Courtesy of Jen Lew
- Jen Lew said she became a LinkedIn director by excelling beyond expectations.
- Lew's career began at Safeway, then community college, and a state university leading to tech jobs.
- Her success stems from continuous learning, networking, and a proactive work ethic.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jen Lew, a 44-year-old business operations director based in San Francisco, about her career journey. It's been edited for length and clarity.
I almost dropped out of high school. After barely graduating, I took a year off and worked at Safeway. After over seven years there, I wasn't satisfied working 40 hours a week earning minimum wage, so I used weekends to attend San Mateo City College.
I didn't know what to major in, so I figured I'd start with a more cost-effective community college and transfer to a state college in two years. I transferred to San Francisco State University to major in international business and management. Now, I'm a business operations director at LinkedIn without an MBA or Ivy League education.
What made me successful is going above and beyond, the opposite of what they now call quiet quitting — this mentality never existed in my generation.
I took any job that would hire me after college
After graduating in 2004 I just went straight to work. I didn't know what I wanted to do and was willing to take any job. You don't need to have it all figured out at the start of your career.
My first job was any job that would hire me. I worked for about nine months at Metareward, an email marketing company. I don't know if it was a spam company, but they sent out mass emails to win a free iPad.
I didn't even know what the internet was in the early 2000s, I learned everything on the job.
My next job was at Ziff Davis, another email marketing company. My friend worked there and recommended I apply for a marketing coordinator position. I didn't get it, but they liked me so much that they gave me an account coordinator role. I only had Metareward and Safeway as experiences on my résumé, but it was an advertising-based role, and I had some email marketing experience through Metareward.
I moved to New York in my late 20s for this job and worked there for almost three years.
Yahoo hired me without a technical background, and I had terrible imposter syndrome
In 2008, while in New York, I got hired at Yahoo. I don't know how they found me, but I was recruited, so I got in.
I believe they hired me because I specialized in advertising operations, a skill I learned working at Ziff Davis, where I was promoted to advertising operations manager. Yahoo was building a product that needed my skill set.
I worked with publishers and consultants to help with their ad strategies. After about five years, I became a product manager. I knew the technology well enough to speak about machine algorithms with the engineers, but it was tough for someone like me without a fancy education and technical background. It was a huge deal.
At first, all I wanted to do was get into product management because I knew the technology better than most. I wanted to own something like a mini-CEO, building quality products.
After moving to product, I had terrible imposter syndrome and didn't feel like I was good enough. I didn't feel comfortable because I didn't have the same foundations as someone with years of experience building products.
I learned by doing
At Yahoo, I became an expert in the systems and tools by working closely with customers and learning how they leveraged our technology. I tried to understand what value we brought to them and their business models. I traveled to multiple countries, building a holistic view of all the various use cases out there. I questioned how things worked.
I wanted to keep learning more about the systems and how they operated. I questioned processes to maximize time and ensure they created efficiencies rather than overhead. I continuously re-imagined how things could work better. If I didn't know, I'd reach out to someone who did.
I also focused on building my expertise from the ground up. They set an incredibly high bar for being a key driver of innovation, commitment, and enthusiasm. I was able to move the needle and execute complicated initiatives.
After about two years in product management, LinkedIn contacted me directly about their global ad operations job. I quickly connected the dots and learned the role reported to my old boss at Ziff Davis, so I contacted her as a referral.
Even with my network, LinkedIn has a culture of hiring by consensus, so getting hired was still a rigorous process.
After 6 years at Yahoo, I landed a higher six-figure salary
The energy at LinkedIn was exciting. Working for a growth company was nice because the focus was on growth problems rather than worrying about not meeting margins. We had more flexibility, and creativity on how to grow revenue, build new products, etc.
Additionally, LinkedIn has a fantastic culture and prioritizes talent first.
A significant perk of making a solid six-figure income is that we own our own home in San Francisco and have additional income for extracurriculars (vacations, cars, technology, and more). Also, we can afford for my husband to be a full-time stay-at-home dad. He initially worked a corporate job before transitioning to running a restaurant pre-pandemic before it shut down. My daughter was born the same month he opened the restaurant while I worked full-time. It was intense.
I'm always finding opportunities to improve in my current role
I work my butt off. I go above and beyond. I'm always doing more than I should.
There are negatives to going above and beyond, such as taking on more work outside your core responsibilities without recognition or compensation rewards. But I always say, "Your brand is what people say about you when you're not in the room."
You must be able to self-promote and manage upward, show your impact on the organization, find ways to create value, and have advocates.
If you have an interesting career journey to a six-figure job and want to share your story, please email Manseen Logan at mlogan@businessinsider.com.