FinTech Futures Jobs: If you want to become a leader, become a feedback magnet first
While you might think working hard, networking and being a team player are sure-fire ways to ascend the career ladder at pace, one area that often gets overlooked is learning to maximise workplace feedback – or more specifically, becoming a “feedback magnet”.
Click on the image to see all the vacancies on the Fintech Futures Jobs portal
Originally coined by Shivani Berry, a career coach and CEO of online leadership programme Ascend, being a “feedback magnet” means consistently seeking out observations, comments and critiques from your peers, instead of waiting for an annual performance review or avoiding any kind of feedback for fear of receiving criticism, constructive or otherwise.
Berry argues that by getting feedback in real time instead of waiting a prolonged period of time to receive it, you can tweak your behaviours and processes straight away and utilise this information in a positive way so you can constantly evolve, improve your performance and strategise your next move. Here’s how…
Change your mindset
Feedback isn’t a negative, and even bad feedback is good feedback, so changing your mindset and actively seeking out commentary and suggestions surrounding your work is the first step to becoming a feedback magnet. Even if you don’t like what you’re hearing at the time, leave your ego at the door and take everything that’s being said on board, but not to heart. Some of the feedback might not be relevant (or justified), but the insights you will glean make it all worth it.
Identify your blind spots
Even if you’ve given 100% to a project, there’s no way you can get a fully comprehensive picture of every single aspect, namely how your ideas or learnings will be perceived by your professional peers. Feedback allows you to identify areas that you need to improve and can be hugely beneficial in terms of developing your ability to be collaborative, an essential durable skill in any career.
Ask questions
Feedback isn’t linear, so don’t be afraid to follow up on any feedback you’ve received by asking questions, asking for more specificity and asking for suggestions on how you can improve. Ultimately, by reframing feedback as expert advice, you’ll be able to dig a little deeper into the information you’re being told and view feedback as an opportunity to open dialogue.
However, if you feel like you’re not getting the feedback you need to evolve professionally, it could be time to move to a company that allows you to navigate your career path in a more open and inclusive way. The Fintech Futures Job Board has hundreds of opportunities at companies that are currently hiring, like the three below.
Full-stack Software Development Engineer – Payer Experience, GoCardless, London
GoCardless is a global leader in account-to-account payments and its engineering team contributes to open source software projects and works across both its front and back-end stacks to help build and maintain tools and flows that ensure customers can easily complete their payment journeys. As a Full-stack Software Development Engineer – Payer Experience, you’ll need to be able to adapt to new technologies and processes quickly, thrive in a collaborative environment, enjoy solving problems and care about building reliable, well-tested systems. View more details about this role here.
Director, HRBP, Ripple, London
Ripple’s people team is growing and it now needs a senior-level HR business partner to act as the link between cross-functional teams across the business. The Director will partner closely with leaders across the business to align people and strategy. You will have an opportunity to drive significant business growth and make an immediate impact through your expertise in organisational design, talent management strategy and leadership coaching, all while acting as a steward of Ripple’s culture. This position can be based in London, San Francisco, New York, Toronto and Singapore. You can see the full job description here.
Integration Engineer, PayPal, London
The Integration Engineer is responsible for supporting PayPal’s enterprise merchant base, ensuring the merchant develops and launches a best-in-class solution to a reasonable timeline. In this role, you’ll interact directly with clients, merchants, partners and developers to recognise and articulate business requirements and how best to implement PayPal solutions adhering to guidelines and company policies. Applicants need a bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in finance or computer science and three years’ experience in web and mobile technologies including REST, HTML/HTTP, iOS, Android and leading web and mobile application frameworks. You’ll also need experience with multiple major programming languages (C++, Objective-C, C#, Java, JavaScript, Ruby, Perl, .NET, PHP, Python) and exceptional communication skills in English. See more about this opportunity here.
Accelerate your career in 2023 with the Fintech Futures Job Board.
