Her Story
About Charme
Charme Stuart has spent seven years in the software industry, with the past four and a half years at Cisco in a business development role focused on reaching VPs and C-level executives about security and observability software solutions. Her career path began in manufacturing sales covering the gift and jewelry industries, which involved extensive trade shows and travel, before moving to San Francisco for a role in FinTech. She later transitioned into the competitive SaaS space, where she navigated a layoff by pivoting to a new position. Stuart credits her resilience and active listening skills, honed through door-to-door and B2B sales, along with her ability to teach herself through college experiences, for much of her professional growth. She is a recipient of the Cisco Achievers Award for FY26 after performing above 100 percent for the year and is involved in internal Cisco organizations. Outside of work, Stuart supports Musk Ministries, a local homeless shelter, and has volunteered with Habitat for Humanity. She values integrity and building trust in both her professional and personal life, emphasizing the importance of work-life balance to avoid burnout.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Charme
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to networking and building relationships. It's not all about what you can do to get where you want to go or networking just to take the next step. It's about helping people any way you can. I have people reaching out to me for help, even strangers on LinkedIn, and I've given them advice and tried to get them on with my company. Building relationships is one of the most important things you can do in your career.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best piece of advice I've ever received is understanding your whys. My manager in FinTech told me during the first week that to be successful, you need to identify your whys for why you're in this business. If you get into something blind, you'll have a hard time succeeding, so figure out what motivates you. Find out three whys about what motivates you to be in that field, dig into that, and you'll be successful. This applies to anything, like pursuing a different role or even selling to someone by figuring out their whys.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would say go for an entry level position with a company that has a really strong reputation. Don't try to go for the position that you dream of right away because you're not going to land your dream job immediately. Start out entry level if you don't have experience, put your head down, do your best, ask for help, network, have a positive attitude, always go for over 100%, and within a year you'll start progressing. Once in an entry-level position, book time with people a couple levels up in your organization to ask what made them successful, interview them a little bit, and let them know you'd like to apply for something as soon as it becomes available after you've been in seat long enough.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenge is that things are moving so quickly, especially with AI, with a new announcement every week and trust issues with AI. There's uncertainty about what it's going to do to our roles and jobs, and the fast pace is challenging. The biggest opportunity is in business development roles because you can get into the industry with no experience, like if you're a teacher wanting to change careers or a mom returning to the workforce. These companies will pay you to learn and get the training you need to pursue an incredible career, so entry-level roles are the best opportunity.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
In work life and home life, I think having integrity is key, like being somebody that builds trust. There are a lot of people that want to vent at work, and you have to help them vent but also be a good example to get back on track, so building trust and being able to listen to people. With home life, just trying to find a balance. You can't spend all your time working and logging on; you have to be able to turn off and take care of yourself at home because if you don't take care of yourself and your home life, you're going to be totally off balance and burn out.
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