Her Story
About Denise
I've been with my company for 32 years, starting as a civil engineer in engineering. Over the years, I moved to testing the software of the designs and became a quality assurance manager. I also worked as a marketing strategist in an innovation and data collecting team. My most current role is Senior Technical Support Manager with customer experience, which I've held for 5 years. I went from design engineer to software development team to more of an innovation team and then customer experience. In my day-to-day, I work with a couple teams of people who are supporting our customers. I'm learning more about the software as they're always changing it, making sure that the teams are up to date with the new features they need to support. I work with Salesforce quite a bit, sometimes creating automated macros or email templates so that my teams can focus on the hard part of their job and not have to form an email that's consistent. I'm also involved in coaching and mentoring team members, and I'm involved in the Women's Employee Resource Group at the company where I've done several presentations that I'm really proud of, including one on dealing with change management with different personal changes that was very impactful. I also help my teams go through changes in technology, like maybe a new platform, helping them work through those changes.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Denise
01What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would say that people lean in where they're supposed to in their role, but connecting with other men and women in the organization is important, and sometimes that is through maybe a less traditional path. Maybe it is volunteering with an employee resource group, or our company also has teams that go and serve the community, and things like that, and sometimes you can make connections that way, and that can help open up a door for just talking about opportunities, and then you can take a step forward. I think sometimes don't be afraid to maybe make a lateral change if it's gonna provide you with new skill sets that could help you in the future. I also think that if there are people that are willing to kind of sponsor you and highlight things, successes that you've had, that really helps, because it's hard to kind of sing your own praises. So it's nice if you can find someone that's a little bit different team or level that might highlight some of the accomplishments that you've made.
02What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Sometimes I think that in larger companies, it's hard to really differentiate yourself or have people know what's happening. I think that would be another piece of advice - if there are people that are willing to kind of sponsor you and highlight things, successes that you've had, that really helps, because it's hard to kind of sing your own praises. So it's nice if you can find someone that's a little bit different team or level that might highlight some of the accomplishments that you've made.
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