Cross-functional teams and committees are where you learn how the business really works and build relationships across the organization.
๐๐๐ธ ๐๐ผ ๐ฏ๐ฒ ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ฎ ๐ฐ๐ฟ๐ผ๐๐-๐ณ๐๐ป๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป๐ฎ๐น ๐๐ฒ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ผ๐ฟ ๐ฐ๐ผ๐บ๐บ๐ถ๐๐๐ฒ๐ฒ.
This could be a diversity council, architecture review board, hiring committee, or any group that brings together people from different parts of the company.
๐ฌ๐ผ๐๐ฟ ๐ฎ๐๐ธ: "I'm interested in getting more involved in [specific area - diversity initiatives, technical architecture, hiring, etc.]. Are there any committees or cross-functional teams I could join? I'd love to contribute my perspective and learn more about how these decisions get made."
๐ง๐ต๐ฒ๐๐ฒ ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ฝ๐ผ๐ฟ๐๐๐ป๐ถ๐๐ถ๐ฒ๐ ๐ผ๐ณ๐ณ๐ฒ๐ฟ:
โข Visibility with senior leadership
โข Understanding of business operations
โข Networking across different functions
โข Experience with organizational decision-making
Choose committees that align with your interests and career goals. Be prepared to actually contribute - these roles come with real responsibility.
This is how you go from knowing your job to knowing the business.
๐ Liked this post? Follow me on LinkedIn or here on Substack for the remaining posts in this series and more!
โ Want to get even better at asking? I still have a limited number of seats left in the July 25 cohort of my course. Last cohort of this year! https://maven.com/chaitali-narla/outstanding-tech-career