How to Design a Career Path that Leverages Your Life Experience: Lessons I Learned from Being ‘First’ in My Family

What aspect of your upbringing as the ‘first’ in your family has given you a competitive edge in your career?

Being born into a refugee family from Cambodia and growing up with limited resources, I found myself in a lot of ‘firsts’. The first to earn a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree. The first to have a job with an annual salary versus an hourly wage. The first to experience upward mobility in a professional career.

My upbringing prepared me to navigate the world in a different way. It taught me to use my setbacks and disadvantages as an asset. It taught me that I can leverage my life experience to design my own unique career path.
In this talk you will learn:
How to look at your early life experience as training for your professional career.
How to view failure and setbacks as personal growth.
The impact of growing up with a scarcity mindset and how to overcome it.
How to design and achieve a successful career without a references or roadmaps.

Leang Chung

Bridget Finkeldey

Leang Chung (she/her) is a Career First Coach & Founder of Pelora Stack. She helps people navigate their career first. Coaching first-time career changers, people managers, early-stage founders, and solopreneurs.

She is a member of the Forbes Coaches Council and has been featured in Elpha, Diversity Women Media, Tech Ladies, Hubspot, SHRM, and Forbes. She’s an active speaker and writer on topics related to career management, coaching, advancing womxn in the workplace, personal branding, and networking as an introvert.