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Saw a note I wrote about a puzzling interaction I had years ago, when I was still editing and in small facilities, pre-LA. Had coffee with some high end feature AEs and told them my many duties on a lower budget doc series. They were legitimately confused by my role.
“Why do you do everything yourself? Why don’t you have an assistant? Why don’t they just pay more to hire people? Why do you get paid so little?” They couldn’t understand the concept of the work outside features. Of small facilities, public broadcasting, etc.
Now that I’ve put my years in on high end features and TV, I know I was talking to some extraordinarily privileged people. It’s also why I encourage emerging talent to meet and talk to many different industry pros. And take everything they say with a big ol grain of 
Also saw another note where I was really down because an editor I met up with kept referring to me as a “non-Avid editor” in conversation cuz the facility cut in Premiere. Killed my confidence. Don’t do that, it’s unnecessary. (Also, only one of us is still in the industry so 
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This is the sort of industry gatekeeping that happens through micro aggressions. These people all kindly met me for coffee at my request. But their language and exclusionary thinking unintentionally made me feel like an outsider. And this isn’t even touching gender or race.
I’ve also had plenty more paper cuts as a white woman. Imaging being part of an even less represented group, like a black woman: many more needles, and the reward for surviving through it is less pay for the same jobs.
So I guess if my advice for up and confirm talent is to gather many opinions at arms length, my plea to established pros is to think before you speak. We all make mistakes and can acknowledge them, but a little intention goes a long way. 
