Michelle McNeil

I was working at a company for the Department of Defense for about 9 years, helping to build ships for the Navy. I started with the U.S. Navy and then did a bunch of work with international navies. It was pretty hectic and exhausting with long days, so I eventually got burnt out from that. I decided to make a career change about 3 years ago and switched to an insurance company closer to home, looking for more work-life balance. Now I'm an account manager in charge of several regions of the United States, maintaining accounts, servicing clients, and setting up enrollment tools for disability insurance. It's a lot of juggling to make sure things are running smoothly on the back end. My expertise is in management - I've done people management, project management, program management, and now account management. One of my most notable achievements was when I worked for the Department of Defense and was able to deliver programs that had been very behind schedule and over budget. We were probably 4 or 5 million dollars over budget, but I was able to recoup back a million dollars based on losses of material that wasn't our fault. I investigated and found that the shipyard was damaging materials and trying to tell us they were damaged when they arrived, but through pictures and documentation, I proved the shipyard was mishandling them and got them to cover the cost.