Her Story
About Jennifer
I work in customer support in the telecommunications field, where I've been for nearly 8 years as of October. People call in asking for a wide variety of things - sometimes it's technical support where they need assistance finding a channel or their devices aren't working, such as streaming devices or cable boxes. Sometimes it's sales-related, where they're looking to add a specific channel and we have to look at packages, or they're calling about billing issues and want to lower their price. We also handle problems with outages and other issues. My whole focus is on assisting the customer and making sure they have the best experience possible. The role has really grown and evolved over the years. When I first started, we were specifically learning cable boxes, and people still had clocks going directly to the television. Now it's all digital, and cable boxes are being phased out with very few remaining. Everything is really leaning more towards streaming now, so I've had to gain experience with internet and how that affects cable services, because your internet has to work for streaming to work. Before telecommunications, I taught for 14 years in a wide variety of settings, from preschool all the way through middle school, with middle school being my favorite place to teach. I have a Bachelor of Arts degree, and my educational background has been very helpful because it's given me the experience to educate - you're constantly educating people over the phone, whether it's how to use their own television or their cable box. I'm currently going to school for a cybersecurity degree.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Jennifer
01What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The most important thing my mentors taught me was how to handle when people are upset, because sometimes there's things that are completely out of your control and you would love to help, but you can't do every single thing, and you've got to kind of learn how to let it go. I still keep in contact with two of my team leaders - one just retired recently, and Lonnie was my second team leader. They've taught me a lot about how to handle cable, internet and things like that, but mostly it's about how to handle difficult situations and let go of what you can't control.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would say it's a great industry. Just keep open to things - things are always going to be changing. That's the beautiful thing about it, is that you always... every day is going to be different, and you're always going to be moving and growing and changing with it. That's what I absolutely love about it, is because every single day, there's something brand new to learn, either about people that you're encountering, or about new technology that's coming in.
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