When I was asked to write my thoughts down for a blog to celebrate International Women’s Day, my first reaction was, What the heck?! Advice, from me? More specifically, advice on professional development. Ha! I don’t even RTFM! Then, I had a flashback to 2019 when Jamf asked me to be on their first Women in Tech panel at JNUC. I’ll admit—I needed some encouragement from other admins, my leadership, and my team. I may or may not have gone into hiding when first asked to be on a panel. In the end, I wound up co-presenting with a fellow woman Mac admin on leadership, and it turned out to be a positive experience.
After this quick montage in my head, I cast my doubts aside and realized, Okay, maybe I do have something to share. I can talk about a few key things in my career that I think could be helpful to other women out there.
The 2025 UN International Women’s Day (IWD) theme is “For ALL Women and Girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment.” This theme focuses on empowering the next generation, so I hope what I share helps give some folks out there guidance and support.
A Quick History of International Women’s Day
Here’s more information about the history of IWD.
On the Topic of Professional Development
Professional development can generally be broken down into a few key phases of your career:
1. Just starting out / early career
2. Mid-career
3. Senior phase
4. Beyond senior phase (Well, this lemur hasn’t reached that stage yet, so I’ll skip it for now—it’s still a mythical status as far as I know.)
For today’s post, I’ll focus on the just starting out phase.
What I Wish I Knew When I Was First Starting Out
Well, back in my day, we walked upstairs in the snow wearing flip-flops—and we liked it! The first thing you should learn (and expect) is that you don’t know everything, and you will make mistakes. That’s normal. You’re just starting out. Which leads me to my next point: Learn all that is learnable. Be a sponge. Read all the KBs your team has written. (You do document stuff, right? … Right?) Why? Because if you read the KBs and remember them, you’ll be able to respond when someone asks for help. You’ll know what to do, which will make the end user happy—and it’ll get you noticed as someone who actually knows a thing or two.
That’s the easy part.
Learning to Take Feedback
Remember when I mentioned that you’ll make mistakes? Related to that is learning the great skill of how to take feedback. I’m going to assume that feedback is coming from a positive place and that you’re not working in a hostile environment. (If you are, that’s a different discussion.)
Getting feedback can be hard. It might feel like you’re being attacked or criticized, especially after making a mistake. The key thing here is to take a step back, acknowledge that an error occurred, and recognize that someone is trying to help. They’re giving you feedback to help you understand what happened, why it happened, and how to adjust your work to avoid making the same mistake next time. I absolutely acknowledge that this assumes you’re in a supportive environment. Fortunately, throughout my career, I’ve been lucky to have folks who supported me.
Expanding Your Knowledge
Going back to the idea of reading KBs and being a sponge—once you develop a reputation as someone who RTFMs, start learning other systems your company uses.
It doesn’t matter if it’s Jamf, or Jimmy’s Awesome System—learning is key. One of the best places to start is the Mac Admins Slack (if you’re a Mac admin). If you’re in the Windows world, there’s the Windows Discord.
I still remember the first time I hit a brick wall. I asked a question and got multiple responses. And when one of the more well-known folks in the community replied, I might have fan-girled just a wee bit.
Certifications & User Groups
A few other things that can help you grow:
• Certifications – Jamf training and certifications can help show people that you actually know what you’re doing. Microsoft also has great training programs.
• User Groups – These are a great way to meet other admins and vendors. One that has been very helpful for me is the Jamf User Group in NYC.
This is just my personal perspective, based on my own experiences. YMMV.
Final Thoughts
Your journey in tech (or any field) is unique, but I hope these insights help someone out there. Keep learning, keep growing, and—most importantly—keep supporting each other.
