Anastasia Roehr

I attribute my success to people in my life that believed in me when I didn't believe in myself. I had mentors who took a chance on me and saw something in me that they could develop and help mentor. One of my mentors was a director - at one point we were like oil and water, we just did not mix, and he would joke that he wanted to fire me. But we became extremely close because he took a chance on me and saw something he could develop. He would tell me that I put the work in and did what I needed to do. I also had a senior manager who saw what I could do in like 10 minutes of organization and brought me into a project - that's how I got into technology. It's people taking a chance on me when I probably was too scared to take a chance on myself. I couldn't have gotten where I am without any of my mentors, people that supported me, that guided me, provided insights and advice, and helped me roadmap my career.

The best career advice I ever received was: don't ever apply harsh pressure at the beginning - you gotta learn how to manage people. You apply pressure as the situation plays out. If you go balls to the wall from the very beginning and you're gonna be loud, you're gonna be harsh, you're never gonna get anything accomplished. It's start off and you apply pressure as you see fit. You can continue with some people - it's the personality factor. Some people, I can say the expectation is X, Y, and Z and it's gonna get fulfilled. That next person could be, okay, I hear you, but now I gotta apply a little bit more pressure because you're still not getting that expectation. So how do I apply the additional pressure? But you have to manage people based upon their personalities and understanding them. That would probably be the best advice I'd ever get - just really to understand people.

I would say don't hold back. One of the best things I learned when I was in a project or program at Verizon was don't feel like you're inferior, because that's what we're normally programmed to feel like. And don't feel like you have to cover and check all the boxes, because that's what we're programmed to do. Have confidence in yourself, have confidence in what you know, what your knowledge base is, and then just go for it. If there's something that you're seeing that you want to achieve, go for it. You will achieve it. It won't be easy, but you will be able to do it.

The biggest challenge is having to manage the public school sector in terms of what you can and can't do, because everything is kind of locked down based upon what the board decides. It's not a negative thing, it's just it is what it is. But the successes and opportunities are the interactions with the students. I've had students come in with horrible attitudes, and I just basically had the conversation with them - look, I don't know who you talked to, who you interact with, that's not happening with me. But I also showed them that I'm here to help you, I'm not here to demean you, you don't have to have that chip on your shoulder when you come in. We're gonna be able to have a conversation, I'm gonna be honest with you. What blew my mind away is just at the end of the year, the kids that came in and gave me hugs to tell me goodbye, or they would knock on my window and wave and say hi. Those were the successes, because you actually had human interactions that paid off, and they broke through barriers of some kids that probably would not have normally done that.

Relationship would be number one, in personal and in professional. I truly don't believe that you're gonna have any type of success without building the right relationships, because nothing in life - as much as you want to think you're going to do stuff on your own - you're never doing anything that's 100% on your own. You're always gonna have somebody with you in those spaces. Then loyalty and honesty would come next. If you build the right relationship with honesty, and then you show loyalty, that's where it comes together. People want to do good, they want to help and be supportive to that person.