Jen Lu said she excelled at becoming a LinkedIn director beyond expectations. Mr. Lu’s career began at Safeway, then went to community college, then to state university, which led to a job in technology. Her success stems from continuous learning, networking, and a positive work ethic.
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This told essay is based on a conversation I had with Jen Lu, 44, a San Francisco-based business operations director, about her career journey. Edited for length and clarity.
I almost dropped out of high school. After barely graduating, I took a year off and worked at Safeway. I spent over seven years there, but not satisfied with working 40 hours a week and making minimum wage, I took weekends to attend San Mateo City College.
I didn’t know what to major in, so I thought I’d start at a more cost-effective community college and then transfer to a state university after two years. I transferred to San Francisco State University to major in International Business and Management. Today, I am the Director of Business Operations at LinkedIn, without an MBA or Ivy League education.
What led me to success was going above and beyond, as opposed to what we now call a quiet quit. This mindset did not exist in my generation.
After graduating from university, I took any job that would hire me.
After graduating in 2004, I went straight to work. I didn’t know what I wanted to do and wanted to take any job. You don’t need to know everything at the beginning of your career.
My first job was any job that would hire me. I worked for Metareward, an email marketing company, for about 9 months. I don’t know if it’s a spam company, but they were sending out lots of emails to win free iPads.
In the early 2000s, I didn’t even know what the internet was, but I learned everything on the job.
My next job was at another email marketing company, Ziff Davis. A friend of mine worked there and encouraged me to apply for the marketing coordinator position. I didn’t understand it, but they liked me so much that they gave me the role of account coordinator. My resume only listed Metareward and Safeway as experience, but it was an advertising-based role, and I also had email marketing experience through Metareward.
I moved to New York for this job in my late twenties and worked there for almost three years.
Yahoo hired me with no technical knowledge, but I had severe impostor syndrome.
In 2008, while in New York, I was hired by Yahoo. I don’t know how they found me, but they hired me and I joined.
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I think they hired me because I specialized in advertising operations. I learned that skill when I was promoted to advertising operations manager at Ziff Davis. Yahoo was building a product that required my skillset.
I worked with publishers and consultants to help with advertising strategies. After about 5 years, I became a product manager. I knew enough about technology to be able to talk to engineers about machine algorithms, but for someone like me without an advanced education or technical background, that was difficult. That was a big deal.
At first, I wanted to work in product management because I knew more about technology than anyone else. I wanted to own something like a mini-CEO building a quality product.
After moving to product, I suffered from severe impostor syndrome and didn’t feel like I was good enough. I wasn’t comfortable because I didn’t have the same foundation as someone with years of experience building products.
I learned by doing
At Yahoo, we’ve become experts in systems and tools by working closely with our customers and learning how they use our technology. We tried to understand what value we bring to them and their business model. I’ve traveled to multiple countries and built a holistic view of all the different use cases out there. I was wondering how things work.
I wanted to continue learning more about the system and how to operate it. I wondered about processes to make the most of my time and ensure I was creating efficiency rather than overhead. I constantly reimagined how things could work better. If I don’t know, I’ll contact someone who does.
We also focused on building expertise from the ground up. They set an incredibly high bar to be a key driver of innovation, commitment and enthusiasm. We were able to move the needle and execute complex initiatives.
After about two years in product management, LinkedIn contacted me directly for a role in global ad operations. I quickly connected the dots and learned that the role reported to my former boss at Ziff Davis, so I contacted her as an introduction.
Even with my network, getting hired was still a tough process because LinkedIn has a consensus-based hiring culture.
After 6 years at Yahoo, I earned a high 6-figure salary
The energy on LinkedIn was inspiring. Working for a growth company was good because it focused on growth issues rather than worrying about not meeting margins. You now have more flexibility and creativity when it comes to growing revenue, building new products, and more.
Additionally, LinkedIn has a great culture that puts people first.
A big perk of having a steady six-figure income is that you own your own home in San Francisco and have extra income from extracurricular activities (vacations, cars, technology, etc.). Also, my husband can afford to be a full-time stay-at-home dad. He initially worked as an office worker, but transitioned into restaurant management before the pandemic, which then closed. Our daughter was born the same month he opened the restaurant while I was working full time. It was intense.
I’m always looking for opportunities to improve my current role
I’m doing my best. I will go beyond that. I always end up doing more than I need to.
There are also downsides to pushing yourself beyond your limits, such as taking on more work outside of your core responsibilities without recognition or reward. But I always say, “Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.”
You must be able to self-promote and manage upwards, demonstrate influence in the organization, find ways to create value, and gain followers.
If you’ve had an interesting career journey that landed you a six-figure job and want to share your story, email Manseen Logan at mlogan@businessinsider.com.
