She walked away from an engineering career. It was the best thing that could’ve happened to her

I have witnessed some incredible career zig-zags in my day (including my own), but few can compare to the non-traditional route of this month’s guest on “Unusual Attitudes,” Janet Gipson. 

[Watch the episode in its entirety or keep reading for the highlights]

She is the head of talent acquisition at one of the nation's oldest and most prestigious higher education organizations. Alums include the most famous of the most famous — Jodie Foster, Meryl Streep, Bill & Hillary Clinton, and the late President Bush.

The school is, to put it mildly, almost impossible to get into — as a student. As a potential employee, however, the odds are more favorable. Gipson and her team are committed to hiring faster and simpler, resulting in attracting highly talented and diverse employees.

Strategic sourcing is new for her employer, Gipson said. As talent markets shifted during the pandemic, candidates not only considered where they wanted to work, but how. Newer generations demanded more value alignment with their employers. Cultures, not a corner office, became the new primary motivators. 

Along the way, Gipson's TA team had to shift the way they approach conversations with prospective employees, leading with their value proposition and why it’s a great place to work. The university hires about 2,000 staff a year, but does not hire teaching faculty.

“The brand is something they live, that they speak, and that they sell to candidates all day,” Gipson said of her team. 

With a 300+ year history of research and challenging academics, the school would seem to be the pinnacle of Gipson’s career. In fact, it’s only the latest chapter in an already incredible story.

Working on a nuclear aircraft carrier

Gipson graduated in five-and-a-half years with two undergraduate degrees — one in math from Spelman and another in mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech.

This is when the zig-zag starts getting interesting.

She took a job at the massive Newport News Shipbuilding facility in Virginia as a valve engineer on a nuclear aircraft carrier. Her “office” is officially classified as a CVN 68 in the U.S. Navy. The USS Nimitz is the lead ship of the Navy’s Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. Gipson performed maintenance duties on the valve. Suffice to say she found it less than engaging.

“Not exciting at all, but important work nonetheless. It just wasn't for me.” A brief stint with the U.S. Army followed.

That was a hard but valuable lesson for her. Gipson was inspired to become an engineer by her mom, who spent four decades at NASA as an aerospace engineer. The book, “Hidden Figures,” (not the movie), takes place in Gipson’s hometown in Virginia. In fact, Gipson’s mother sang in the church choir with the book’s main character, Katherine Johnson.

But just because we may seem predestined to fill a certain role doesn’t necessarily mean we are cut out for it. Something unexpected may be waiting, as was the case with Gipson.

Unable to find a role with more human interaction and collaboration, Gipson enrolled in The College of William and Mary in Virginia to pursue an MBA. It was important that her first post-grad school job blended her technical background with a desire for interaction. After hiring a career coach, she landed a role as a sales engineer at Dish Network, the satellite TV provider.

‘They’ll never hire you’

Then things really started to come together for her. It was the first time Gipson was in charge of a team and the role was an amalgamation of everything she enjoyed — sales, account management, revenue, and people — all rolled into one job.

Fifteen years later, during which she ascended to VP of Sales and Marketing, Dish created a new role — VP of TA. She talked to someone in HR about the role and received a devastating reaction.

“They said ‘they'll never hire you because you have zero background in HR. Forget it,’” recalled Gipson. “That’s all I needed to hear,” she laughed.

‘I found my home’

If there’s one thing that gets Gipson going, it’s being told she can’t do something. So she applied for the HR job. “My pitch was I'm no slouch because I've got an engineering degree so I can learn almost anything you throw at me, even recruiting.”

She also enjoyed operations and solving problems, which would also come in handy. Ultimately, though, Gipson knew how to sell to clients, and TA was shifting to more of an acquisition model sales funnel. “I said ‘you're going to need skills like that. Who else better to sell the brand than someone who knows it and understands it?’” 

It worked. She got the job, and discovered the role she was meant to fill. “I found my home,” she said.

Gipson is an example of the power of risk-taking. Her career path reminds me of climbing a rock wall — shifting in different directions laterally, but always moving up. Leaders instinctively know how hard it gets the higher they climb. Calculated risk-taking is a muscle we should all build.

Step one is working through the fear. That’s another lesson Gipson imparts. Most of us don't think enough about how to work through our internal inhibitions and fears, which is too bad, because it will open the doors of opportunity.