One of the many reasons I enjoy working in the technology and data space is the many possibilities. No matter where you work, there is always something new to learn. Sitting in an area that changes so quickly means we need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. So we will need to push ourselves out of our comfort zone.

Identify Your Problem

在我在大学的第一次实习中，我是O.n一个需要在数百人观众面前呈现的项目团队。这些人从工程师，数据人员和管理人员到高管的范围。回顾这个经历，它正在恐惧。当时，我不知道如何公开讲话，特别是在许多可能并非所有人都有技术背景的人面前。这是一个首先将我推出我的舒适区的项目。这是我发现敬酒者并进入公开演讲的方式。

So why do I bring this up? Because if I had not pushed myself to do something new, I would not have learned the many lessons that have helped me in my career today. Much of what I do requires communication with different individuals, both written and verbal. When looking at the challenges facing you today, identify those that will push you out of your comfort zone. Find at least one of these problems to tackle, knowing it may not be an easy road to follow. There will be much to learn from pushing yourself outside of comfortable.

For example, back in 2019, becoming a leader on a project was something I realized I had not done yet in my career. If you have never led a data science or engineering project or been the lead engineer or data scientist, this can be out of your comfort zone and scary. Many unknowns are going into this type of role for the first time, but it can be an excellent opportunity to learn from. As a team lead, one of the first big projects I led was writing a proposal and executing a project with a team of contractors to implement more scalable metrics to our data science pipelines. This experience gave me a chance to implement a project under a tight deadline with an entirely new group of people I had not worked with before. It helped showcase the value of effective planning, prioritization, and implementation when developing such projects.

如果你正在寻找一个challenge to tackle, consider speaking to your manager or tech lead on how you can take on more responsibility with a project outside of your comfort zone. These challenges will allow you to learn where you excel and where you need to improve in your leadership abilities and technical skills.

迎接挑战

所以这对于你来说意味着什么？当你在工作中面临新的挑战时，这是你加强并将自己推出舒适区的时间。而不是依靠你团队中的其他人，而是挑战自己并确定如何改进。变化可能会吓坏，但差异是您将学到最重要的和您的能力。更改是您在开发中的下一步措施。

回顾我们第一次成为项目的示例，您如何迎接挑战？在第一个项目中，我领导，我起草了与我团队的反馈的工作声明。我组织了资源，确保我们分配了适当的时间来完成任务。我通过完成项目领导开发人员和数据科学家。有时这意味着开发的发展工作，恢复工作，我们无法在我们的截止日期内完成，或者在项目期间解释显而易见的风险。虽然其他时候，它意味着占据各个方面的其他人的产出，并确保项目在一起。

When looking at your challenges ahead, determine how you can accomplish this work. Some ways to take on challenges can include:

• 研究主题或参加课程以了解有关特定主题的更多信息。这可以用你正在学习的新技术或方法来实现。
• Leverage your colleagues; if you know someone who has a similar experience to what you are faced with, set up a 1:1 to discuss with them. I often meet with different individuals to discuss leadership skills and how I can continue to grow in this area and challenge myself. You don’t need to face your challenges alone to learn from them.
• 记录您的进度。无论是您的团队还是个人日记，您是否为自己保留，记录您正在进行的过程。本文档是您的工作，您完成的事情的优秀提醒，并了解的经验教训。同样，您可以在以下挑战中杠杆效果！文档是您解决问题的重要参考。

Reflect on the Lessons Learned

In talking about taking on leadership of a project, rising to this challenge allowed me to understand how a project comes together from start to finish. From this work, I learned about different leadership skills that come with keeping a project on schedule and overcoming unexpected challenges. This challenge was the start of taking on more complex work and leading other projects.

对自己来说，我经常喜欢在项目结束时反映我认为可能会变得更好的和可能的行动来实现未来的改善。例如，我保留了一个数字期刊的我的笔记，每月跟踪这些物品，以利用我的自我开发信息和何时提出的评论。您可以反思此经验中学到的其他方式包括：

• 与您的团队一起追溯。确定进展顺利，没有什么，以及哪些方面可以改善。经过大型项目，这有助于了解每个人对工作的感受。如果人们不愿意在会议上发表讲话，有些工具允许您制作匿名提交。
• Surveys can be a great way to solicit feedback from many individuals. They are also great for getting a generalized rating of how specific aspects of the work went.
• 1：1是在项目特定方面工作的关键团队成员。如果您与自己更高级的人见面，这些会议也可能很棒。这些人通常可以为您可以改进的领域提供洞察力，或者它们如何以不同的方式解决项目的特定方面。

You can use this time for self-reflection and team reflection to understand how to improve moving forward. Most projects are not just one person coding alone, so getting a wide range of feedback can be valuable for review.

最后的想法

新的挑战可能是压力或令人担忧的，但它们也可以成为我们最杰出的老师。借鉴团队领导第一次和领先项目的作用是一开始就具有具有挑战性的经历。我接受了我从未面临过的新问题，学会了如何评估完成工作的风险，并反映了学习的经验教训。这是这些类型的项目，帮助我最多。所以在您看看您的工作时，请考虑以下内容：

• Identify the problem that you want to tackle. This can be a new skill, learning a new algorithm, taking on a new project, or anything else.
• Rise to the challenges that this problem presents you with. It may become difficult or seem scary at times, but there is much to learn when we push ourselves out of our comfort zone.
• 反思学习的经验教训。花点时间反思这一挑战的原因。你能够从这个经历中带走什么，你怎么能为你的下一个经验使用它？

Do you often push yourself out of your comfort zone? If not, what is stopping you from taking the next step?

谢谢阅读！我希望你喜欢阅读我所学到的东西，以及follow for more, subscribe to my newsletter.