When I first started a job outside of academia, I was excited more than anything else. I'd finally found *a job*! What I wasn't ready for, working in a large multi-national corporation then known as Facebook, was the intricate, often unwritten, world of office politics.

Looking back, I made some significant political mistakes. It honestly probably took me years to figure out how to navigate the political environment of a large company; first doing so in my work at Facebook, then at Google. I'm going to encapsulate some of my biggest mistakes so that you can avoid them yourself. 

Mistake #1: I didn't realize office politics existed. 

Coming from an academic background, "office politics" weren't on my radar. I genuinely thought that success came solely from high-quality work. This naiveté was my first and perhaps most significant mistake. 

The reality is, wherever there are humans interacting in a professional setting and limited resources available, there are politics at play. Ignoring them doesn't make them go away; it just leaves you on the outside.

Mistake #2: I thought quality work meant everything. 

My academic training ingrained in me the belief that the quantity and quality of my work would be the sole determinants of my success. Honestly, this wasn't even true in the academic world: merit getting you ahead? Right. But despite my failure in translating achievement (17 peer-reviewed papers during my PhD) into a tenure-track faculty position, I didn't learn the lesson. 

In the corporate world, your core work (aka "deliverables") represents only one piece of the puzzle towards your advancement. Your deliverables may in fact be one of the smallest pieces in that puzzle. Seemingly brilliant work can be overlooked or undermined if you haven't navigated the political currents of your workplace effectively. My focus was purely on the output, not on the process or the people involved in getting that output recognized and valued.

Mistake #3: I tried to play to "win" the game of office politics. 

Once I finally recognized that office politics were a thing, my competitive gamer instincts kicked in. I'd won many a board game. Surely I could "win" politics too. 

When I approached politics this way, treating it as a "win at all costs" exercise, it quickly backfired. Instead of building connections, I inadvertently created adversaries. At its core, office politics entails understanding complex relationships and influencing outcomes subtly over the long-term. Any approaches taken for a "short-term" win may come at a high cost over the long term. Once I recognized that politics came down to forming good relationships for the long-term and understanding others better in the process, I found them easier to navigate. 

Mistake #4: I failed to acknowledge the importance of work relationships. 

On that point about forming good working relationships: this was something else I completely overlooked entering corporate from academia. Much of the work in academia is "lone wolf" work, sometimes done with collaborators but rarely in as integrated a team as you'll find in a corporate environment. 

Everything done in a large company is done in teams. Everything. Good working relationships are foundational in ensuring that a team functions well. 

Once I recognized this, I invested time in building rapport with my colleagues, understanding their motivations, and offering opportunities for a win/win. To some of you, spending time on these activities may feel obvious. But for those of us not accustomed to navigating a team-based workplace, they take prioritization and investment to build skills in.  

Strong relationships are critical in navigating any professional environment, allowing for smoother collaboration, better communication, and a built-in support system when challenges arise.

Mistake #5: I failed to acknowledge existing power structures and "roles." 

I did not understand how much hierarchy would correlate with whose input mattered. You'd think I would have learned that, given how hierarchically most academic departments are run. But I always felt my ideas were welcome at a department seminar. 

As a woman in a non-engineering role at a big Tech company, my opinions and ideas were often *not* welcome. Early on, this was because I lacked context: I'd give opinions without insight into the topic at hand. After a PhD, it took practice remembering that I was a newbie in domain expertise unless the topic at hand were statistics or A/B testing (where in corporate, I was very much an "expert" despite being average at quantitative methods by academic benchmarks).  

Later on, though, my opinion had more context but wasn't welcomed because credibility isn't given to women, nor is it given to non-software engineers in these Tech companies. Speaking while holding one of those identities ("male" or "engineer") automatically carries more power. It took me many years to learn how to influence by convincing a senior male leader of something, then having *him* voice that perspective so that things would get done. 

For a long time, I failed to recognize the established power structures, the informal influencers, and the unspoken "expected" roles that people — especially women — were expected to play within the organization. This led to missteps where I might have inadvertently overstepped boundaries or challenged norms without understanding the underlying dynamics. Eventually I tired of these structures so I left the corporate workforce to run my own company. These same roles and expectations still exist in the broader market, but I don't feel them as acutely day-to-day. 

As long as you work in a workplace, find a way to work within these structures. You won't do yourself any favors by pretending they don't exist.

What I'd Do Differently Now

Having stumbled through these mistakes, I've developed a more nuanced understanding of navigating office politics in corporate. Here's what I would do differently if I were starting over in corporate:

• Recognize Politics Are Inevitable: Accept that office politics are an inherent part of any workplace with more than one person. It's not a flaw in the system; it's just how human organizations function. This recognition is the first step toward effective navigation.
• Design a Well-Researched Approach: Instead of dreading or fighting against the political environment, I would approach it as a researcher first and foremost: observing, listening, and asking questions to gather context. Who are the key players? What are their motivations? What are the unwritten rules? With that clearer picture in mind, it becomes possible to design a strategic and thoughtful approach, focused on building alliances and understanding different perspectives. Watching the show Survivor is a masterclass in how to master politics, in my humble opinion.

Navigating office politics comes down to understanding human behavior in a professional context and using that understanding to choose your own strategic approach. It's a skill: one that becomes easier with respect and practice.