Keri Harrington

I attribute my success to my willingness to never give up and always maintain a positive outlook, no matter how difficult a situation can be. Being in my 50s and getting laid off was a tremendous blow to my ego - you've been working really hard, being very successful, getting glowing reviews from your managers, and the next day you have no job. That was very hard to overcome, but I had to sit back and say, everything has a reason for happening. The biggest thing is always keeping it positive. When my manager told me I was being let go, I was like, okay, I get it, it's business, it's not personal, it was nothing to do with my job performance. By taking that positive outlook, it creates a better mojo in your system. Instead of crying about it, do something about it. They were willing to help me - if you need a recommendation, we're there, we'll do it. That positiveness has been a tremendous attribute. Always keep a positive outlook, no matter how difficult a situation would be. If you've got a yelling customer, you listen, you say I understand, and then you ask the questions - how can I help, how can I make this change, what can I do to make this better. As a matter of fact, my boss and I work together again now because he moved over to another company. Because of that positiveness that we took forward, him and I work together almost every other day, even though he works for another company. It's been really beneficial.

The best career advice I've received is knowing my value - understanding what you bring to the table, what your value is, and don't be afraid to ask a question. That's really the most important thing I can think of.

I would immediately tell them to learn everything you can and make yourself indispensable. The more information, the more knowledge that you can learn about this industry, the more powerful you become and more indispensable you become. If you're complacent and you sit in your job and think that's gonna do it, and you expect to just be credited and move up the food chain, it doesn't work that way. You have to constantly prove yourself, you have to ask for special assignments, you have to ask what can I do to make this better. You have to be creative, and you have to be willing to accept criticism and not take it to heart - understand that whatever that person's telling you, they're doing that to help you further along in your career. But it's all in the knowledge. And if you don't know how to do it, go figure it out. Go find it - don't wait until somebody tells you, oh, you need to go do this. You have to figure it out. I am an absolute pro at Excel programs, and that's because I'm self-taught. Everything I've learned in Excel, I sat in, I watched YouTube and did the research, and asked the questions.

I find just being a woman is one of the biggest challenges. My husband and I really started our careers almost at the exact same time, but he has been able to easily move up the food chain, so I think sometimes getting recognized as a woman is a little bit more difficult. I think we get challenged because we're mothers and there's certain things that we have to do. It's really about coming across in the right way, in the right manner, because you're just labeled as a woman sometimes. If you come off as aggressive, you might be labeled as not a nice word. So it's really hard to not get labeled, but also exceed and accelerate at your role without people taking the wrong note. They just have this perceived notion that women should be in a certain way, and if you don't fit in that box, it's harder to funnel through. My field is very, very male dominant - in the higher level positions, it's definitely male-dominant, though in the lower regions like the creative area, you'll find more women. In sales roles, I find that it's primarily men. My boss and VP love to use the word 'infectious' to describe me, but what they don't realize is the analytic part. I'm very fun, very outgoing, jovial, excellent at working with customers and building relationships, but sometimes when you have that type of personality, they don't realize what's behind the cover. You have to take a few pages in and realize that I can actually do severe analytic reports, look at data, do formula writing, write charters for new software programs, and actually lead.

Always be respectful and appreciate what somebody's telling you. Don't mix personal with business - you never bring in anything like political beliefs and don't let them influence your job or how you're working with somebody, because you never know if you're going to offend somebody. I take pride in what I do, and I do not judge. I do not look upon anybody differently - I don't care who you are or what religion you are. It is not in place in this business world. I don't cross the line - if you have an NDA disclosure, you stay within those NDA disclosures. You don't violate people's confidence. You express genuineness - if you're saying you're gonna do something, you're gonna do it, whether that's in your personal world or in the business world. You have to be reliable, and you have to be a person of your word.