
American Express + PowerToFly Invite You to an Exclusive Women in Tech Event
PowerToFly has been honored to partner with American Express on two - packed - women in tech events that created lasting connections for attendees - and resulted in hires. This time we're doing an event at American Express in New York City!
Since this is an exclusive, invite-only event, you'll also have the opportunity to network with top women in your field plus team members from American Express and PowerToFly. As a plus, we're offering complimentary headshots from a professional photographer at the start of the evening.
The event will take place on Wednesday, November 14th from 6pm to 8pm (check-in begins at 5:30pm) at 200 Vesey Street, New York, NY.
Agenda (Subject to Change):
- 5:30pm - Check-In & Networking over light food + Complimentary Headshots
- 6:20pm - Kick-Off from PowerToFly
- 6:25pm - Keynote Address with Katrina Roberts, SVP and Unit CIO, Global Commercial Services Technology at American Express
- 6:35pm - Product Demo
- 6:45pm - Panel Discussion featuring from American Express
- Katrina Roberts, SVP and Unit CIO, Global Commercial Services Technology
- John Ahn, Vice President, App Experience Engineering, Tech Strategy and New Initiatives
- Urvashi Tyagi, Vice President of Technology
- Divyangi Anchan, VP, IT Risk and Information Security
- 7:00pm - Audience Q&A
- 7:20pm - Networking over light food
Although this is a networking event (you don't have to be looking for a job to attend), American Express is hiring. Their amazing benefits include up to twenty-six weeks of paid parental leave, flexible work arrangements, healthy living wellness programs, tuition assistance and great medical coverage. Learn more about American Express and their open roles by going to their page on PowerToFly and clicking "follow".
About our Events: All RSVP'd attendees are welcome, regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, gender identity, pregnancy, physical or mental disability, or age. If you require accommodation to fully participate in this event, please email hi@powertofly.com, and we will contact you to discuss your specific needs.
Unfortunately, PowerToFly and the company it is holding an event on behalf of cannot admit outside recruiters to that particular event. Please email hi@powertofly.com if you have any questions about this policy.
Best Work-From-Home Companies 2022
Every year, PowerToFly creates a list of the best work-from-home companies. Now that over half of the U.S. workforce is remote, compiling that list was a bit more challenging.
This year, we prioritized selecting companies that are remote-friendly—meaning they have both remote and in-person roles—but they have made long-term commitments to hiring and supporting employees who choose to work from home; and we think they have the perks, values, and organizational framework to allow all employees to flourish in their careers, regardless of location.
Keep reading to see our top 15 work-from-home companies for 2022, along with a description of what they do, why we like them, and who they’re looking for.
PowerToFly's Best Work-From-Home Companies 2022:
Bumble—Create a world where all relationships are healthy and equitable
What they do:
Bumble is the parent company that operates Badoo and Bumble, two of the world’s largest dating and connection apps with millions of users globally.
Why we like them:
“We’re a diverse and international bunch, with over 600 employees working across four key offices in Austin, London, Moscow and Barcelona. We also have employees working in other parts of the world too, including Germany, Australia, Mexico and India.”
They believe the best way to create a more equitable and healthy world is by starting within. Uber offers a highly competitive benefits package with benefits that are designed to support you in your health and wellbeing, financial wellbeing, happiness, community, and learning and development.
Who they’re looking for:
Product Designers, Developers, Partnership Directors, and more!
Audible—Listen more
What they do:
Audible is an online audiobook and podcast service that allows users to purchase and stream audiobooks and other forms of spoken word content.
Why we like them:
“Audible's People Principles celebrate who we are and where we've been, and guide the way we work shoulder to shoulder to enhance the lives of our millions of customers.” This company offers exciting benefits include wellness reimbursement, fertility coverage, and childcare benefits.
Some of their other benefits include:
- Health: Dental and vision plans, life insurance, and the medical plan options that suit individual needs.
- Savings: Plan for your future with employer-matched savings accounts.
- Stock: We grant our employees Amazon restricted stock units, because we want them to think and act like owners.
- Time off: We love what we do but everyone needs the opportunity to hit the refresh button. Take advantage of vacation days, sick days, and personal days to rejuvenate.
- Social: From tickets to local events and exciting company-sponsored events, regular outings and team-building events foster our spirit of collaboration.
- Amazon discount: As part of the Amazon family, Audible employees are entitled to a discount on products on Amazon.
- Fitness: Discounted sports clubs or fitness reimbursements.
Who they’re looking for:
Software Engineers, Director of People Analytics, Strategic Advisors, and more!
ServiceNow—Making the world of work, work better for people
What they do:
ServiceNow is a cloud computing platform that delivers digital workflows that create great experiences and unlock productivity.
Why we like them:
“We strive for a fair system of opportunity and treatment for all. Competitive health, wellness benefits, zero-tolerance for any kind of discrimination, and protection from social stigmas such as mental health are core to our values and beliefs.”
Who they’re looking for:
Accounting Managers, Sales Representatives, Product Managers, and more!
OfferUp—Buy. Sell. Simple.
What they do:
OfferUp the largest mobile marketplace for local buyers and sellers in the U.S., that offers iOS and Android apps that make selling an item as easy as snapping a picture from your mobile device.
Why we like them:
“We’re a diverse team with diverse passions and skills, but we’re united by a shared commitment to helping people accomplish their goals through the power of peer-to-peer commerce.
Our company culture makes us unique. At the best companies in the world, work and life aren’t just balanced, they’re blended. Team outings, virtual celebrations and lunch-n-learns, informal gatherings, and family events keep our neighborly culture strong. We’re a diverse team with diverse passions and skills, but we’re united by a shared commitment to helping people accomplish their goals through the power of peer-to-peer commerce.”
Who they’re looking for:
Chief Technology Officer, Content Writers, Business Operations Analyst, and more!
Work & Co—Digital product design and development
What they do:
Work & Co is a digital product agency that defines and launches digital experiences people love using every day.
Why we like them:
Some of their benefits include:
- Zero Timesheets or expense reports
- 18 weeks paid parental leave
- 100% health, dental, vision coverage (they also pay your entire monthly premium and cover 70% for spouses, partners, and dependents)
- Nonelective 3% match (they contribute to every person’s retirement account regardless of their own contribution)
Who they’re looking for:
Designers, Technology Directors, Marketing and Communication Leads, and more!
Relativity—Organize data, discover the truth, and act on it
What they do:
“We create intuitive software that helps law firms, government agencies, financial institutions and other major corporations quickly find the truth in data.”
Why we like them:
Relativity's software helps users organize data and quickly identify key issues during litigation, internal investigations, and compliance projects. They offer their employees great benefits like:
- Competitive healthcare, dental, vision, life insurance, and disability plans
- Hybrid work model: In-office once we re-open, fully remote, or a mixture of both
- Unlimited Time off
- 401k matching
- 12 weeks of 100% paid leave for the primary caregiver and 6 weeks of 100% paid leave for the secondary caregiver
- 2 week-long company breaks in the winter and summer
- Wellness perks such as virtual yoga classes, financial wellness sessions, access to meditation apps, etc.
Who they’re looking for:
Software Engineers, Marketing Managers, Customer Success Managers, and more!
GoTo—We live the work-from-anywhere life, too
What they do:
GoTo provides the most-comprehensive, secure, and flexible suite of products to help businesses embrace remote work, learning and customer engagement.
Why we like them:
“For bold and creative individuals, LogMeIn provides limitless growth opportunities. We hire extraordinary talent who continually seek opportunities to tackle challenges. We pride ourselves on an inclusive culture and collaborative spirit. Speaking up and listening to others is not just encouraged here, but expected.
We thrive together and champion each other’s successes, providing our employees with rich experiences to help them develop resiliency and skills; positioning them to grow into future roles either inside or outside GoTo.”
Who they’re looking for:
Technical Writers, Global Markets, Compliance Leads, and more!
Autodesk—We make software for people who make things
What they do:
Autodesk is a global leader in design and technology.
Why we like them:
“At Autodesk, we believe flexibility in where and how work gets done will better enable our people to thrive and realize their potential. While most roles may be required to be in the office, we also have roles that are home-based, and hybrid. From implementing virtual learning platforms to promote personal/professional development, to virtual marathons, DIY craft kits, scavenger hunts to virtual wine tasting and everything in between – we’re doing our best to champion for a workplace culture that spanning boundaries and borders. That’s #Autodesklife.”
Who they’re looking for:
Engineers, UX Designers, Business Analysts, and more!
Veracode—Keeping your business confidently secure
What they do:
Veracode delivers the application security solutions and services today’s software-driven world requires.
Why we like them:
“Veracoders are dedicated to creating a world where the software fueling our economic growth and solving some of society's greatest challenges is developed secure from the start.”
Here are some great reasons to join Veracode:
- PEOPLE & TEAM: Veracoders help their peers grow, achieve, and see the best in themselves.
- CHALLENGING & INTERESTING WORK: Veracoders are passionate about solving one of the most important challenges facing our digital world, securing the software changing our world.
- INDUSTRY-LEADING TECHNOLOGIES: We are the pioneer in the AppSec market and a continued leader in secure development innovations
Who they’re looking for:
Sales Leads, Talent Acquisition Partners, Product Managers, and more!
Unstoppable Domains—Building decentralized digital identities for the world
What they do:
Unstoppable Domains brings user-controlled identity to 3 billion+ internet users by issuing domain names on the blockchain.
Why we like them:
“Unstoppable Domains’ remote, international team is made up of a wide range of diverse experiences, languages, cultures, nationalities and backgrounds. We are proud to be an inclusive employer with team members in over 18 countries.”
They’ve also offer benefits:
- Equity in the company
- Annual work from home stipend
- Crypto education program
- Full medical, dental and vision coverage
Who they’re looking for:
Art Directors, Community Managers, Growth Marketers, and more!
Helm—A team of scientists, designers, engineers, and campaigners
What they do:
Helm is building a data and technology platform for organizers and issue advocates.
Why we like them:
“We are assembling a team who understands, shares values with, learns alongside, and stands with the people who are doing the work to change the nation. We are seeking team members who want to see a more equitable future in their lifetime, and who have the passion and skills to help us get there.”
They’ve also got incredible benefits like:
- Comprehensive health plans
- Unlimited PTO
- Paid parental leave
- Paid volunteer time
- 401K
- Stipend to enhance your home office
Who they’re looking for:
DevOps Engineers, Account Managers, Customer Support Analysts, and more!
Lattice—Making work meaningful
What they do:
Lattice is the people management platform that empowers people leaders to build engaged, high-performing teams that love coming to work.
Why we like them:
“We’re growing extremely quickly, hitting all of our financial targets for the last 2 years. We also have a negative net retention rate, meaning customers are staying and growing with us.”
They’ve also got incredible benefits like:
- 401(k) package
- Maternity & Paternity leave
- Medical / Dental / Vision insurance
- Flexible equity terms
- Commuter benefits
- Learning & Development reimbursement
- Flexible time off
Who they’re looking for:
UX Writers, Account Executives, Program Managers, and more!
MongoDB—Build faster. Build smarter.
What they do:
MongoDB transforms industries and empowers developers to build amazing apps that people use every day.
Why we like them:
At MongoDB, you can grow your career in the direction that you want it to, gain new skills, experiences, and relationships that will stay with you forever.
Some of their stand-out benefits include:
- Mental health counseling and resources, and complimentary Headspace (meditation app) access
- Rich health insurance coverage, including Transgender-inclusive coverage
- Fertility and adoption financial assistance
- 20 weeks of fully paid gender-neutral parental leave, parental counseling for new parents, and flexible work arrangements
- 4 weeks of emergency care leave
- Global and internal mobility opportunities
- Equity and Employee Stock Purchase Program
Who they’re looking for:
Sales and Technical Recruiters, Product Designers, Engineers, and more!
Uber—Move the way you want
What they do:
Uber is a mobility service provider that constantly reimagines how we can move better.
Why we like them:
“We welcome people from all backgrounds who seek the opportunity to help build a future where everyone and everything can move independently. We publicly support policies that drive diversity and inclusion in the countries where we operate so that people everywhere have the right to live, work, and be their authentic selves.”
They’ve also got incredible benefits like:
- Unlimited PTO policy
- Maternity and parental leave
- Monthly Uber credits
- Medical, dental and vision coverage
Who they’re looking for:
Marketing Leads, Account Representatives, Operations Specialists, and more!
Guru—Organize company information and access it anywhere
What they do:
Guru reinvents the way people connect with meaningful information at work by providing customer-facing teams access to expert-verified information where they work and when they need it most.
Why we like them:
“At Guru, our core values bind us together, influence how we work.”
They’ve got incredible benefits like:
- Competitive salary
- Employee Stock Option Plan
- Generous health and commuter benefits
- Dog Friendly Office
- 401k Program
- The chance to contribute to an upbeat, fully engaged culture
Who they’re looking for:
Marketing Leads, Sales Development Representatives, Web Designers, and more!
Don't see what you're looking for? Check out a fill list of 5,000+ open remote roles here!
Top Tips For Breaking Into A Tech Career
💎 Breaking into a tech career may seem overwhelming when you come from a non-technical field of work, but don’t worry! Watch the video to the end to learn how to set yourself up for success.
📼 Play this video to get three top tips for breaking into a tech career! You'll hear from Allie French, Senior Software Engineer at SeatGeek, whose experience will help you reach your dream job in coding for a living.
📼 Breaking Into Tech Career Tip #1: Stay In The Present. Try to stay in the present and keep your focus only on the next couple of steps in your journey. Give yourself the space to learn a particular skill without worrying about how to position it on a resume or show it off in an interview. Focusing on one thing at a time will allow you better visibility into whether you're succeeding at learning it or need to seek additional support. Having the attitude of ‘Let me just see if I can learn this next thing’, and doing that repeatedly, will get you far. That's how Allie got to where she is today!
📼 Breaking Into Tech Career Tip #2: Bring In Your Non-Technical Skills. Working on a project that’s relevant to your interests is a great way to showcase your work and show your potential employer who you are as a person. And the more enthusiasm you have for your work, the more impactful you'll be as a job candidate. One of Allie’s projects during bootcamp was creating a website that she could use to visualize quilt designs. It was great to showcase her hobbies while also learning about making web applications during the interview process. Some skills that you’ve developed during previous jobs are also valuable to your engineering career, and should be highlighted during interviews. For example, in Allie’s advertising career, she had a client-facing role. Those skills ended up being relevant to the work that she does today with business stakeholders and engineers on other teams at SeatGeek. Consider what organizational or problem-solving skills you've built in your work. All jobs can be considered relevant in some way!
Breaking Into Tech Career - Tip #3: Never Stop Learning
Whether you're a student or a staff engineer, there is no end to the learning process. If you're ready to interview for coding jobs, you've built many skills and you're ready to show them off. Be proud of all the work that you've put in to get there and get ready for an exciting career of more learning! Success in this job requires curiosity and a willingness to adapt to new tech and design patterns.
📨 Are you interested in joining SeatGeek? They have open positions! To learn more, click here.
Get to Know Allie French
Allie is a long-time New Yorker, originally from the Chicago burbs. An engineer with a passion for making things -- when it's not code, it's knitted items, quilts, and dinner for friends. If you are interested in a career at SeatGeek, you can connect with Allie French on LinkedIn. Don’t forget to mention this video!
More About SeatGeek
SeatGeek is the #1 rated ticket marketplace for live events. They are also a global primary ticketing system and their customers include major sports teams and venues such as the Brooklyn Nets, Dallas Cowboys, Manchester City Football, and Jujamcyn Theatres (Book of Mormon, Hadestown, Springsteen on Broadway).
Careers in Web Development: Which One's For You?
We all have our favorite websites– the ones we frequent, bookmark, and recommend to others. You might even enjoy some website features so much that you’ve found yourself wondering why they aren’t more popular. Or maybe you’ve experienced times where you were frustrated with a website and wished you could add features or even design your own!
If you’ve ever found yourself intrigued at the prospect of designing and developing your own websites, then a career as a web developer might be just for you!
As a web developer you would be responsible for coding, designing, optimizing, and maintaining websites. Today, there are over 1.7 billion websites in the world and, in turn, the demand for web developers is on the rise. In order to figure out what kind of web development work best suits you let’s start with an introduction to the three main roles in web development that you can choose from.
The Three Types of Web Development Jobs
Front-End Web Development: The Creative Side
Think of front-end development as the décor of a house. The color scheme, furniture, manicured lawns, and overall aesthetic. In terms of a website, front-end development is laser-focused on the appearance of a website and its presentation on different devices. If you’re considering a role in front-end development, it’s important to learn programming languages such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. These three languages go hand-in-hand. HTML allows you to create user interface elements, CSS helps you with stylistic elements, and JavaScript allows you to incorporate online tools and connect your website to back-end functions.
In addition to programming skills, front-end developers need to be detail oriented, creative, willing to keep up with the latest trends in web development, cyber security conscious, and geared toward user-friendly designs. The median salary for a front-end developer can reach well into the $90,000 to $100,000 range.
Back-End Web Development: The Logical Counterpart
While a house can be beautifully decorated, it’s incomplete without a solid foundation and efficient infrastructure. Similarly, a well-designed website depends on logical and functional code to power the features of that website. Back-end web development is code-heavy and focused on the specifics of how a website works. If you enjoy the analytical challenge of creating the behind-the-scenes code that powers a website, then back-end development is for you.
Since this role is more code-heavy, it’s important that you learn numerous programming languages and understand algorithms and data structures. Some languages that are essential to back-end development are Ruby, Python, SQL, and JavaScript. Back-end developers also ensure that users can successfully retrieve and access data. This requires creating and using APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) which act as messengers that relay data related requests. Additionally, developing the code for the inner workings of a website also requires back-end developers to be conscious of the user interface features designed by front-end developers and to internally mitigate potential security risks. Due to the increased technical aspect of this position, back-end developers normally earn higher salaries than front-end developers. The average median salary for this role is around $118,000 per year.
Full-Stack Web Development: A Little Bit of Everything
A full-stack developer is essentially the Jack (or Jill)-of-all-trades in web development. Full-stack developers need to be knowledgeable about both front-end and back-end roles. This does not necessarily imply that you would need to be an expert in both roles, but you should fully understand the different applications and synergies they each imply. In order to work in this position, you will need to know the programming languages used by front-end and back-end developers. In addition to these languages, full-stack developers also specialize in databases, storage, HTTP, REST, and web architecture.
Full-stack developers are often required to act as liaisons between front-end and back-end developers. Full-stack developers need to be both problem solvers and great communicators. The end goal for a full-stack developer is to ensure that the user’s experience is seamless, both on the front-end and on the back-end. In return, you can expect to earn a median salary of $100,000 – $115,000 a year for this role.
Taking the Next Step
Web development is both in-demand and lucrative! All three roles described above contribute to specific aspects of web development and the scope of each one can be customized to the industries and positions you feel best suit you. Regardless of which role you choose, all of them need a foundation in programming.
To gain the programming skills needed in each role, you can enroll in courses or learn independently. Coding bootcamps are a great way to boost your skillset quickly and efficiently.
Click here for some of our highly rated programming bootcamp options! Make sure to check out the discounts available to PowerToFly members.
From Vietnam to MBA to Autodesk: 3 Ways Loi Nguyen Makes An Impact as She Builds Her Career
Loi Nguyen sees the value in keeping a learning and open mind .
It was a key part of what drove her to explore acrylic painting and hiking during the pandemic….
And it was also something that she took away from her MBA, which she moved to the United States from Vietnam to pursue.
“There are some key mindset changes I made during my program,” says Loi, “and it’s that learning mindset that helped when I applied to Autodesk.”
Now working as a Sales Strategist at the design software company, Loi has plenty of opportunities to continue to grow her abilities and learn to solve problems in different ways.
“It’s an internal consulting job, so you have chances to work on high-profile projects with cross-functional teams,” she says. “It’s part analytics — we analyze a problem to create the strategy. It’s part project management, which I really like doing.”
We sat down with Loi to hear more about her path to Autodesk and how she prioritizes opportunities to make an impact.
From Vietnam to MBA to Autodesk
Loi has always been passionate about sustainability and innovation.
Growing up in a small agricultural village in the North of Vietnam, Loi has a genuine love for nature and cares deeply about environmental sustainability. So her first professional job was in sales at a water treatment company (which just so happened to be Loi’s first exposure to AutoCAD software).
Looking for a more innovative environment, she joined a startup incubator (also a startup itself) as a project manager. That experience made Loi realize she could have a much bigger impact on the startups if she had a stronger understanding of the market, so she took a job at Nielsen, a market research firm, leveraging her strength in math and analytics.
After strengthening her analytical skills and broadening her market knowledge at Nielsen, Loi decided to pursue an MBA to explore different career paths that would align with her skills. (The U.S. ended up becoming her destination of choice because her partner — and now husband — got into a PhD program in California.)
In the first year at UC Irvine, Loi explored Marketing, Finance, and more through networking, courses, competitions, and a summer internship. It was her second year that Loi found special interest in consulting. In one of her courses, she served as the lead on a real consulting project with a very large healthcare company.
“It was a great experience. I learned how to work with high-level stakeholders and was taught how to professionally lead a consulting project,” she says.
But that wasn’t the only hands-on consulting experience she got: “I also volunteered at a non-profit sustainability consultancy, which was an opportunity to leverage my analytical skills and project management skills towards something I’m passionate about.”
These experiences left her feeling like she was making a real impact, and she knew she wanted to continue that after graduation, so she started looking for opportunities in consulting and business analytics.
It was a fellow Vietnamese MBA student, who had interned at Autodesk the previous summer, encouraged Loi to look at Autodesk’s Sales Strategy position. Even though sales strategy hadn’t been on Loi’s radar, it ended up being a perfect fit for her past experiences and future goals.
“I was already familiar with the company, and when I read the job description I was immediately interested. I saw how I’d be able to make a social impact here with my sales, analytics, and project management experience.”
3 Ways to Think About Impact at Work
Loi wasn’t just excited to join Autodesk because it was an opportunity to put her analytical skills to work — it was also a chance to work on products that line up with the impact she wants to make on the world.
“Autodesk can make the world a more sustainable place with the design tools we provide to architects, and other people across industries,” she says. “I care about sustainability. Our products can help achieve sustainability goals around carbon footprints for buildings and infrastructure.”
From a micro scale to a macro scale, Loi has a few tips on how to think about expanding your own impact at work:
- Know your strengths and weaknesses. “The organizational behavior class in my MBA required me to directly ask my old colleagues and teammates about these. I was surprised about how people thought about me. At Autodesk, I frequently ask my manager for feedback so that I can improve,” she says.
- Ask about the larger goals of your day-to-day work. It can be easy to get lost in a list of tasks, but make sure you understand the why behind them, says Loi. “It motivates you to bring out the best in you and to go above and beyond. The most important part of strategy is to convince people on why you’re doing something, so they’re motivated to do it.”
- Consider ways to pay it forward. “While creating an impact as a pro-bono consultant at Seed, I learned a lot from and with other volunteers and clients.” Autodesk also has their own pro-bono consulting program where employees can give a few hours a week to help out nonprofits, and Loi is excited to be able to participate.
The Kind of Culture That Makes Growth Possible
Loi recognizes that she’s only able to do meaningful work because she feels supported at work.
“When you’re leading a team, you need to create the environment and the psychological safety where people can show their vulnerabilities and trust each other,” she says. “By doing that, I don’t have to try to be someone else.”
That’s the culture she’s found at Autodesk, Loi explains.
It’s not just that Loi only can have open conversations with her manager about things like work style or working hours. (For instance, Loi loves seeing the sunset, and will often log off right before the sun goes down in order to see it live, and then will come back online later to finish her work.)
She’s also able to continue to pursue growth and feel supported along the way.
“I’m able to be myself at work. I’m really comfortable saying, ‘I don’t know,’ or ‘I want to learn about this.’ I can easily find a mentor, or schedule a call with an expert, even if they’re a director. They’re open for you to learn from them.”
Interested in learning more about life at Autodesk? Check out their open roles!
Pax8’s Emily King on Breaking Barriers in the Tech World
Insight on Transitioning Into Tech with a Non-Traditional Background
Emily King much prefers road-tripping over flying.
Having lived in many places – from Florida to Texas to Colorado – she’s always enjoyed the adventure of travel. “I love to get in my car and just drive for 30 hours to Florida and just see what’s out there,” elaborates Emily. “I could fly, but just driving through and seeing the country and meeting people in each town; it’s super fun to me.”
Emily’s ambition and attention to detail also translate to her professional life. It helped her transition into tech without a software engineering degree or a Bootcamp certification. We sat down with her to hear more about her journey pivoting from wedding photography to becoming a Software Quality Assurance Manager at cloud marketplace Pax8.
Keep reading to learn how she’s broken barriers throughout her journey and advice for women looking to pivot to tech.
Breaking into the tech world
When it came time to pick a career path after high school, Emily wasn’t sure which route to go down. “I literally had no idea what I wanted to do,” Emily reminisces. “I am very methodical. I remember one of my teachers telling me I had the brain of an engineer, but you want to rebel from that for a little bit when you’re a kid.” Encouraged by her family to explore more of her creative side, Emily opted to study one of her hobbies: photography. “I enjoyed it, so I decided to go down that path,” she explains. “But at a certain point, I realized that that wasn’t what I wanted to do with my life.”
After doing some wedding photography and other side photography work to make ends meet, Emily decided to find a job where she could leverage some of her different strengths. “I knew that I’ve always been really great at helping people. I’m very patient. I love to help,” she says. “And so I was at a point where I needed to pay the bills, and I was like, let’s go to Apple.”
She started on the sales floor, showcasing the newest Apple technology to customers. But she quickly moved on to the tech side of things – doing repairs on computers. “I wanted to work towards something. I wanted to know the ins and outs and why things work the way that they do,” says Emily. This is why she wasn’t afraid to ask questions and dig deep into solving problems. One of her store managers noticed her drive and attention to detail and connected her with an opportunity that would change her life.
“He pulled me aside and explained career experiences at Apple’s corporate locations – Austin or San Jose – where they offer people in retail to go out to their campuses and work in a career job for four months,” she elaborates. “It doesn’t guarantee you a job, but it’s something to get your foot in the door.”
Without hesitation, Emily packed up and left for Austin, Texas, and dove into her first official engineering experience. “That’s what led me into Quality Assurance,” Emily explains. She began testing different hardware parts for iPhones and computers, which she already had experience with at her retail store. “But when I started to get into diagnostic testing, seeing all the different things that go into testing software and hardware was eye-opening. I had never felt that before. It made me so excited being able to solve a problem that I couldn’t figure out,” Emily shares.
Her corporate experience at Apple extended from four months to six months, and she eventually joined a team to continue her journey there for four more years.
Tech leadership at Pax8
A move back to Colorado is what sparked her next career step. “There came a certain point where I didn’t see myself making a home in Texas, so I moved back to Colorado. But when I moved back, I honestly didn’t like the remote experience,” she says. “I was still working at Apple, but I felt really disconnected. I didn’t feel as motivated as I was before.”
In search of the work camaraderie she experienced in Austin, she reached out to her local network to learn more about the Colorado job market. One of her colleagues mentioned the cloud solutions management platform Pax8. “The way he spoke about the company convinced me,” says Emily. “He loved what they did, the opportunities he got, the training that he got, how supportive everybody was.” So, when a position opened up, she jumped on the opportunity.
Emily’s former QA experience set the foundation for her new position. “Because I had hardware and software experience, I was able to translate that into the role here, and I came in as a QA II.” Within a few weeks, her manager approached her about taking on a new project. “They needed a senior engineer to create a process to QA their tools and collaborate with the team to find opportunities to make a more efficient process,” Emily explains. “I was honestly excited that people trusted me to be able to do it, but man, it was a little intimidating at first.”
Yet she moved into the role with confidence, thanks to the support of her team. “They really encouraged me, and I thrived,” she says. She worked in that role for a year and a half before transitioning into a new one. The decision to take that role helped her gain the leadership experience she needed for her current management role. “I took an opportunity that really not that many people wanted to, and I made the best process that I could for that team,” she elaborates. “I created that relationship to where, when I got out of it, it just kind of eased me into leadership because I had to train people to take it over.”
Emily then started spearheading different projects and moved to QA Lead, and most recently took on a role as QA Manager. “I’ve been in the manager role for six to eight months, so I’m still new, but I feel like I’ve been doing it for a long time now,” Emily shares.
Overcoming barriers
Emily’s drive, inquisitiveness, and problem-solving skills have helped her advance her engineering career. However, riding the tech wave was not always easy. Being a woman in tech with a non-traditional background has not gone without its challenges.
“I didn’t go to school for software development,” Emily shares. Although she had a bit of coding knowledge, she didn’t start with the foundations that most software engineers have when they enter the professional world. But the hands-on experience she obtained while working allowed her to gain all of the knowledge she needed to thrive in an engineering role. “Certifications and everything are really great, but a lot of times now when you look at software development, it’s more of the skillset that you got from other jobs,” she elaborates. “I had real-life experience, and I was able to apply it. The ability to adapt and run with that is what got me to where I’m at,” Emily says.
But that’s not to say that imposter syndrome doesn’t creep in now and then. “Anxiety is real. And if you don’t feel like you’re meeting [expectations] or maybe not [meeting them] perfectly, it just becomes too much.” This is why Emily works with a therapist to learn how to combat those feelings. “There’s a stigma to it, but therapy is one of the things that really just allows me to open up my mind a little bit more,” she states. “It’s really hard to give up that control sometimes and I continue to work on it.”
With the help and support of her team, Emily can see herself from a different perspective. “I want to be the best version of myself at work, and I think that’s something that helps me out with my imposter syndrome, and the anxiety – understanding that I’m seeing it in one way, but [my team] sees me in a completely different light,” Emily shares. “It just gave me the platform to stand on. You have the confidence at that point to know that you can shine and help out where you can.”
Advice for women pivoting to tech
According to Emily, “working in tech, in general, is an uphill battle, especially for [underrepresented professionals] like women and people of color.” She’s experienced exclusion and people doubting her intelligence first-hand. “I got to a point of frustration,” she explains. “I got to a certain point that I wanted to see representation. I wanted to see more women in a higher role, a leadership role,” Emily explains.
This challenge motivates her to focus on developing her team and encouraging them to break down their barriers. She values all of “the experiences that somebody can bring – different life choices and cultures – to bring more opportunities and different mindsets to the table,” she explains. “The biggest thing is just keeping people’s minds open, and they get really excited about [new] opportunities and seeing other people grow in their roles.”
Not only is Emily passionate about supporting her team, but she also wants to help other women with their transition into the world of tech. Keep on reading for her advice.
- Don’t take on too much. When you come from a non-traditional background, it can be easy to overcompensate for your lack of formal training. Ambition is good, but “you can’t take it all on,” Emily shares. As she continues to grow in her role, she’s eager to learn more about her industry, dive into leadership, and support her team with their roles. “My director makes fun of me all the time; I have ten books behind me of stuff I want to learn about work.” Emily shares. Now she’s working on “being able to find the right things to put my time and effort into that will have long, positive gains.”
- Listen to what others have to say. When you’re first attempting to enter the tech world, the different entry paths, careers, industries, and job titles can get confusing. “There are so many different things in tech, it’s overwhelming if you try to even narrow it down initially without knowing the experience or knowing what goes into it,” says Emily. She encourages career pivoters to network and form relationships with people who know their passions and know the industry. “What made things easy for me is that I listened to the people that told me what I was good at,” says Emily.
- Find your passion. Once you’ve figured out how your skills align with different industries, Emily encourages people to do some exploring to find a role you’re not only interested in but a role that you’re passionate about. “If you’re not passionate about it, get out as fast as you can.” Emily advises. “Life is too short to spend it in a job you’re not happy with.”
- Be persistent. Emily follows up her advice about passion with persistence. “There are going to be a lot of roadblocks. There are going to be a lot of people that are probably going to tell you no. There are going to be a lot of people that maybe don’t agree with you,” Emily explains. “If you can get through all the nonsense that comes with [being a] woman in tech, it’s great on the other side, once you get there, and you can say ‘I made it,’” Emily encourages.