Her Story
About Michelle
Michelle Hejl brings more than 35 years of experience to the IT industry, drawing from a family legacy in programming that dates back to the 1950s. She earned an associate's degree in IT from Southeast Community College, followed by a bachelor's degree magna cum laude from the College of St. Mary's. Throughout her career, Michelle specialized in EDI programming and e-commerce, with her most recent role at Jack Henry & Associates involving banking software support for thousands of banks, including installing fixes and providing customer service. Earlier, she served as T-Lead at Farmland, where she led her team in rewriting the hog production software system. Michelle credits her success to her solid education and the encouragement of her brother, who owns a software company in Omaha and provided ongoing support. She also values the career advice to work as equals with colleagues and stand firm against any attempts to be pushed aside.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Michelle
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to good education and good family support. My brother owns a software company in Omaha and whenever I'd get down, I'd call him and he'd say, buckle up, you can handle this, and you can do it. And he's right, I could. I just needed that little push every once in a while.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I ever received was to work like a man, play with them, be their equals, don't let them push you back. That does work and you get ahead. Once they know that you're not going to run to the manager and say he said this and I think it's inappropriate, it's like hey, you don't speak to me like that and usually that was the end of it. When you decide you are their equals they can't bully you into a corner at all. That is a mindset.
Join Influential Women and start making an impact. Register now.