What do you think is the most important aspect of professional development?

Professional development is very important because of its impact — not only on a company, but also on people.

Professional development is everyone’s responsibility. If you are waiting for the company to put you through a training program, you might be waiting a while. Your own professional development has to come from within yourself. On my team at FactSet, we regularly talk about how professional development is everyone’s personal responsibility.

Today’s world is rapidly changing, and the only thing you have available to you is your skills, your professional choices, and your training. This training can come from the webinars that show up in your email, from professional networking, from e-learning and from books or magazines. It’s not always about a formal classroom and a formal program.

Everyone should take personal responsibility for having the biggest bag of tricks possible — that’s a ‘Cindy-ism’! Make sure that your tricks are as broad as humanly possible and that the bag you carry is really heavy, because that diversity and richness of experience will make you a much better contributor to your organization.

I come back to, why do we exist at FactSet? We solve our client’s problems with the power of collaboration. As we collaborate across the company and across our global organization, we look for people who have that innate desire to learn, that innate desire to innovate and help our clients all together. If you have a diverse skillset, you’re in the best position to not only deliver on your company’s mission, but also achieve your own person satisfaction.

 

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