When Opportunity Knocks:

Should You Answer the Door?

By Ashley Jones

Speaker: Cheryl Thompson

During WELocal I had the privilege of hearing a Keynote presentation from Cheryl Thompson, the CEO and founder of CADIA. She talked about the humble roots of her engineering careers, and what led to her decision to start CADIA. In her speech she discussed that there was six doors to growing within your career The 6 that she mentioned were a stretch role, comfort zone, high expectations, big leap, opportunity to shine, and soul calling. The stretch role is when you feel that you can do more in your career. The big leap is believing in yourself and your abilities enough to do things outside of your comfort zone The opportunity to shine is speaking up when you have something to offer, being comfortable being visible, and knowing what is important to the person or company you work for. High expectations are holding yourself and others to high expectations and not settling for being underestimated The final door, soul calling, is listening to your soul and body to do something that you are passionate about and calls to you. After discussing the six metaphorical “doors” you can open in your career, Cheryl discusses the presence of fear, and how that can inhibit you from opening these “doors” to reach your goals She talked about loving and embracing your fear, and using fear to motivate you to do better and rise above challenges. This keynote spoke to me and offered a new perspective on overcoming fear and being successful as a woman in engineering. These are lessons that I can carry with me throughout any challenge I could come across in my career in order to rise above difficulties.