I love learning the origin stories of super stars so I appreciated Chad Aboud’s interview of Jessica Nguyen, the GC of Lexion. You can find his podcast here, and he summarizes key takeaways (with time stamps!) but I wanted to call out five that resonated especially well with me and that can work for you!

1. Hustle and positive attitude will get where you want to go. Jessica’s parents were immigrants, and she was a latchkey kid left to her own devices. Through hard work and a positive personality, she made her way to college, law school, firm, and in-house jobs, despite lack of resources and economic downturns. I too was a latchkey kid with clueless parents about the corporate world, so I appreciate where she has gotten through willpower. And over my 15+ years of recruiting, I see that stars will find a way to shine even after crashes in the economy.
2. Helping others without expecting something back is a great way to live and is great for your career. First, you are helping others. Second, others will help you when you need it. Jessica’s lifelong philosophy is to help people when she can. When she was a firm associate with hotel clients, a friend asked her to do a favor for him, by putting a call in to the client to ask for an exception to a hotel rule, which enabled his fabulous wedding to proceed as planned. Years later she wanted a job with a startup and saw the groom knew the CFO of that startup. Her old friend was happy to make the introduction and could speak to her character and work style, and of course Jessica landed the job.
3. Explaining your value is key. Jessica was able to land her first firm job by explaining how her skills to date lined up to the firm. Taking that extra effort to connect the dots for the employer made the difference.
4. It’s ok to leave a good job if it’s not right for you. This one is a good lesson for lawyers, who are naturally risk-averse. Jessica landed a coveted in-house job at Microsoft, a role she enjoyed, but after four years she started thinking she could work at a smaller company where she could build products more directly. In deciding whether to stay or go, she asked herself what the worst that could happen was and reasoned she could always get another in-house job like that as she had built strong skills and strong relationships. I agree with the cost-benefit/worst case scenario analysis she did and applaud her for not getting paralyzed. (And I certainly walked away from the corporate world and am happy I did so!)
5. Tell stories well so people can quickly understand what you’re about. I loved that Jessica told a story at the beginning of the interview how as a child she didn’t have money but wanted a hot doll at the time, those troll dolls with crazy hair. (See her summary in this post.) She saw a flyer that enlisted kids to sell stationery, and if they sold enough, they could get a doll. She seized that opportunity and got what she wanted. This vivid story has a beginning, middle, and end, and served as a shorthand for her resourcefulness throughout the interview. Think of stories that you can tell (quickly! and that’s interesting!) so people can get you.

   (article written by 100% natural intelligence, no AI)