Mary Pombares

I attribute my success to perseverance, because I've been through it all. I've been through low performance reviews, terminations, layoffs, and even people telling me I shouldn't be at the table or that I don't have executive presence. I've been in meetings where someone literally threw a chair at the beginning of my career because I was bold enough to say the software wasn't ready. I've been that woman with extreme imposter syndrome, shaking just to give my opinion, afraid to speak even though I had ideas. I've had peers say I'm not technical enough to be there. But throughout all of this, I continued to stay in the field and keep applying for jobs. No matter what anyone said, I continued to stay in the game. I didn't quit. I kept applying for VP positions and continuing to push forward. It's very important that we persevere no matter what, even if it hurts, because we need to continue to pave the way for the other women coming after us.

The best career advice I received was from a Black woman mentor early in my career who taught me to carry myself toward the position I wanted to be in. Since my parents weren't here to guide me, she helped me understand how to present myself professionally. I was young and very fashionable back then, and sometimes I would wear things that probably weren't appropriate for work. She guided me on how to carry myself professionally, which really shaped how I was seen in the corporate world. That advice about having executive presence at an earlier age helped me tremendously. Now when you see me, I'm always in suits and dressing very corporate, and I believe that professional presence has been important throughout my career.

Never give up. You have to persevere no matter what challenges you face. You're going to go to tables where people will say you're not enough to be there, that you don't have the technical skills, the executive presence, or the communication abilities. It's always going to be something. But you have to believe in yourself and continue. I've been through extreme imposter syndrome, performance issues, and people questioning why I was even hired, but I kept applying for jobs and staying in the game. It's very important that we don't quit, even if it hurts. We need to continue to pave the way for other women coming after us. I know women with great educations who had something challenging happen and completely quit the field to go into real estate or become stay-at-home moms. But we can't do that. We have to persevere and stay visible as examples for the next generation, especially since we represent less than 2% of minority executives in IT.

The biggest challenges in my field right now are the blame games, imposter syndrome, and working in a male-dominated industry. Quality engineering is an area that's needed but sometimes not given the support it requires because senior executives tend to invest more in developers, DevOps, and other areas rather than testing. We're responsible for quality across every domain - web testing, mobile, API, test data management, test environments - but if something goes wrong, they tend to look at the head of quality, even though quality is everyone's responsibility. There's a lot of weight and pressure to deliver across all these technical domains on tight deadlines that sometimes aren't realistic. As a minority woman in a field predominant for men, there's also the challenge of passive aggressiveness, especially toward women and women of color. The biggest opportunity right now is AI transformation - implementing AI-driven testing strategies and becoming experts in this emerging area that's changing our entire field.

Perseverance is my core value, but what truly matters to me is the human aspect of everything I do. I believe in loving God with all my heart and soul, and putting people first. I'm never going to do anything to harm anybody just to get promoted or advance my career. I won't give feedback that might negatively impact someone. I see a lot of people in corporate America who forget the human aspect of business - there's passive aggressiveness, especially toward women and women of color. No matter what technology we use or what AI we implement, it's really important to always try to take care of each other with respect and love. I value human interactions above all else. I never want to be the type of leader who forgets the people aspect, because without the people, we don't have the product. Everything is about making memories and spending amazing time with loved ones and friends - that's what life is about at the end of the day.