Her Story
About Cara
Cara Bilderback serves as Director of MSP Client Engagement at TEKsystems, an IT services and staffing company. She manages executive-level relationships with managed service provider customers, collaborates with internal sales leadership on strategy, leads engagement managers providing recruiting and sales support, and travels approximately 50 percent of the year to client sites. Cara joined TEKsystems nearly 20 years ago in technical recruiting in the Columbus, Ohio market and progressed through roles in account management and outside sales supporting government customers, followed by a delivery manager position overseeing up to 50 recruiters across multiple Ohio markets. After relocating to Jacksonville, Florida, she returned to sales supporting logistics customers and was promoted into her current role, which she helped build from the ground up with a startup mentality. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Telecommunications from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, completed TEKsystems Emerging Leadership Program along with a Columbia Business School certification in Building and Leading Effective Teams, and holds a Skywarn Spotter Training Certificate. Her achievements include a national Deliver Excellence Award, a Star Award in the Columbus market, and acceptance into the Emerging Leadership Program. Cara is a member of the Jacksonville Information Technology Council.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Cara
01What do you attribute your success to?
I would definitely say it's the people that I'm surrounded by. I've been very blessed that people I work with have become not just mentors, but actually friends, people I can really lean on and rely on. So I think it's the people, again, I surround myself with at work, and then obviously my husband is very, very supportive of my career, and I know for a fact I wouldn't be where I am if it wasn't for his support.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Career advancement isn't always going to show up as a direct shot to the top. You have to be open to making some lateral moves to make yourself well-rounded and get into other people's shoes to be able to really lead across our organization. My path took me in a lot of different directions, and I think made me a much better leader because of it. Just not getting fixated on the ladder, but there's a lot of different ways that you can move up in an organization, and it may not be a direct line every time.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Be authentic. Be a sponge. Don't be afraid to be vulnerable in what you don't know. You have to have a very specific drive to be successful in the industry I'm in. It's sales, it's B2B sales, so there has to be an urgency and drive there, but I think where some women tend to stumble is it's still a very male-dominated industry. So I think it's important that keeping your authenticity, not losing yourself in that, is really gonna be the thing that sets you apart, and makes you successful.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Challenges? I think it's probably what a lot of organizations are feeling, just a lot of our customers are going through cost optimization exercises. Where they're cutting costs, which is impacting companies like ours that supply services and resources to these organizations. We're still kind of in this economic uncertainty. I think a lot of us thought it would bounce back faster than it did.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I'm big on trust. You know, transparency and trust are really important to me. Really just having a strong moral compass, do what's right, you know, treat people the way you want to be treated. Those are probably the biggest things.
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