Yolandra Hendrix, SA, POPM, PMI-ACP®, KMP, CSPO

I attribute my success to my mom, who was a single parent and worked really hard. Being the oldest, I always had responsibility, and in my adulthood I realized I inherited my mom's work ethic - her ability to navigate and do her best in everything. My mom always did her best with us, and I watched her make the best out of every situation. She was very innovative, would take free certificate courses, and was just trying to make the best of her life. I truly believe I inherited that mindset she was able to pass down to us - to just do your best in whatever you're doing and to take care of yourself and your family. I was a single parent early in my career too, and I wanted something good for us, so I was really focused on trying to navigate into a space that could be an actual career, not just work like my mom did.

The best advice I got professionally was to speak up - it's okay, my voice matters. I used to shrink myself, especially being a woman in tech. I would be the one whispering to the person next to me, trying to tell them what to say. But someone told me, hey, speak up, it's okay. You're smart, you know what you're talking about. I had to boost my outward confidence. I was letting my work speak for itself, but when I started getting pulled into the room and to the table, I would tell the people around me what to say. So the best advice was that my voice matters and to speak up when I'm in the room. And I started speaking up - I'm not shy about that now.

I would say list out your skills and identify your strong suits. See what's transferable, because technology is so broad. Find an area of interest within the tech space and look up those roles. We have AI tools now like Gemini and ChatGPT, so you can literally use those tools to research what skills or responsibilities are required for different roles - product manager, product owner, engineer, UX designer, cybersecurity. See if they interest you, look at what companies have these roles, and check if it's a company you want to work for. Realize what skills you have and how you can pivot - title and role are two different things. If you've had a different title but you see you've done the responsibilities, that's your experience. Then see if there's a path you want to go down and what it's going to take to get there. We have access to so many free training tools - Google, AWS, Udemy all have free training from a couple weeks to a few months. Dedicate yourself, plan to pass, and also network. Try to find technology networking groups focused in the space. Pick a few companies you're interested in based on where they're growing and what they're doing, and search daily for what they're posting. Apply on a continuous basis with them instead of doing blind applications.

The biggest challenge from a tech perspective is that AI is here, and if you're not an engineer - and even from an engineering perspective - it's how you can leverage the AI tools to your role and make it relevant. How do you enhance your efficiency and incorporate these tools? What's missing is understanding what skills are needed to even leverage the AI tools that companies are bringing in externally or building internally, and how to use those and apply them to your role. Even from an engineering perspective, if there's not an understanding of prompt engineering and knowing how to audit and execute using those tools, there's a gap. Without the fear of AI taking over roles - of course you're going to see some role reductions the more we leverage it - but I think the more you learn, the more you can show how it can work with you and how to improve your efficiency and how you deliver in your current role. I am seeing a gap and struggle in that.

Family is always going to be first. I value my sons - my oldest is 26 and my youngest is 14. I have learned to balance time, and I'm definitely at a point in my life where I don't mind the achievements, but I have my cutoff. There are going to be busy periods, but I want to spend time with my family. I love being with my family and gardening - I have my garden - and just my alone time and our travels. From a personal perspective, I value work-life balance at any company. I value collaboration and teamwork - I like to have the synergy of togetherness and working to meet whatever common goal we're trying to meet at the company. And then just a good leader, being under a good leader, is big to me. I have turned down roles and interviews where I can tell it's not going to work, and it's okay. I can recognize good leadership, so I do value that anywhere. I have left roles when they do reorgs sometimes because I came for a specific person.