Personal development experiences by Lauren Butcher, flydocs
I have big dreams; I know my goals for the next five years and the experiences I wish to have in that time. I also know that nothing comes for free, so I work hard to earn enough to fulfil those dreams. I like to expand my knowledge however and make sure I get more out of my job than just money. There must be personal fulfilment too, otherwise, it is easy to burn out.
When we work from home it’s important to differentiate between work and personal time as everyone needs time for themselves. I make sure when my workday ends, I completely disconnect. I don’t check my messages or emails and I leave my work phone somewhere I’m not tempted to answer. If I don’t do those things, it’s too easy to carry my work into my personal life. From time to time, I catch myself thinking through a work problem in the evenings, but I try not to let it happen too often.
Last year I finished writing my first novel. I spent every evening and all my weekends on it for ten months. Now I’ve been lucky enough to get it published. My work will be available for purchase by early next year which is extremely exciting, and a childhood dream come true for me. With that almost complete, my next goal is to own my first house by the end of next year. I would love to have a greenhouse for vegetables and a garden.
I have been working in Technical Integrations for nearly ten years now, but I’ve never had any experience in the aviation sector. Stepping into flydocs was a big learning curve for me. When I joined flydocs, the first eight weeks were like a familiarising tour of the organisation where I started getting used to the platform and attended a training program. In the initial days, we were a team of two and we have now grown to become a team of eight. Not that we had it easy in the beginning! As soon as I could, I took up customer accounts and jumped in at the deep end of the business to learn on the job. During those days, I worked hard on picking up aviation terminologies and spent time on the flydocs platform exploring the different modules. Also work through different documents, familiarising myself with them, and then putting them in context with my projects. That is the best way I learn, being hands-on. This helped me in my role tremendously. I learnt very quickly the pitfalls an integration can face, but this helps put together solutions for customers and head off any issues before they can happen. I guess that’s good customer service as well when everyone is happy.
A supportive manager can lead to an employee’s development
I’ve been lucky to have a good manager here at flydocs, probably the best manager I’ve ever had. Someone who is a good listener and has always supported me and my growth within flydocs. It is great to have a manager with whom I can discuss freely and openly the next steps of my career. There is a lot of flexibility in this organisation and it’s a great place for career progression. I’ve been able to chart my employment path and learn in a way that’s beneficial to me. I recently got promoted from a Product Integration Engineer and Trainer to an Integration Lead. As an individual, I like to grow in my career and pick up new skills and projects. I don’t like to do the same thing for long. My new role has been fun and interesting as now I manage a team of two members. With them, I take what I’ve learnt, and the way I’ve learned, to hopefully help them grow. So, working with my team, helping them in expanding their knowledge, finding out their requirements in their careers and supporting them to build the future they want, is what I am passionate about.
Work and grow together in a team
I have been leading projects on my own for a while now. My team’s support boosts a lot of confidence in me. We have faced challenging times where we worked with a few customers during their worst phases and turned them around as satisfied customers. That feeling is fulfilling because it means I’m doing my job properly.
As a manager, I like to be approachable and I like listening to my team, mentoring them, helping them grow, and working together on their career path as well. I try and be light-hearted as that’s something I have learned is important, to remain positive. It’s good to have a moment to just interact with colleagues, not necessarily about work as sometimes they just want to talk to you, particularly when we work remotely, and when we don’t get that downtime.
Ask to explore career opportunities
My advice to anybody who is looking to grow within a business is don’t be afraid to ask about career progression. If there is something you want to try, there’s no harm in talking about it. If you wish to try working in different parts of the business, if you feel you’re ready to step up, and if you feel there is a way you can add more value to a business, there’s no harm in talking about it. You can make your choices from there.
Boost employee morale with development opportunities
For me, confidence is a big thing. It’s something that I regularly talk to my team about, and it doesn’t come overnight. We must build it, particularly when we’re doing project management or any type of management or leadership, we must have that confidence in what we’re saying to our teams and customers. Confidence is key for any woman, working not just in technology, but in aviation as well. If we step timidly into any situation, we automatically make the situation harder for ourselves. I work on my confidence daily but there are still situations that disturb me. It’s the recovery from those moments that makes a difference and that’s what I hope to pass on to my team.