Carrie Schultze

I would say what impacted me most was having somebody, a mentor or trainer, a coach, somebody to guide me along the way, because my education had absolutely nothing to do with any of my careers. I think everybody should have to wait to go to college, because you don't know what you want to do when you're 17, 18. I've learned more from life than I ever did in school. I'm still learning, and that's the biggest thing. Right now, I'm becoming an AI generalist to help with my department move into using AI. I always want to learn, I don't ever want to stop learning. I think that would be the most impactful, is that I've always had great mentors, people who believed in me and helped me get to where I am now. I had a mentor a couple of years ago here at Cigna who, when it was right before the pandemic hit and everything was all up in the air, she said just remember, just keep your knowledge, keep learning. If you want to grow, then grow. It was that simple, where I was like, oh, you know, what am I gonna do? She gave me such great confidence, and I've had them throughout my entire journey. Having confidence in me helps me to see that, yeah, I don't have to have gone to school for computer or for coding or anything, and I can learn it. I think that keeping a sense of humor is important too, because when everything that should be going right blows up in your face, if you don't look at it with a sense of humor, it's an opportunity. Just to roll with it, I guess, is the big picture. I've had wonderful mentors who believed in me when I wasn't sure I should believe in myself, and that helps a lot.

I had a mentor a couple of years ago here at Cigna who, when it was right before the pandemic hit and everything was all up in the air, she said just remember, just keep your knowledge, keep learning. If you want to grow, then grow. It was that simple, where I was like, oh, you know, what am I gonna do? I'm gonna do this from home when there's all this uncertainty. She gave me such great confidence. Having people have confidence in me helps me to see that I don't have to have gone to school for computer or for coding or anything, and I can learn it. Another important piece of advice is to keep a sense of humor. When everything that should be going right blows up in your face, if you don't look at it with a sense of humor and see it as an opportunity, you'll struggle. Just roll with it, I guess, is the big picture.

I would say to just keep going with it. It's such a very rewarding position. Mine is very rewarding to know that we are helping people. The biggest thing is don't give up, don't ever quit learning. If you want to do it, do it. The only thing that's gonna stand in your way is you. I think women need to be empowered to move into fields that are normally male-dominated, because we can do them and a lot of times we can do them better. We're in usually male-dominated fields like technology, and women are coming up and taking over. We're more organized, we think things through, I mean, all the way through. It's great to see, and women need to be empowered to move into these fields because we don't have that male mindset.

Right now, it's open enrollment season, and we're still dealing with that. Really, the challenges that we're dealing with is just getting everything in and entered, getting everybody to work together from the client to sales, to the client, to their vendor, to work with our system. It's just trying to streamline everything and pulling everybody together. During this high-volume time, I'm responsible for making sure that documentation is entered correctly and that coverage is set up accurately. The real complexity lies in coordination, aligning multiple departments, clarifying roles, and streamlining communication so nothing falls through the cracks. It requires precision, persistence, and the confidence to speak up when something doesn't look right. Working in a technical environment, I value women's representation in these spaces because we bring collaboration, thorough analysis, and thoughtful problem-solving to the table.

The most important values to me are continuous learning and never giving up. I'm still learning, and that's the biggest thing. Right now, I'm becoming an AI generalist to help with my department move into using AI. I love to learn, I don't ever want to stop learning. Having mentors and people who believe in you is incredibly important. I've always had great mentors, people who believed in me and helped me get to where I am now. Having confidence in me helps me to see that I can learn and adapt, even without formal technical education. Keeping a sense of humor is also essential. When everything that should be going right blows up in your face, if you don't look at it with a sense of humor and see it as an opportunity, you'll struggle. Helping people through meaningful work is very rewarding. To know that we are helping people makes the work worthwhile. I also value the fact that I'm able to mentor other people who are coming up, and not all of them are young. It's important to foster people rather than push them out based on age.