiting. We wait until we have more experience. We wait until we have published something. We wait until someone tells us we are ready. We wait until we feel sufficiently confident. And sometimes, by the time we feel ready, the opportunity has passed.
By waiting, though, are we missing the opportunity to grow? Often professional growth isn’t something that happens when we feel ready; it happens because we take an opportunity that requires us to develop.
You Don’t Have to Meet Every Qualification to Try.
Consider the next position you might want. It might involve supervising a team, publishing scholarship, or teaching a doctrinal course. And maybe you haven’t done all of those things yet.
It’s easy to look at a job or committee description, conference call for proposals, or a law review article and identify all the things you haven’t done yet that would make you more qualified to take the next step. But what if you also considered the experiences that have prepared you to do that very task? Perhaps you don’t have experience supervising a team, but you’ve overseen student work. Or, you might not have published a law review article, but you have a presence on a professional blog. Those experiences may not look identical to the responsibilities for the new opportunity, but they’re still highly relevant. Professional growth often involves translating what you already know into a new context. You need to be able to articulate what you bring, what you still need to learn, and how you intend to develop.
Of course, not every opportunity is the right opportunity. There is a difference between pursuing something that challenges you and pursuing something for which you are genuinely unprepared. My goal here isn’t to encourage you to ignore qualifications, institutional expectations, or the realities of their workload.
It is instead to recognize in yourself something we repeatedly tell students: growth requires discomfort. For instance, doing your first conference presentation may require you to organize your thinking in a way you haven’t done before. That’s not necessarily a reason to avoid the opportunity. Instead, it’s an opportunity to identify what support, preparation, and development you will need to succeed. Sometimes the best career opportunity is one that makes you think, I can do this, but I will have to learn some things along the way. That is a productive kind of uncertainty.
Stop Treating Confidence as a Prerequisite
We often talk about confidence as though it must come before action, but confidence is frequently the product of experience. You become more comfortable presenting because you present. You become more confident writing because you write. Waiting for confidence before pursuing an opportunity can create a frustrating cycle. You don’t feel confident because you haven’t done X. Then, you don’t do X because you don’t feel confident. Thus, you remain exactly where you started.
Instead of relying on confidence, it is helpful to identify what would help prepare you to do X well. That question moves you from evaluating your readiness to building readiness – and confidence – along the way.
Find People Who See Your Potential and Be Vocal About Your Goals
Career growth is rarely something we accomplish entirely on our own. Mentors can help us identify opportunities, think through career decisions, and recognize strengths we may overlook. Sponsors can advocate for us when opportunities arise, recommend us for positions, and help others recognize our potential. Both relationships matter.
ASP professionals should actively cultivate these relationships. Ask experienced colleagues how they developed their careers. Seek feedback from people whose professional judgment you trust. Tell mentors and sponsors what kinds of opportunities interest you. And, when someone encourages you to pursue something, resist the immediate urge to explain why you aren’t qualified.
Create Opportunities Before Someone Offers Them
Not every professional opportunity will arrive through a formal invitation, and opportunities may present themselves in ways you don’t expect. Your path doesn’t have to follow anyone else’s, and sometimes we have to create the conditions for growth ourselves.
This might look like volunteering for an opportunity that helps you develop a skill, keeping a list of article ideas, or taking the plunge and writing up that presentation proposal. Of course, these activities do not guarantee a promotion or a new position. They do, however, allow you to build experience, develop relationships, and demonstrate your interests. They also help you discover whether a particular career direction is something you actually enjoy. Sometimes the best way to decide what comes next is to try a smaller version of different options first.
The Next Professional Step May Be Smaller Than You Think
Sometimes we imagine career growth through only major transitions, like a new position, a new institution, or a significant increase in responsibility. But professional growth also happens through small decisions. Your next step might look like writing a blog post, joining a committee, or taking responsibility for a new initiative.
These activities may seem modest individually, but they accumulate over time. They build skills, relationships, experience, and confidence. You don’t have to change your entire career to take the next step. You just have to identify which next step is worth taking.
So, stop waiting for someone to tell you you’re ready. You do not have to be the most experienced person in the room to contribute something valuable. You do not have to have published extensively to begin writing. You do not have to hold a leadership position to develop leadership skills. You do not have to meet every qualification to consider a new opportunity. And you do not have to feel completely confident before you take a meaningful step forward.
You do have to be willing to learn. You have to be willing to receive feedback. You have to be willing to recognize what you don’t know. And you have to be willing to try. Because professional growth isn’t about becoming someone who never feels unprepared. It is about becoming someone who knows how to move forward, learn, and develop, even when they do.
(Dayna Smith)
