Her Story
About Jasmine
My career journey began in education, where I spent years teaching before my husband and I moved overseas to teach internationally. That experience was incredibly enriching. When we returned to the United States to help care for my father during his illness, I knew I wanted to stay connected to education but needed flexibility to not be in a classroom all day. I searched for positions in education outside the traditional classroom setting, and that's when I discovered customer success roles in EdTech around 2021. The job description listed so many competencies that aligned with mine, and both the company and I felt it was a great fit. What I truly enjoy about EdTech is that it remains deeply connected to education and is extremely helpful to teachers and students. My role allows me to work in both the background and foreground, empowering districts who then empower teachers to use our products effectively. I get to learn about how products work, about technology and AI, while also being the human element of the technology schools use. I love building relationships, connecting with people, speaking, and teaching, and there are many teaching elements woven into my current work. I've been in customer success for about 4 to 5 years now, and I find the work meaningful and fulfilling.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Jasmine
01What do you attribute your success to?
For me, work has to be meaningful. I've been having this conversation a lot - we spend so many hours of our lives at work, and when your life is over, if you sit down and tally all those hours that you spent, will you be able to look back and feel like you spent them, wasted them, or invested them? I want to be able to look back and say no, I invested. I took what I had, and I planted a seed, and what I was doing was meaningful, and it grew into something. The work has got to be meaningful. It's got to be something that I feel like I can take my passions, which I have a lot of, my experiences and my skill sets, and put them into where I'm spending most of my time and watch and see what grows. For whatever is coming next, I'm excited. That is something I'm always looking for - how can I grow, how can I level up, and how can I get to that space of knowing that I did good work today and I felt fulfilled doing that work.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I hope this doesn't sound elementary, but EdTech means that you're sitting down a lot. It means that you are probably going to be sitting at a desk, and I am very much into fitness. I've been an athlete my entire life, and I have found that to be one of the most challenging things about EdTech - the lack of physicality involved. When you're a teacher, you can easily get in 10,000 to 15,000 steps a day. But when you're in EdTech and you switch over to this side of things, you have to be so intentional to move your body. And it doesn't take long for sitting extended periods of time to catch up with you physically. My advice would be, make sure that you have a physical regimen established. Make sure that you can move your body, take care of your body and take care of your eyes. Looking at computers all day is very hard on your eyes, and I think that that's something that maybe people don't really consider when they're considering a job or a career. But if this is what you choose, know that you have to find a way to move your body. Also know that things in this field change very fast, and they change fast. So you have to be flexible and adjustable. I went from being in the best shape of my life to being in the worst shape of my life in 3 years of EdTech, and recently I'm like, I have to do something about this. You don't realize how much sitting affects you.
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