Caroline Carruthers is an award-winning data expert and co-founder of global data consultancy Carruthers and Jackson.
She was the first female to take on the role of Chief Data Officer in the UK (for Network Rail).
She has authored several best-selling books on the role of data in organisations, including the renowned “Chief Data Officer’s Playbook” and the “Data Driven Business Transformation.” Caroline now consults public, private and charity sector organisations around the world on how to get the most out of their data. She’s also the creator of the Data Summer School for future leaders, with 2,500 graduates (and counting).
When people talk about building a career in technology, the conversation usually centres on what’s next.
The next promotion. The next qualification. The next piece of technology that everyone says you absolutely must understand before you’re left behind.
Those things all have their place, I don’t think any of them have been as valuable to me as learning how to pause and reflect with intent.
It certainly wasn’t something that came naturally. Earlier in my career, I was more focused on keeping momentum than taking stock because there was always another project to deliver and another problem to solve. Reflection always felt like something I’d get around to later (and often didn’t).
Those moments of reflection aren’t about dwelling on the past. For me, they’re about creating enough space to ask yourself some honest questions. What have I truly enjoyed? Which projects gave me energy? What would I do differently next time? And perhaps the most important question of all – what am I genuinely good at?
That last question is one I think we often overlook.
It’s incredibly easy to focus on the negatives. We replay the meeting that didn’t quite go the way we wanted, or the presentation we’d love another go at. Before long, reflection becomes self-criticism rather than self-awareness.
That’s why it’s useful to spend time understanding your strengths (or superpowers). Identifying the things people naturally come to you for is often a huge clue in telling you where you’ll make your biggest impact.
That mindset led to one of the biggest decisions I’ve made in recent years. At Carruthers and Jackson, I brought in a Managing Director to oversee the day-to-day running of the consultancy. Years ago, I’d probably have seen that as something I should be doing myself. Instead, taking an honest look at where I added the most value helped me realise that my strengths were elsewhere. I love working with people, developing ideas, helping organisations think differently about data and creating opportunities. By recognising that – and being honest about the areas where others could do a better job than me – we’ve been able to take the business to another level.
For me, that’s what reflection is about. It’s not just identifying where you need to improve. It’s understanding where you can have the greatest impact.
The same applies to learning.
One of the things I love most about working in technology is that you never really reach the point where you’ve “finished”. There is always something new to explore, whether that’s AI, evolving tech capabilities, or an entirely different way of thinking about a familiar problem. It’s a field that rewards curiosity.
That curiosity doesn’t mean jumping on every new trend because everyone else is talking about it. It means having an ‘every day is a school day’ mindset.
Continuous learning has become even more important as careers themselves have evolved. Research from Deloitte found that 83% of organisations are moving towards more flexible career models that encourage ongoing learning and development rather than expecting people to progress along rigid, predefined paths.
I think that’s reflected in my own career too.
If you’d asked me at the beginning whether I’d one day co-found a data consultancy, write books, or do even a fraction of the things I’ve done, I’d never have predicted it. My career has been anything but linear, and some of the best experiences arrived from places I simply couldn’t have anticipated (a weird and wonderful list including delivering a lecture on the Orient Express, and being bitten by a lion).
We often think our degree, apprenticeship, or first role defines our future, but in truth they’re just the starting point. Once you’re in a role, it’s perfectly OK for your interests to evolve. In fact, I’d encourage it. Pay attention to the parts of your role that make you lose track of time, the conversations you naturally gravitate towards, and the problems you enjoy solving. Those are usually much better indicators of where your future lies than the job title in your email signature.
Perhaps the biggest lesson from my career, though, has nothing to do with technology. It’s about people.
I’ve always made a point of catching up with peers, particularly people outside my own organisation. That’s not formal networking events necessarily (those absolutely have their place), but the conversations over coffee where someone truly understands the challenges you’re facing because they’ve faced them too. Those discussions can give you a completely different, and highly valuable, perspective.
It’s one of the reasons we created our Summer School for Data Leaders. We wanted to create an environment where those conversations could happen naturally, because finding your ‘people’ can make an enormous difference to how you grow, both professionally and personally.
That sense of community matters, particularly when we know there is still work to do to improve representation across our industry. Women still account for only around a quarter of the UK’s technology workforce and so finding mentors or supportive peer networks (like SheCanCode) is crucial.
So, don’t become so focused on your next step that you forget to make time to reflect. Stay curious. Invest in learning. Be open to opportunities that don’t necessarily fit the plan you originally had.
Trust me, looking back won’t slow your career down. It’s often what helps you move forwards with much greater purpose.
