Advocating For Yourself in the Workplace

MSNBC anchor Alicia Menendez and NBC News Senior Vice President of Global Digital News Catherine Kim discuss the challenges and opportunities of advocating for yourself in the workplace.

Alicia Menendez: Is there something you’ve done or a practice you’ve done that you wish you had begun earlier in your career?

Catherine Kim: Advocating for oneself. I do really feel like that was the one thing I wish someone would have told me 15 years ago or, you know, 20 years ago. It’s just so critical. People who are in positions like mine or yours, we’re juggling a million different things: family, caregiving, work email… all sorts of things. So don’t feel hurt or insulted or even like you’re being a burden when you’re badgering someone for advice or for a conversation or a meetup. You come to those, let’s get down to business. Tell me exactly what you know about yourself and don’t know about yourself, where you want to go, or how lukewarm you feel about this profession or whatever it might be. And that gives me exactly what I need to know to try to help you get to a better place. […] I think the biggest advice I would give is to advocate for yourself and seek out advice, seek out people who will be sponsors, who will be mentors. Seek out peers who are your support network who can help you out. There’s so much that we can learn from dialogue and from conversations, and we all know this, and yet sometimes it’s the one thing we don’t do to advance our careers.