Her Story
About Phylicia
Phylicia Davidson serves as a project coordinator at Sound Transit in Seattle, Washington, a role she assumed in December 2023 following a six-month contract period. With a background spanning twenty years in the tech sector, she began her professional career at Microsoft in an administrative capacity supporting a general manager on early vehicle technology integration efforts, later transitioning to Amazon where she managed cloud contract negotiations within AWS. She gained startup experience at Upbound working with Kubernetes and cloud computing technologies before returning briefly to Amazon and then launching her own food truck business, which she operated for ten years drawing on her family's long-standing restaurant ownership. Davidson holds no formal degree after briefly attending community college, instead crediting skills developed through family business management and exposure to corporate environments. She is a member of Geek Girls and attributes her professional success to supportive managers who acted as mentors, while emphasizing values of fairness, inclusivity, and treating colleagues as equals in the workplace.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Phylicia
01What do you attribute your success to?
I would have to say good managers, because we've all had the really bad ones, I've definitely had those, but the really good ones are the ones that stuck with me. They gave me the most encouragement that I can do it. The good managers that you can sit and have those real good conversations with in your one-on-ones are the ones that are really gonna push you forward, that say your name in those rooms that you're not in. I've just been blessed to have some amazing managers that were more like mentors than managers.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
One of my favorite managers told me that one of my strong suits is that I'm able to take constructive feedback, and that will take me further than anything. Be open to that. It's really hard not to take it personal because it is your work, but if you can separate it, it makes it so much easier.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
If you're entering this world, and there's things within your position or role that you don't like, know that there's so many different types of roles, and that you can pivot. Always be willing to pivot, because you get into a role and it's not always what you expect, but there are always roles that are clearly just really adjacent or close to that role that you could just pivot into.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I think perception would be the biggest challenge. When traveling... perception of a person, that's the hardest thing to get past. You can walk in a room, me being a Black woman in the corporate world... the perception is, oh, that's the secretary. It's really important to know who you are and own that.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The values that are important to me is that really humans, right? Treating people like humans. It's really important to me in my work life and my personal life that people are just being treated fairly. Everyone feels like we're working together, that we're on a level playing field, that no one's punching down on someone else. The environment is an inclusive environment, a friendly environment, a working environment that everyone is heard.
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