You are techY podcast

[00:00:00] Ellen Twomey:
You are listening to the You are TechY Podcast, episode number 177.

[00:00:05] Narrator:
Welcome to the You are TechY podcast, where it’s all about growing in your tech so you can find the tech job of your dreams. And now your host technology learning coach Ellen Twomey.

[00:00:24] Ellen Twomey:
Jess Carter is a data-driven consulting leader with 10 years of experience leading complex IT and data projects that drive results as a trusted advisor to government agencies, she’s led new large scale system modernization and data initiatives in unemployment, workforce development, public health, and motor vehicle projects across several states.

At Resultant, she’s been instrumental in their professional services growth from a single public sector account to over 100 accounts, and from a team of 20 to more than 230. Jess is particularly passionate about data consulting because she loves the insights and learnings that with the ever-changing nature of data.

She’s the host of the Data-Driven Leadership Podcast, where she puts complex data concepts into plain English and discusses data news with industry experts covering everything from data visualization to Chat GPT.

Jess has a Bachelor’s of Arts in International Studies from Taylor, as well as graduate level work in the same area from uva.

Jess, welcome to the show.

Tell me how and why did you get into technology and then also what has made you stay there for over 10 years?

[00:01:26] Jess Carter:
Yeah. So if you hear that Bachelor’s in International studies, you think, huh? Like technology consulting, right. That’s obviously just clearly where I headed in my career. Uh, no. So I, I started, um, international missions and then nonprofit work, so I was really passionate about people, really passionate about impact and communities and had been to 26 countries and studied religions in context.

So I was studying Buddhism and a Buddhist monastery. In Japan and then like Hinduism in a Hindu temple in, India and in a Chinese cult church in Southeast Asia. And so just to really wanted to understand how people worked and how they took what they believed and tried to do something with it kind of on the day-to-day.

And then I graduated Ellen and had $80,000 in student loans and thought, well, what do I do now? And so I started working in the nonprofit world and, you know, highly mission oriented, people oriented, and I really enjoyed that. I was doing some fundraising and marketing. And, some of the stuff I was doing, it was very highly academic and there was this sense of you don’t have a PhD, like, sit down and chill for a decade and maybe we’ll listen to you.

And I just had the, I don’t have the energy for that. I just wanna add some value, right? So  My career sort of left the nonprofit world, but still very mission oriented and, I ended up in the for-profit. I thought it was really interesting. It was 2010, the housing market had just crashed and this company in this little town, Muncie, Indiana, was buying up sort of this ability to service Freddie and Fanny properties.

And trash them out and maintain them and help them not depreciate, and they needed to scale that business. It went from like a dad and a son that were like mowing lawns to six statewide contracts. It was like exploding. So I followed a great leader there. and I was kind of just following a great leader, a female that I really respected, and she was coaching me in leadership.

I got my six Sigma black belt. I learned about process improvement and that just today that led to IT. How do we improve our people? We improve our processes. How do we improve our processes? We improve our systems. So the next thing I know, I’m like drawing wire. Frames and working on data models and didn’t know what any of that was.

I was just doing it cuz it seemed right and. fell into IT. So I, I ended up at resultant nine, a little over nine years ago. and that’s where the mission piece and the, and the IT piece came together. we have a really large public sector portfolio and we were working on an unemployment insurance system at the time, and people are calling the governor’s office because they can’t get their groceries cuz their debit card wasn’t working right.

Like it mattered to help people. Mm-hmm. And so I got to connect my mission. Passions, like just making people’s lives better and an impact with technology and the rest is history. Like I’ve just realized, you just can’t be a great leader in my opinion, and not understand IT. You don’t delegate that to your CIO and walk away anymore.

It’s part of your strategy. So I’m just so grateful that I sort of tripped into this life. 

[00:04:39] Ellen Twomey:
Oh, Jess. You know, we start every podcast talking about Buddhist monasteries in temples. I’m sure. Love it. No, I love, I do have many conversations, more than you might think with. nonprofit to, to tech or nonprofit to startup because you, you, go there for that mission centered work and I, I’ve, I was a teacher and worked at, in private schools and so I’ve also done mission centered work and you, you learn something, from a different perspective and you learn about people at a very deep level. Like it’s one thing to say, Hey, we, yeah, I know people, but it’s very different to really think about them and help them and, and how do they interact and work.

So maybe you’ve alluded to this a little bit, but maybe you can talk about what your work is like, day to day now

[00:05:32] Jess Carter:
You know, how many wires are you drawing these days?20. No, I’m kidding. Um, right. I, I actually looked at one today and that was the first time in a minute. So, I kind of grew up at resultant when I started there were 30 to 50 of us in the company.

Um, and there are now over 500. And so we’ve grown really quickly and I just kind of, I think I got lucky where I showed up at the right time. So I joke with, um, the guy that was my boss for about eight years here that it was kind of Meritocracy. So it was kind of this sense of if you did great work, you got more great work.

That served me. I’m not sure that that’s everybody’s cup of tea, but yeah, little international studies. Jess needed the free b a that was like, is this okay? Can I have more? Okay, let me have more. So I really started as a pm, like a project manager over a complex IT project in the state.

So I was working with developers and QA teams and, uh, bas to work on major enhancements that the system needed and then it went okay. So I took on another domain and I kind of managed two domains and one of them was federal reporting, which is, A real thing that’s a real journey for us is federal reporting.

You wanna get it right. The state’s funding is based on it. Like you can’t get those wrong. So then I got to really understand a little bit more about data, not just a system modernization, but data accuracy and how the system serves you to have the right data. Then I got a chance to run my own project.

So I was sort of on a l, such a large project that I was one of many PMs over part of the domain. Then I had my chance to run my own project, and that was terrifying. I mean, I was so scared that I do something wrong, that I probably checked my myself six times. Right. On anything. I just wanted it to go so well.

And I got to manage my own employee for the first time at this company, right? So I just slowly grew up. and then I, I got to get into sales. So the, another state wanted what we had just done. And so I got to learn how to sell and do the same project in a different state.

I was traveling to Nevada for about 18 months trying to implement the same system that I implemented in Indiana. And so I kind of got into like IT, project management. I tried to do that really well and diligently and then like whole project ownership and accountability, supporting a pm then some sales of like, okay, what are we gonna go do next?

an R F P, like, I think it was about 4 million R F P that we won at the state. Uh, November of 2017, I have this memory that my husband brought the dogs to the office so they could see me. They’re like, that’s how much I was in the office trying to get this RF out the door. And so, this diligence really served me and my career in tech where I could demonstrate good work and then I could get some more to try something new.

Mm-hmm. And that has expanded to, we’ve now reorged and, I have the pleasure of serving the firm in this VP role of client experience and delivery operations. What that means, is while I. Integrate a listening culture where we start to really make sure we’re hearing our clients at scale.

Things I used to do with my clients one-on-one don’t work with 500 people. We have to find the ways to do that. The other thing though is delivery operations. So as we’ve scaled, are our processes, scaling are all of our abilities to work with different people. When we had to hire a hundred people in a year, How do we develop that talent?

How do we give them the history of the company? How do we make sure they have the tools they need to be successful? So I have the pleasure of helping really do a whole bunch of stuff around our org that help everybody scale high tide that raises all boats, that kind of thing. So I’m in the day-to-day, I’m working with clients, I’m auditing delivery work.

I look at projects that I would’ve been on, and I’m coaching. Helping them see insights that they’ve, they already have, but like, do you see them take your own advice, look in the mirror, do some reflection, and help everybody be better. and the one thing I’d say about that’s been I think really interesting and hard for me is to go from individual participating in the business.

To serving all of the individuals. So that transition from who are the people right above me and right below me to how do I generate outcomes that serve people I’ve never even met? that accountability can feel really heavy as a leader. And I think right. Also a gift to be like, okay, how do I figure out what the business needs?

I have to listen first to our employees, to our clients. We’ve gotta kind of align on those themes and then move forward. So that’s kind of where my head is most days these days. 

[00:09:57] Ellen Twomey:
Yeah. That’s Super interesting. And you kind of covered this next question about your tech journey, but I it is, it is curious, like if you go back to, you know, maybe 18 year old Jess, and today Jess is like, you’re in tech, you’re in it.

What does she say? Like, does she look at you like you a few heads or is she like, oh yeah, maybe.

[00:10:12] Jess Carter:
Oh yeah. Like, must have three heads, like, doesn’t make any sense at all. the only thing that tracks, and this is interesting too, is Know, when I think about something that’s really served me in the tech industry too, is like, Ellen, I can’t write a line of code.

if you ask me in nine years of working with developers, I can’t write a line of code. What I can do is understand the client’s outcomes, what they need and want. Not just what does the contract say, but why did they even buy that thing? What’s the real behavioral change they want from this contract?

And is our technical team on track getting to the out outcome, not just the output? And so I would just encourage, like when I think about a tech career, if you played it back that way. Yeah. When I was 18, I, I kinda knew I was good at understanding a room and understanding what was the purpose or mission and are we fulfilling it.

I never would’ve known that I could apply that to IT. Mm-hmm. And it took a lot of iterations of confidence to not feel imposter syndrome to go. My teams will tease me that I’ll say, I’m not there yet. Try again, like try help me get there. Cause there’s so many times where we’re working with DevOps teams one day and BI teams the next day and data scientists on this other project.

It’s taken me a full nine years to learn how to hang with most of those folks. And that’s because I don’t just nod my head and smile if I don’t get it. I’m like, say more. Right, right. Help me understand. And so that’s really served me so I don’t, I think. Some extent the outcomes piece. Yes. But tech no way.

[00:11:49] Ellen Twomey:
No. So what if, if, um, there’s a woman out there and she’s like, no, I’m really more of a people person and I’m not sure I can do tech. how would you handle a comment like that?

[00:12:01] Jess Carter:
So quick clarification, right? I don’t just work in tech. I’m in a consulting firm, so I work for a professional services firm, so the soft skills matter.

Mm-hmm. Um, we had a, a growth spurt where, it doesn’t matter how technical someone is, either if they don’t have the soft skills, you’re not gonna be a great consultant. And so we really value both. And, there are a whole bunch of people that are in tech that aren’t the fingers on a keyboard, right.

We have people who do. Testing or test strategy? How should we test our documentation? How should we test our product? What about the requirements? That’s a word doc sometimes. What about a traceability matrix? That’s something a BA would use. What about a project manager who just kind of, they, they need to understand scope, schedule, budget, but none of that is go design a solution or a product.

And so a lot of the people stuff, it’s all there. It’s just the business acumen to learn it, find it interesting, kind of get your confidence and experience in it. But we need people who are people, people. Cuz tech doesn’t exist just for tech, right? Nobody’s buying a solution just because they wanna check a box.

Right, right, right. It’s like you have FOMO and you’re just buying a CRM cuz everybody else is. Right. And so I, I think realizing that tech exists for people and so if you’re a people person, you’re already checking the one box. I can’t force someone to have, if you don’t have empathy in people skills

It’s like an actual problem. and you just can’t hand that to the best data scientist in the world. Right.

[00:13:33] Ellen Twomey:
That’s so interesting. I love it. So, what advice would you give a woman who wants to earn more but isn’t sure how?

[00:13:40] Jess Carter:
So, I spent a lot of my career worried that I was making less than my male peers. Constantly worried that I was making less. Like I, it’s just a sense of like, well, women aren’t getting paid as much and women aren’t.

You kind of hear this everywhere. And I would tell you I’m pretty, you know, I’m pretty assertive. I’m pretty confident. I think that I thought I was missing out on something that I probably wasn’t missing out on actually. Like, I think I actually, looking back for my experience, which wa didn’t exist, and my willingness to try stuff, I think I was being paid really fairly.

and so I think one of the things I’ve, started to focus on is, do I think I’m generating the value commiserate? So what I’m being paid. if I can feel good about that, cool. If I think I’m working, I mean, I had years where I was working, so most people were, consulting firms call it like 2080 hours a year.

you can do the math and that’s what you figure out. There were years I worked 2,900 hours, like almost a thousand more. and people do that. Like I’m not the only person in the world who’s done that, but I think. Those are the years where it also matters to be like, am I incentivized to do this?

Do I just love it cuz I’m learning? And whether you paid me or not, I’m just excited that I have the opportunity. So I, I really focus more on am I getting paid? Commis it, truett, I think the value I’m creating in the industry. The enjoyment I’m getting from my job. If I’m happy with that, yeah, I’ll go check and make sure it looks somewhat equitable and I’ll look at some of the websites that exist.

But that’s what actually makes me happy. And if anyone tries to, you know, around me, tries to, um, I dunno, flex about their salary. There’s different environments. There’re different companies, different people. I try not to get too shook up about some of that. If I’m happy, I’m happy. If I’m not, you know, I’ll look.

[00:15:23] Ellen Twomey:
I can’t even tell you. I love that so much. I think that, yeah, a lot of the stats are, they’re stats, you know, they’re generalizations and it’s so much more important that you look at your individual, experience and that you’re providing the value. I know for sure like when I was, and I start off in consulting and so did my husband and, we like when you are so new, it’s really hard to understand what value you’re providing, and I have an undergrad in computer science. I had a, I did have code. Experience and so maybe I could, generate a little bit more value than my peers. Yeah. In the very beginning, but not for long. Cuz they could learn that but it is interesting, right?

Like, cuz I thought my salary I, Accenture, so I thought my salary was so high, but then like, If you like double the hours and divide, then actually I was probably making more waiting tables at Fair College. But that’s ok. Cause Cause it’s a lot about learning and growth and they’re not saying they don’t, Accenture’s not saying like, oh my gosh, you’re gonna have the best starting salary ever.

No, they’re saying like, if you say you’ll be a partner and that’ll be the prize. Right, right. So knowing the incentive system and structure is, is important. but your focus on what makes you happy I think is just brilliant because that’s, Any other focus is going to make you unhappy. So, so that’s a great, that’s a great way.

I’m glad I asked you that. It was great advice. Um, speaking of advice, what is the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

[00:16:46] Jess Carter:
I have the gift of being surrounded by some of the most incredible leaders I could have ever imagined. And so I get, I just think I get advice a lot, and I enjoy that. I’m f feel very grateful. I think the best advice I’ve really ever been given is probably more about, See, it’s not really a, maybe it is a phrase.

So I think the thing I’ve been focusing on is, the phrase be where your feet are. So when you get really good at project management or you get really good at business development or sales, you’re always thinking about tomorrow, you’re always thinking about your next performance, your review, your next commission, your next bonus.

When’s it coming? Like, when am I gonna get what I do, what I deserve? Mm-hmm. Right? Mm-hmm. I had a, difficult 2021 and had this moment where I realized I was living in tomorrow, and you just. From my perspective and my experience, you can’t actually experience a lot of joy when you’re not, where you are when your head’s always somewhere else.

So I have a skillset, I’m pretty good at forecasting, like, what’s gonna be a problem tomorrow? I’ll let myself do that. It’s a skill. But now I time box it where it’s like, okay, let me think about next week for 30 minutes, not three hours. We’ll handle it. Mm-hmm. It turns out like I always get through my weeks so far.

A hundred percent. So, like, we’re killing it, Jess, chill. go worry about it for 30 minutes and get outside. And so I think like there are moments when I’ll catch myself and I’ve got friends and coworkers and family members that’ll kind of see me in tomorrow and they’ll kind of say like, are you where your feet are?

Are you being where your feet are right now? Are you here? Really. and I think that’s really helped me.

[00:18:21] Ellen Twomey:
I love that advice. I struggle with that too. and I love time boxing. Yeah. Because it’s not like we can think, never think about the future, but it is, so important because if you’re, that’s, and that’s another, piece of that joy piece, right?

Yeah. Like, Might as well. enjoy where you are

[00:18:36] Jess Carter:
Hold on. We gotta, we gotta turn the table. So if, if you’re playing with, uh, what’s the best advice you’ve ever gotten?

Can I, can I pivot and ask you, oh,

[00:18:44] Ellen Twomey:
What’s the best advice? That’s hilarious. Cause I was just about to ask you about your podcast. The best advice I’ve ever been given. Yeah. no, you can’t ask me cause I haven’t thought about it. Ok. I mean, I’m a complete personal development junkie, so a lot of the advice, I think I’ve, I’ve read like, I just, I love some of the authors that I read, but I, also was very blessed to be raised by two.

Very moral, upstanding people. And I often say like, like you’re in the public sector. I, I often say like, why can’t politicians just be as good as my parents? they’re just really good people. And, that’s a little bit objective. It’s objective too, because people will come to me, they’re like your parents one time, like I, I have a lot of cousins.

They would call my parents the cleavers and my sisters and I would laugh. We’re like, well, maybe mom and dad, not us, right? Like, we’re definitely not. so my parents have given me a lot of good advice and given me my faith, which I think is definitely like the most important thing, go to church.

And so that’s been really fundamental for me. but my dad is gonna really laugh when he listens to this. If he listens to this one, I’m gonna tell to cause one of the best pieces of advice that he has given is, a place for everything and everything in his place. And I. Honestly, I’m terrible at following that advice.

he was just at my house last week and he’s probably like stressed out, but I think about that all the time because, and he had a drawer, right? So we, there were four kids and it was was a relatively small house, but we were for sure three girls were always taking over for sure. My poor little brother and my dad had a drawer and like it was dad’s drawer and you didn’t touch his drawer and he had his wallet and he has keys and.

Yes. He never lost. This is keys. He has never Do you know how many times my husband and I have lost our keys? But I think that, I think about that a lot in terms of what you were just talking about with like feet in your place. Like every a place for everything and everything in his place. When you start entering the phase where you can’t even keep track of some basic things like keys.

Yeah. I need to really a gut check to say like, okay, how outta control is my life. Very, but. If I go to my drawer and I have now given my husband a drawer, I dunno why, cause my keys are my purse, I guess, but my husband has a drawer. If I go to that drawer and the keys are there, it’s like I have got this together.

Yes. And so anyway, that’s my advice place for everything and everything is place. Thanks me.

[00:21:08] Jess Carter:
Yes. So happy. I mean, and you brought up something I almost mentioned, so I think, I don’t know about you, but my. So I was gonna say just being around the environment that my, like my father is just a very natural Chicago businessman, leader, sales guy.

Like he’s just good. So I was kinda raised by a great leader, And had the benefit of that. Yeah. But he, like grandpa was a World War II vet and so honor, we were raised Nazarene and so like, there’s these like major components of who we are that are deeply embedded in. Be a good person. So when it comes to advice, part of me is like, that advice to me is cherry on top, because I had the benefit of this upbringing that was so value based, honor based, hardworking, right?

Like we weren’t above anything. You had to work for your, my grandpa was so thrilled to be the first one to go to college. And so I think some of that, if it’s ingrained, it’s like such a gift, you know?

[00:21:56] Ellen Twomey:
It’s such a gift. Yeah. My father was a leader too. He was a, he was an assistant principal for 25 years.

they tried to make him principal three times. Finally, the third time they did it for like six years. He hated it. He always wanted to be the assistant principal. And I love, I told you I love books. I love, have you ever read Good to Great Jim Collins? Yep. Right. Bill to Last and he’ll talk about level five leaders.

I was raised by Level five leader and I am not a level five leader. I am always, I was always the captain. I was a class president. I was like, I don’t even know how not to lead. And like now in my forties I can be like, oh, okay. That’s just, you know, natural for me. But my dad, Was a great leader despite people, like dragged him into that office where I’m like, what’s my promotion?

And so it’s so great and, and. It’s a gift to have those types of experiences in our life,

[00:22:39] Jess Carter: Well, and what a great, like, important example of like, Hey, women in tech or women in leadership. This isn’t just done by other women encouraging you, like dad played a role, like men have a place in this solution here, you know? Yeah.

[00:22:55] Ellen Twomey:
Yeah. Yeah. My dad, that’s funny story. My dad would always say, he’s like, I just decided I was gonna raise.

Cause he had three girls. And boy, I was gonna raise my girls the way I raised my boys. I played football. I have an undergrad computer science, so my three sisters and I and my mother, we all have Bachelors of sciences and my, my dad and my brother have Bachelors of Arts. And so it’s really funny, right?

Like whatever, it doesn’t matter. It’s not that big of a deal about a sister’s an engineer than a nurse. And it, it just, I think that, yeah, for sure. I’m a big, they call them male allies now, my dad always said, be an engineer.

And I was like, I dunno if that’s what I want. I was never discouraged at home. I was more like, right. He was like, that’s what you should do. Right. And so I think, um, I think it is fundamental to how we, that it’s a normalization for us, I guess. Right.

[00:23:36] Jess Carter:
For sure. It’s beautiful.

[00:23:37] Ellen Twomey:
Tell me about your podcast. You know, how did it start? What’s the goal?

[00:23:42] Jess Carter:
Oh boy. Um, okay. This would be funny. So, I, when we did the re some our most recent reorg and I kind of stepped into this kind of scalability role, I was in this state. I dunno if you’ve ever been in a situation where you’re, I, I think you have, where you take on a new role and it’s like, you just have no idea what your day’s gonna look like.

It’s, you’re kind of trying to orient yourself to it. You’re not even sure what the outcome should be of your day. Like, it’s just sort of trying to get used to a new role. So I was kinda in that boat probably last July, and our VP of marketing came to me and said, I have this idea. Hear me out. She Oprah said six times, like, just hear me out.

And she pitched the podcast and I was sort of already in that mindset of I’m trying new stuff. Like I’m kind of okay failing and maybe we’ll just try some stuff that’s new and see what, how that feels. And so I was already just like, whatever she says, I’m gonna say yes. I’m just gonna say yes, I’m gonna be open, I’m gonna be open to this.

And so then she said, podcast. And Ellen, this is important. Okay. This is important context. For nine years of my job, the only highest level of success was I kept my public sector clients out of the paper. They didn’t get in trouble for doing something bad. We helped make sure they did really good stuff.

They got all the credit for it. We just went home happy that we got paid, like happy that we could contribute. It feels very weird to go from that to like, is this thing on? Hello? like let me speak into a mic about it. Cuz I was always just kind of behind the scenes. I was behind the curtain making sure some things maybe went okay.

So it felt really bizarre when I was asked. I’d kind of already decided, I’d say yes. We weren’t sure how that was gonna work. I do struggle with, I’m not a data scientist. I can talk about data science, but I’m not an engineer, but I can talk about it. I’ve used it for a decade. So I think I had to overcome some of that, get used to the mic and figure out, what was the angle.

But once we landed on, yes. I just really want data concepts to be grasped by as many people as I can because maybe then there’s more emissions, more outcomes. For other human beings. So let’s talk about it. I’ll just be willing to be vulnerable. But it was it uncomfortable for me. That’s like price still is.

[00:25:56] Ellen Twomey:
That’s hilarious because you, everyone listening is laughing right now. Cause they’re like, oh, she’s such a natural. In fact, we.

My guests were a little bit first. Make sure they’re ready to be recorded and, and, uh, you’re like, let’s go. Ready

Becomes.

[00:26:16] Jess Carter:
Right. Second nature. Right. Yeah. I still, I kind of just try to move the mics like as far out of the way as I can, but still pick me up and then just, I’m just on a, like a teams call. I’m just having a meeting. We’re just hanging out as people and so that helps me mindset wise to not get all shook up.

[00:26:32] Ellen Twomey:
Yeah. That’s funny. I am sure, I am confident that you are better at your podcast because you are not in it every day today, you are at a higher level where you can interpret it for other people and give them new insights. Where if you were heads down, and I’m sure you’re perfectly capable of doing that as well, but if you’re heads down in the data, then you can get, it can be hard to, like extrapolate things for other people that are really meaningful for them.

You know, and that’s a superpower

[00:26:59] Jess Carter:
To your point. What’s hard for me, and this is, this is entertaining, I think it’s funny, is I’ve consulted firms on their data strategy, their data integrations, their warehousing, their views, their record linkage, either unique identifiers, all this stuff.

What’s been hard is as our, our business has scaled now, it’s part of my responsibility to think about that for us. And it’s so funny that people joke in consulting like, you do what I say, not what I do. Like we we take care of ourselves. Last. It’s been really entertaining but also exciting to be like, we’re there, Jess.

Like we get to do it. But it is funny that I’m like I, the most valuable thing I can do for myself. Every week Ellen is think. What would I, if I was consulting myself? Yeah. If I was the client, what would I tell myself to do different? Where? Where would I be? Like, you’re crazy. Cut it out. This isn’t how you should handle that.

And so that’s been just fun for me to trip over.

[00:27:48] Ellen Twomey:
Yeah, mean that is a hundred percent true. I wrote a blog on this a long time ago, curse of Knowledge. It’s like when you, people will say things. I mean, Rachel, who edits our podcast, you know, she, she’ll say things and I’m like, crap, I already knew that.

Oh, I’ve said that to other people. You smart little in you. Right? But it’s like when it’s yourself, it’s just hard to really. get out of your own way with the curse of knowledge to see that. So, yeah.

Um, what advice would you give to a woman who is considering starting a career in tech? Maybe she’s an international studies business major. I dunno. International studies, not even business. International studies, world Religion.

I dunno. 

[00:28:26] Jess Carter: You’re killing it. Ah, I think I, the advice I’d give is one, what’s your why I. So like why are you interested in tech? Or is it like a FOMO thing again? Where you’re worried about missing out? Is it that you’re actually curious about technology? You like engineering, you like cleansing data you like, you just think data’s cool, you love Excel?

Like what’s the why? Because. Tech is so broad that I do think there’s a role for anyone. there’s so much that you love views. You’re graphic designer. You could be a killer bi developer. Like lots of them don’t understand the right level of communication with views that a graphic designer does.

And so if you know how to do the technical stuff, you can do the view stuff and you’ll be great. So I think understanding. Why are you interested? And maybe just e encouraging you to say the best thing you can do is find a way in, even if it’s a non-technical role, just wherever you are, get near your IT team.

Get near somebody who’s working on tech or data. And those kind of are becoming two different streams. Like as somebody in your office, like A C F O is working on pulling your data together across the company at least once a year, hopefully, to go look at your annual budget and where you landed and your expenses and your p & l.

But if you can get near the data and you figure out why you enjoy it and what you want, or the tech, you just love products or you like playing and testing, or you like, you kind of somebody who always downloads the next new thing. I mean, that’s where like you could be a great product tester.

You could be somebody who does that BA stuff and that’s requirements documentation, that’s writing. It’s like 70% writing and design. Mm-hmm. So I think understanding your why and looking at your skill sets and interests, there’s a place to start playing, but you gotta just start consuming the knowledge.

I Google everything. and there’s so much good content, people wanna share it. You’re in this mode on LinkedIn where I. People are figuring out that they’ll follow you If you’re actually an expert and you have the challenge as a LinkedIn influencer to demonstrate your expertise, go search for keywords, go search for data engineering and find people who’ve got 9,000 plus followers.

They’re doing something really cool that you can pick up on. so I think there’s a lot to be gained from just playing a bit yourself, but knowing your why and what your maybe some of your strengths are is gonna help you plug in maybe more quickly and more effectively. 

Ellen Twomey:
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