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[quote=Anonymous]I’m a first-gen college grad and have kind of built my career the scrappy way… figuring things out as I go, learning on the fly, a lot of trial and error. I thought I was doing SO well getting myself through college but now I can clearly see that I just didn't know what I didn't know- I went to the cheapest state school I could find, had to work 35 hours per week with a full class load so I didn't have any extraciriculars/networking time in school. I got a psychology degree not understanding the lack of career possibilities (in my LMC 18yo brain - just going to college and getting any degree = success). Went into $100k debt for that which I will have paid off next month after 10 years.

In my current role, I’ve been really lucky. Leadership has pulled me into rooms I probably wouldn’t have had access to otherwise, and I’ve learned a ton just from being around those conversations. My CEO just told me "I check to see if you're on meeting invites and if you are, I know I can skip and things will move forward correctly".  But it’s also made me realize how much of the next level seems to come from relationships outside your company too. Candidly, I want to job search but obviously can't use my current leadership for that. My work reviews are always GREAT, I've gotten so much recognition from customers even multiple essentially saying "why are you working here?". But again, my employment contract has a non-solicit + non-compete so I feel like I can't leverage customer relationships either. I just feel like I can't breathe. It feels like I get all the internal and external signals that my work is top notch, but I can't figure out how to translate it up to a growth opportunity.

I've never had health insurance from a job or other benefits outside of PTO/small 401k match - which I couldn't contribute much too because of the loan repayment and OOP health insurance. It's been such a defeating cycle.

So I’m curious from those of you who are further along: how did you actually find the people who opened doors for you or helped shape how you think?

And more tactically… how do you do that if you don’t come from a built-in network? Is it weird to ask someone for a coffee or a quick call? What makes that feel worth it on your end vs. a random ask?[/quote]

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