Her Story
About Solange
I've been working in human resources since 2023, so almost four years now. I minored in HR in school, and once I graduated, I decided to pursue my career in HR by starting at the entry level. I started out as an HR Coordinator at my previous company in the insurance industry and really worked my way up, working with so many different teams. I worked my way up to an HR Specialist, really a compliance specialist, but I was really an HR generalist. Now I work at a different company, a machinery manufacturing company that's been around since 1917. My focus is payroll, and I'm replacing our previous payroll supervisor who has been employed with the company for over 20 years and is retiring in June. I work closely with her in our Kentucky location while I'm here in Texas, just learning as much as I can from her. Aside from that, I've been tackling anything that I can help my boss with. My current boss is amazing - she's the best and has been with the company for 42 years. She's given me so much support. I love being able to play such an important role in employees' careers. I love payroll and the back-end work of it, and how important a role it is in every HR company. It's definitely more back-end as opposed to front-end, but nevertheless so important. I like playing such an important role and helping people, being that point of contact for people. I love how closely you're able to work with such important other roles and the exposure that it gives you.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Solange
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to professionalism with warmth and treating others with lots of respect. I care about being spoken to professionally and vice versa. I don't like chaos - I appreciate environments where people are kind and approachable. I'm huge on collaborating with others, but I'm still professional. I appreciate a good culture. I genuinely want to learn, improve, and be trusted with more responsibility. I care about growth and competence. I'm operations-minded, where I value people who follow through, communicate clearly, and do what they say, whether it's payroll, scheduling, recruiting, or other areas.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Just work hard. Do your work and let your work speak for itself. Everything else is just background noise. Don't focus on what matters - focus on what matters, and let your work speak for itself. Everything else, let it go. Remove the emotions from it, but rather focus on the facts of things and just focus on your work. You'll always encounter at every workplace that one person that kind of tries to sink you down, but you just have to keep pushing and just focus on your work. Set your mind to just not care so much about what others say or think, but rather care about becoming a better you and becoming a more professional person. Care about becoming better at what you do, and be eager to always learn more. Always be eager to ask how can I become better every day at what I do, how can I become a better HR employee. Just always strive for more, never settle.
03What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Respect is a big one for me - it's huge. Faith is also huge for me. I work for a company where my boss and others are very faith-driven, so I love that. I also value being honored for my hard work and being encouraged. Family is important to me as well.
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