Laura Hanlon discusses her varied career route and the importance of retaining the bigger picture.
For many people the upwards career trajectory can be anything but linear. While some may have ideas of what they would like to be post-education, it can take years to firmly identify the areas in which you show skill, the subjects and projects that spark genuine joy and the career that will give you the lifestyle you have envisioned.
That was certainly the case for Laura Hanlon, a solution architect for edge manufacturing at Dell Technologies, who was always aware of an in-built drive, but didn’t have a clear cut plan for her future after the leaving cert. While sport was a significant part of her life, she played basketball and football at club level, physiotherapy and STEM subjects were also calling to her.
“I always found myself starting with my math and physics homework first,” Hanlon told SiliconRepublic.com. “Those subjects didn’t necessarily come easily to me, but I liked how structured they were. There was usually a right or wrong answer and I loved the challenge of figuring things out.”
When she discovered a sports and exercise engineering course in Galway, it was kismet, as her favourite subjects and passions, which sometimes felt at odds with one another, were essentially merged into one. This expertly blended a love for sports and a desire to operate on the problem-solving side of a STEM profession, she noted.
Initially, she didn’t fully understand engineering in its entirety and found some of the earlier modules to be challenging. But what made all the difference was the bank of established professionals in the engineering space who shared their experiences of the industry.
“Some were working in high-performance sport, others in business or research. One speaker I still remember was Ted Vickey, who was the former director of the White House Athletic Centre. Those sessions and the possibilities opened my eyes to the different directions a degree like that could take you in.
“It helped me see the bigger picture that even if I didn’t love every single module, this path could lead somewhere creative, applied and exciting.”
Building yourself up
That is why college was instrumental in enabling Hanlon to conceptualise this bigger picture, as her courses ranged from machine learning and network security to anatomy, physiology, digital signal processing and entrepreneurship. She even stated that the mix of skills and foundational knowledge in broad areas has, to this day, shaped how she thinks.
Because you often see similar issues crop up throughout completely different sectors, for example the problem of siloed data in the healthcare and manufacturing fields, when you have the ability to understand high-level concepts across multiple domains, you are well-equipped to address virtually any challenges that arise, she explained.
Post-college, this unique, multi-domain approach to a career inspired Hanlon and two of her friends to develop an activity tracker designed for children, that encouraged them to move around more in a way that made sense.
“Instead of focusing on steps or heart rate, we used a simple traffic light system to help kids understand their activity levels in a more intuitive way. That experience pushed me to think creatively and approach problems differently.”
It also made clear to her the importance of building a strong network around yourself, especially when you are starting a project from scratch, as you will need help as you are figuring things out.
“That mindset has really stayed with me. In my role now, I’m not afraid to reach out when I don’t know something,” she mused. “I’ve learned that collaboration is key, especially when you’re designing complex architectures or trying to solve a business challenge.”
Widen the frame
And as she learned more, both personally and professionally, beginning a career as a solution architect at Dell, it became all the more obvious that, to have real-world success and impact, she couldn’t lose sight of that bigger picture. And that means knowing your industry and the skills needed to thrive, like the back of your hand.
Though her area of focus is in edge computing, she also deals with enterprise edge products, data flow and troubleshooting, explaining that being the person who is able to diagnose issues, when systems are running slow or failing to sync, is absolutely crucial.
Right now she is focused on artificial intelligence (AI). Specifically, how it can be incorporated into a business and become aligned with an organisation’s ambitions. AI, like Hanlon’s career, has the potential to move far beyond set boundaries, especially now as it leaves behind the experimental phase and impacts so many different industries.
“What really excites me is thinking about what comes next in how we go from basic automation to more intelligent, adaptive systems. That shift is already underway and being a part of that learning curve feels exciting.”
It is that level of enthusiasm that can define a career in the STEM space, even before you fully identify the path you want your future career to take. And that is exemplified in an anecdote shared by Hanlon, describing a family trip to France.
She made her family drive two hours out of their way to see a bridge she had heard about. The Millau Viaduct, which is the tallest bridge in the world and renowned for its design. She was only 12 and didn’t yet know she had a love for engineering, just that this build, which was both elegant and statuesque, was awe-inspiring.
“Looking back now, I think the interest in engineering was always there, it just took me longer to realise, but that curiosity and love for how things work has always been part of me,” she said.
And therein lies the beauty of forging a career based on passion, gut-feeling and a will to understand what the next phase of innovation is going to bring. Whether you have skill in an area already, or that is yet to come, you can always embrace learning and become adept at whatever interests you. It’s in your hands, you just have to keep a hold of it.
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