Significant Career Lesson From A Membership Experience Manager At University Of Michigan
Annalee, a Membership Experience Manager at the University of Michigan, emphasizes the significant career benefit of treating everyone well, citing instances where former interns become superiors and collaborative interdepartmental work opens future opportunities. The impact of positive professional relationships, "opening doors" in a large interconnected institution like a university, far outweighs the potential risks of negative interactions.
Professional Networking, Interpersonal Skills, Mentorship, Career Advancement, University Environment
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Annalee Shelton
Membership Experience Manager
University of Michigan
California State University Northridge, 2006
Pepperdine University, MA Social Entrepreneurship and Change
English
Education
Sales and Client Management
Pell Grant Recipient, Took Out Loans, Worked 20+ Hours in School
Video Highlights
1. Treat everyone well, regardless of their current position, as they may become your superior or colleague in the future.
2. Building strong professional relationships across different departments can open doors to new opportunities and collaborations within a large organization.
3. Maintaining positive working relationships can significantly influence your reputation and create valuable networks that aid career advancement.
Transcript
What is one lesson that you have learned that has proven significant in your career?
You have to treat everyone well, and there are a couple of reasons for that. One reason is that we fairly often see someone who came in as an intern. A few years later, they'll come back with much more experience or education and have jumped a couple of levels.
Now, the person who was supervising them as an intern might be in their downline, supervised by the former intern. If you didn't treat that person well, and now they're your boss or your boss's boss, that could be a real problem for you.
More likely on our side, we have people who had great experiences as an intern. They come back and become someone's boss or boss's boss, and that person can help you get a promotion. So, it's really important to treat people well.
We also see this because we work very interdepartmentally. There are many parts to the University of Michigan. We are just one center, and I might work with someone from a completely different center or school.
If I treat them well and we have a good working experience, say five years down the road, and I'm looking for a job at their location, that good experience is much more likely to open a door for me. Conversely, if I didn't have a good experience with them, I might close that door.
If they were coming to look for a position where I am, and we didn't have an enjoyable experience or they didn't treat me well, I would tell the hiring manager at our center that the person is not collaborative and wouldn't fit the job. But if I treated them well and they treated me well, it's much more likely to open doors, especially in such an interconnected web as a large institution like a university.