My Work Experience - The Real Story

This is the story of my first 5 years of work, with all its ups and downs.

Starting Out

I graduated from University of Georgia with degrees in Advertising and Spanish in 2010. At the time, ad agency jobs were not very easy to come by so I branched out to other options. I landed a full-time travel job with an IT Consulting firm specializing in Microsoft SharePoint, Northridge. At this point, I scrapped my Peace Corps application and fell head first into the IT industry. At the time, I had zero background in technology. For example, my first day on the job I didn’t even know what a “bug” was, and I still owned a flip phone.

Northridge hired me because I was young, smart, interesting, willing to travel, and ready to learn.

I was so lucky with my first company. I had my own office. I was part of a team of 8 people responsible for 75% of the entire company's revenue. The learning curve was huge, but the recognition for excellence was pervasive. We had one HR lady who actually lobbied for us against the insurance company if something wasn't covered. People drank beer in the lounge and laughed together at 5pm. I learned what it meant to rely on your team, meet the client's expectations, clearly define product requirements, and test the heck out of the system into the wee hours of the morning on launch day.

An Unexpected Pivot: Acquisition

1.5 years into my tenure, I took my first 2-week vacation backpacking in the Philippines.

While I was at a jungle hostel in the Philippines, I checked my email and learned that Northridge was being acquired by Perficient, a 2,000+ person IT consulting firm. I was frantic and unsure if I would still have a job when I returned home.

I had to scan documents to my co-workers to make sure I didn't miss out on any stock payouts - not the ideal jungle retreat. Of course, I still had a job when I returned home, but many of my first mentors decided to leave the company. They were uncomfortable with stringent non-compete clauses, heightened bureaucracy, and simply could make more money working on their own. Unfortunately, I lost my mentors and had to start from scratch. I decided to stay at Perficient because, while the larger company did bring more bureaucracy, it also brought higher name clients and more opportunity.

I came into Perficient under the “Microsoft” business unit. Other business units at Perficient included IBM, Oracle, SalesForce, and Experience Design. Due to my background in advertising and general interest in being among creative people, I started networking with the Experience Design group and learning what they do. Shortly thereafter I was placed on a project to develop a B2B iPad application. This project was labeled “high risk and high profile” because it was the Microsoft business unit’s first time creating an iPad application, the first time working with the international development team in China, and the first time working with the Experience Design business unit. The high ROI potential made up for the high risk.

As the business analyst, I excelled as the liaison between the development team in China, the design team in California, the client in North Carolina, and the project leadership in Georgia.

Diving into UX

After completing the iPad application project, I made a lateral move within the company to join the Experience Design team as a Business Analyst on the “Research and Analysis” team where I hoped to grow my skill-set in user experience research and information architecture.

Making a lateral move from Microsoft to Digital Agency within Perficient was tricky given the highly political and emotionally sensitive company culture so soon after an acquisition. I navigated the landscape successfully without offending the old team and effectively “formed a bridge” between the Microsoft business unit and the Digital Agency business unit.

Years later, I’m still frequently contacted from members of the Microsoft business unit hoping to improve their project’s design process by engaging with the Digital Agency.

After joining the Experience Design team, I was placed on another “high profile and high risk” project with an international automotive manufacturer. The team was tasked with creating a dashboard for automotive dealers in the US. I was the business analyst and agile product owner for a team of 23 individuals. This was the most demanding year of my career. After this project, I was rewarded with a promotion and 20% increase in salary. This was not the norm in the company and represented my dedication to the client and Perficient. As part of this project, I had the opportunity to visit our development center in Hangzhou, China. While in China in December 2013, I introduced and established the requirement traceability plan for the development team for the 1+ year engagement.

Upon return from China, I presented my business and cultural insights on working with our international team to a 75+ person audience. I became a SME and liaison for projects needing to work with the outsourced development center in China.

New Beginnings: Atlanta to San Francisco

In 2014, I moved to San Francisco, California and stayed with Perficient through the transition. I moved because of my husband, who had recently finished his PHD in Computer Science and was seeking employment in the bay area. Plus, I never intended to stay so close to home in my career - the west coast beckoned! I stayed with Perficient through the move. Immediately after my transition to California, I formed relationships with Perficient’s Salesforce business unit. I worked collaboratively with the Salesforce Business Development Team as the UX expert on a Sales proposal for an IT security company.

I was named in Perficient’s “Sales Leadership Board” as a result of my proposal for additional content strategy on the Statement of Work.

Continuing Education

In 2015, I established a goal with my manager to deepen my technical knowledge. While I had been working in the software development lifecycle for years, my technical knowledge remained limited.

I had managed to sneak into the tech industry having never set foot in a Computer Science class.

To further my education and fill in the gaps in my skill-set, I completed an HTML & CSS class at General Assembly. This was invaluable, as it deepened my empathy for the engineers I work with on a day-to-day basis and heightened my ability to converse in technical jargon.

New Horizons

I began job hunting in 2015, as I felt under-utilized at Perficient and ready to move on to something new. While Perficient is growing leaps and bounds in terms of UX, it is not growing fast enough to advance my own career. After assessing the Silicon Valley market, I decided that Product Management is the best position for me.

I know that I will be a good Product Manager because I have a varied background in software development and have a keen understanding of the challenges of each part in the process.

I’m also extremely organized and detail-oriented, but crave creative problem-solving. To ensure my job hunt goes well, I completed a Product Management course through Product School in San Francisco. I'm reinventing myself and looking for a challenging role that matters in the world.