Maria Davies, PMP

I've been super lucky to have two incredible mentors who made all the difference in my career. Tamara Lamro was the first. When I was about to be benched because they didn't have enough billable work for me, she came to me very emotionally and told me that by the end of the year, if they couldn't find work, they might not be able to keep me. But she was adamant that I go get my project management certification. She told me I was already doing it and that it would make me so marketable. Then she went to the CEO and championed for me to lead our biggest customer transition project ever, even though he wasn't sure about it. After I passed my PMP on the first try, I came into my office and found my certificate in a shadow box with star lights all around it that she had crafted, with balloons and everything. It still sits on my office to this day. My other mentor was Penelope Winchester Roberts, my boss at my last job. After I finished my first big project there, she came to me and asked why I didn't ask for more money or a bigger role when we were interviewing. She told me she needed to start working on getting me to senior PM, and within my first year, I got promoted to Senior Project Manager with a raise. Penelope just pushed me in ways I needed. There were times I doubted myself, and I remember one time crying with her, and her dragging me down to a bathroom after business hours and making me stand in front of a mirror and do positive affirmations with her. She's a dear friend and dear mentor, and I still go to her for professional advice. If it wasn't for her, the things I'm doing at my company now, building up a PMO, putting in governance, having that strategic seat at the leadership table, I wouldn't be here. I had a really hard call yesterday where I brought a lot of information and was very articulate and on top of my game, and I came out of that call going, Penelope would be so proud of me right now.

The best career advice I’ve received came from Tamara, who encouraged me to earn my PMP certification to enhance my marketability, and from Penelope, who urged me to recognize my value, advocate for myself, and step into more visible roles.

I would tell her that technology's hard. It's a hard one because not only does it move fast, but for women, for young women in this field, you are the minority. You are dealing with predominantly men most of the time, and there is a dynamic there that is different. There's going to be people who you're gonna feel extra challenged by in these roles. You're gonna feel that people are going to try to be fearful of you, they're going to feel threatened by you, and you just have to let your work speak for itself. You don't have to be the loudest person in the room, you don't have to be the smartest, but use your empathy, use the things that make us women. I think that's been the biggest thing that has been a hindrance. You'll hear all the time, women are too emotional. That's a good thing. They're emotional in a different way. Our emotions, and what we have, come with a kindness and a strength that's very resilient. We're going to outlast the people who are here because of ego. So use your emotions, use the things that make you you, to show your value. Don't be scared to show emotion. I'm a crier, and there's been times that I'm sitting there mad that I've cried in front of a man, or I've let my emotions come out very passionately. And there were times in my career that I would tell myself not to do that. And as I've reached this point in my career, I'm like, no, these are good things. This shows I care. This shows that I'm not here just for a paycheck. I truly value the people I work with. I truly value the outcome of the work, and I'm here to represent the company that I work for in the best way possible. This is all positive when we come with these types of emotions. So don't be scared. Don't be scared to show your emotions. Don't be scared to be you. And just let your work speak for itself.

The biggest challenges in my field are keeping pace with rapidly evolving technology and navigating gender and cultural dynamics that can sometimes mute underrepresented voices. Key opportunities include establishing PMOs and governance frameworks, driving process improvements, and creating pathways for underrepresented team members to assume more visible and influential roles.

Mentorship and advocacy are incredibly important to me, especially after experiencing how my mentors Penelope and Tamara advocated for me and helped advance my career. I've made it a priority to pay that forward. In my previous role, I worked with a team of predominantly female Indian software developers, and culturally, that was hard for them. They were in a mindset that they weren't supposed to speak up, that they weren't supposed to have a voice at the table. They were supposed to do their work and go according to their marching orders, and that was it. I would see them whisper to me to say something, or whisper to their boss to say something, and it got to a point where I'm like, no, you guys need to speak up. I need to have these voices. So it became one of those things where we'd coach and talk outside of those meetings. I'd tell them I'm gonna call on you, I'm gonna come to you, I'm gonna ask for your opinion, and I want you guys to give it. I don't want you to be scared to do so. You have so much knowledge, you have so much care for what we do, and it's important for you guys to have your voice. It was having lunch with them on a regular basis, talking to them on a personal level, talking about them in conversations with other people. It was a hard environment because they were in such a weird cultural place, and there were a lot of men who tried to debunk them and argue what they would say was the right path. So it was a lot of advocating for them. By the time I left, the confidence and the opportunities that they were being given were incredible. We had one young woman who was a quality analyst, and they were gonna try to outsource all quality analysts, but their leader was adamant about not losing her because she was more than quality, she knew everything inside and out. He managed to get her a position secured on the team as a junior developer with no development experience, and those girls really rallied around her with their leader, and they've turned her into a custom software developer with no education to do so, completely on the job. I don't know if they would have found their confidence if it hadn't been me and another woman on the team not letting them get in the shadows, not letting them sit back there and be forgotten.