Service X-Factor
Service X-Factor is the podcast where service operations stops being a cost center and starts being a competitive advantage. Hosted by Microsoft MVPs Scott LeFante and William McLendon, this show reveals the secret ingredients behind service operations success—transforming chaos into clarity and strategy into profits.
Service X-Factor
From Art Major to Tech Leader: Emily's Journey of Resilience and Growth
What does it take to break into tech without a computer science degree? In this captivating episode of Service X Factor, we meet Emily, whose journey from art major to successful tech professional challenges conventional wisdom about career paths in technology.
Emily's story begins at a crossroads after being laid off from her job in Chicago. Despite having no formal technical education, she taught herself coding languages like Python and SQL, leveraging her network to land her first tech position. Seven years later, she's thriving in an industry where she once felt like an outsider. Her experience highlights a crucial truth: tenacity matters more than credentials when building a career in technology.
The conversation delves into the unique challenges women face in tech environments. Emily speaks candidly about battling imposter syndrome while being judged against male counterparts and shares how she balances the demands of her career with motherhood. Rather than seeing these challenges as limitations, she's transformed them into strengths, developing exceptional organizational skills and learning to prioritize effectively.
Mentorship emerges as a powerful theme throughout the discussion. Emily credits her success to influential mentors who guided her professional development, while she now pays it forward by mentoring high school students in tech incubator programs. One particularly touching moment comes when she describes a female student thanking her for demonstrating that women belong in STEM fields.
The conversation also explores practical applications of emerging technologies. Emily shares how she's created custom AI agents to streamline both work tasks and her personal side business of thrifting and reselling items online. Her approach demonstrates how AI can be harnessed for practical, everyday solutions rather than just theoretical applications.
For listeners considering a career pivot or facing obstacles in their professional journey, Emily's parting wisdom resonates deeply: "If there was never a seat at the table, I would make my own." Her story is a powerful reminder that with persistence and courage, you can create your own path in any industry, regardless of your background.
Tune in to hear Emily's full journey and discover how women are reshaping the technology landscape one seat at the table at a time.
Welcome everyone to another edition of the Service X Factor podcast. I am your host, scott LaFonte, and I am here, of course, with my esteemed colleague and co-host, mr William Quad McClendon. Will, how's it going? You're just back from vacation. You look relaxed, yeah, man much-needed vacation.
Speaker 1:Got a lot of good sunshine and a lot of good food, so looking forward to kicking off the work week the right way. So this is an easy out of coming back into the office, returning into the office here, as we have an awesome guest. We know who we love and she can't do no wrong.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having me guys. Awesome, yeah, and it's our good friend and colleague, emily is on the call with us. So, emily, welcome to our podcast and you'll see it's very casual. You know we just chat. I mean, look at, look at, will he's got a nice tan from the Sun, he looks great refreshed. Does it block fresh?
Speaker 1:I was hope we didn't get canceled before the 10th episode, but I think that's that's too late, right that is definitely too late.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think this will be the last one.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:It's all good. It's all good. So today we're obviously continuing our Women in Technology series, and so we're definitely grateful to have Emily on talking about different topics and, of course, her story within this space and technology as a whole, so definitely looking forward to getting into it. So, will, why don't you kick us off here and let's see what we can find out about Miss Emily?
Speaker 1:All right, First things first. Let me just intro. I met Emily about three months. Four months ago. We started here at CongruentX doing some awesome work and immediately it was, like you know became an instant fan. But for those who don't know you, Emily, you mind giving us a little bit of an intro, telling us about yourself, and we'll get into the nitty gritty of the questions and all that fun stuff.
Speaker 3:Sure, absolutely. Thanks again for having me. Yeah, so I started at CongruentX here about three or four months ago. I've been in the tech space for going on seven years or so.
Speaker 3:Before that I kind of had a variety of jobs as I lived in Chicago, you know, doing sales, office management, kind of different odd jobs here and there. And then I did get laid off and during that time I kind of had to take a look in the mirror and I felt like I was at a crossroads, just trying to figure out my life and where I wanted to go. I felt like I wasn't really, you know, being used to my full potential. So I took some time to, you know, figure out what I wanted to do and I wanted to be in the tech world. You know before that I had not really been in that, in that space. You know before that I had not really been in that space.
Speaker 3:I graduated from University of Iowa with an art degree and double majored in communication, so it wasn't really something that I had studied. I didn't have a big background in it. So I took some time while I was laid off to start learning coding, learning things like Python and SQL, and actually sitting with one of my friends who at the time was employed at a tech consulting company and after a few months I was able to get a job at a startup where we worked with POS systems and then from there I ended up going into the tech consulting world, basically through, you know, having some network connections with friends. So I was very lucky to to get into this space. You know, sometimes it really is about who you know and really really putting yourself out there.
Speaker 3:It was challenging but really exciting and since then I feel like I've just kind of been, you know, kicked into the deep end again and again. You know it's just learning on the job, learning on the fly, and I think a lot of people have that kind of experience, especially if you don't have a computer science degree. You kind of learn as you go and lean on your support systems at you know, at work, and lean on your peers to learn, and so that's kind of what's gotten me to where I am today. I'm pretty proud of myself. It's been been a lot of hard work, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:That's such a great story and I can relate to it. I do not have a computer science degree, I actually have a marketing degree, and I've been in this field now for 26 glorious years. I learned I started learning C++ and I was like, yeah, no, I'd rather be the front end guy.
Speaker 1:I am not a coder you literally just made my day like you and as a marketer, just like I. I, just, I could, just, I could see you as the, as the, as the red sox, perfect, matt that's done.
Speaker 2:He's sitting in the red socks, perfect. You just. You just made me vomit a little bit in my throat. It was saying the red socks.
Speaker 1:So, emily, you have to have, like there's some amazing personality traits that come from your journey. Like, I mean, what was one other than being incredibly persistent and resilient? What are some personality traits that you feel are necessary for you to kind of make headway into this industry? Personality traits that you feel are necessary for you to kind of make headway into this industry? Because, I mean, we can't just look at you and say, hey, look at your story, rather and say hey, it was just luck. You know that you put in the work.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think tenacity, you know trying again and again, you know, don't take no for an answer, especially, yeah, as a woman. You know it's hard and you do have that imposter syndrome or you always feel like you're not living up or you're being, you know, judged against your male peers and it can be really, really challenging. So just being tenacious and staying true to yourself and your values, I think, is to me, what is what's most important and what has helped me be successful thus far.
Speaker 1:And you're a mother as well, right? So you balance that which I don't know, if you know about.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a lot that mental load that all us moms have. It's really challenging, you know you've got a full workday and then it just it never ends. But women are strong, we get it done. Amen to that.
Speaker 2:Amen to that, no doubt, Plus you know what you scare Will.
Speaker 3:I'm nice, I swear.
Speaker 2:You know what? Don't listen to her, everyone Don't listen to her. She's a pit bull.
Speaker 3:Hey, I've got to be.
Speaker 2:That's right. No, you know really your story. You know I hope resonates with a lot of our listeners in terms of your you know what you were sharing with your journey and being, you know laid off and you know really being resilient. I think that just goes to your testament of you know who you are and the tenacity to continue forging ahead.
Speaker 1:So I got a personal question. What was the moment you were like you know, hey and I'm asking this because I know this is going to lead into a follow-up question but what was the moment? You were like hey, this is the moment I felt like I arrived within the industry. I'm here, I'm not going anywhere. This is my home. Hello world, here we are. What was that moment for you?
Speaker 3:I mean, every time I was put on a new project, you know, I felt kind of on top of the world. Last year I was invited by a counterpart to attend the Women in Microsoft event downtown Chicago, and to me that was really exciting. It felt like I kind of had a seat at the table, that I was being taken seriously in the industry. And it was also really exciting to listen to other strong female leaders in this industry and hear their stories, which were so similar to mine. You know, I think having those kinds of conversations was really enlightening and it made me feel like, you know, I I had made it and I belong here does it ever go away?
Speaker 1:kind of those feelings of inadequacy, um, as if you don't belong, like how do you kind of manage that? And you know, I know, you know, I, I, I know we kind of all put on like I know, I do, I put on the happy face, and then all of a sudden there's this one complex, you know, conversation, or I'm amongst a group of people who I'm like good Lord, this one has a degree of Stafford, this one has this degree. I'm like I, I'm not that. Why am I even at this table? Does it ever go away for you?
Speaker 3:no, you know, I think if it does go away, then maybe that's a red flag, because we should always be learning. You know they say never. You never want to be the smartest person in the room and I don't think I ever have been, I don't know if I ever will be, because you know it's all about the journey. It's you're learning new things every day, we all, you know, just surrounding yourself with smart people that you can talk to, work through problems together. You know I'm never going to have all the answers, I don't know if anyone will, but it's that just continued learning that is so important to. You know, grow personally and professionally. So I hope that sense never goes away. It puts the pressure on to keep improving and keep learning and growing.
Speaker 1:That's a brilliant way to take a negative and make it a positive man. I love that.
Speaker 2:And I am definitely not the smartest person in any room, that is absolutely for sure. I didn't say you were at that table. I'm nowhere near the table. If anything, I'm at the little kid's table.
Speaker 1:Same, same. I'm just yeah, same, absolutely so. Has mentorship or peer support helped you with some of the navigation of some of these feelings? I mean it's not all negative things right, you've done a lot of positive, had a lot of positive impacts in the community. How has the mentorship helped you to have like a more positive view and make improvements in our community?
Speaker 3:Because it's such a small, tight-knit community. Yeah, mentorship is one of the things most important to me in my life. I'm lucky to have had some incredible mentors. You know, both of my parents are amazing people. My dad has mentored me my whole life. He was Citizen of the Year for Batavia. This year he's a community champion for an incubator program. I've also had professional mentors my last CEO, hollis, and my counterpart, porik. They've both been huge. They've had so much influence on my life because they are so experienced and so knowledgeable you know, just having leaders that I can ask questions day in and day out. You know they'll talk through my problem, give me great advice. I'm so appreciative of that. And, on the flip side, acting as a mentor myself is also incredibly important.
Speaker 3:I have been a mentor for an incubator program at my old high school, where it's a class where these high school students participate in and they learn about things like sales, marketing, technology, presentations, creating a business plan and at the end of the school year they present these business plans and get real life funding.
Speaker 3:So this past year I mentored a team and the class at least in my experience it's very male dominated. Maybe 20% of the class is females and I did have a female. One out of the five kids on my team that I mentored this year was a female, and it was just really important for me to make sure that she and the entire team was set up for success. All these kids are just absolutely brilliant. But the thing that really just made it all worth it was at the end of the year. She texted me and was just like it was so amazing to have a female mentor and coach and to show that there's women in STEM, women in tech, and that we can do this. So I mean that made all the work worth it to me. Just showing up and showing that women belong here for the next generation of leaders, I think is incredibly important. It was really special.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a fact, I mean it's, it's. I can say, when my daughter first told me, you know, six, eight, six, seven years ago, you know, that she wanted to jump into tech, I was kind of like real hesitant. I was like, nah, you don't want to do that because of where we were as a, as a group, as a community, with women in the field. You know, it's just, it's tough. And then in the last, I would say last five, six months, you know, when she's, you know, brought it up cause my daughter's incredibly persistent, I can kind of nod and I'm like, all right, I see some improvement, I can, I can, you know, we can help you with that, you know. And and so it's good that people continue to put themselves out there and offer that mentorship, I mean because that next generation, I paused them saying they're coming. I feel like they're here. Oh yeah, they're definitely yeah.
Speaker 1:They're up, they're up, they're up. So shifting gears a little bit. Let's talk about some technology. Let's go yeah. What are some cool features in tech that you're interested in? We'll talk about how they helped you out in your career.
Speaker 3:Sure, I mean, you know, very recently, after starting congruent x, you know we are really really leaning on ai. Obviously, that's what everybody's is doing these days, but I think all of us taking initiative to keep learning about it and creating our own agents that has been an incredible learning experience for me. Creating specific agents to help me complete tasks that I do day to day that are personal to me has been awesome. Bots or agents that help me complete project management, or even creating agents for personal use. I have a side hobby where I thrift and resell and I created a custom AI agent to help me create listings that will have descriptions and SEO keywords that'll make my items sell faster and for more money. You know it's nice so exciting.
Speaker 3:There's so much opportunity in that space no, that's, that's awesome, like it's.
Speaker 1:It's so much more than just a word salad generator. That's just what I've sometimes called it back in 20, you know 2022 yeah, 2023 yeah, it was.
Speaker 1:You know who doesn't love these salary? We're. We've moved beyond that, I think, in this space, and so it's great that you're. I think that's one of the most clever things I've I've for personally. It's great in our space, our space. So, if we look at the platform, like you know, you jumped into Power Apps, you jumped into D365. What are some cool parts? I mean, you know we talked about AI. What are some areas that you'd like to see more improvement in? Or maybe something that you think your customers can get immediate impact in?
Speaker 3:or, you know, just give us your thoughts on it impact in or, you know, just give us your thoughts on it. Oh gosh, I think you know one of the most interesting challenges that I've come across recently is just our clients and customers being able to keep up with all of the new features that are rolling out. I've had multiple clients ask for a service where we literally just tell them about new features, you know, on different platforms, whether it's Power Apps, Power BI, D365. You know Microsoft is putting out so many new features that it's hard to keep up with. It's amazing that things are improving and coming out so fast and sometimes it's hard for our clients, who maybe aren't focused on keeping up with that so frequently that it kind of gets lost and they're like I want to use this but I don't know how or I don't know what it's best used for. So I think that's one of the biggest challenges is just keeping up with these new features rolling out and how. New systems, how to use them, you know, especially for the layman.
Speaker 1:I think there's an agent for like Microsoft Learn, but maybe one for notifications. Maybe that's a use case.
Speaker 2:Let's see if someone in the community can just go ahead and grab it.
Speaker 1:I'm going to exclude a couple of people who I know like if they hear this podcast, they're going to do it like within five minutes.
Speaker 3:Yeah right.
Speaker 1:No, troy Taylor, shout out to Cappy Connector man Miss you, bro. Hope everything is going well. But, yeah, hands off. But I think it's something that we could probably do as a community. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I guess there's so many updates coming fast and furious Forget just the Power Platform, but ai as a whole. You know, every time you turn around, whether it's co-pilot, chat, gpt, whatever, whatever ai you're using, things are changing like all of a sudden. It's like whoa, you know, here's a new model or here's a new feature. You know this has moved around because we, you know, made you know this happen so it's.
Speaker 2:It makes it very difficult to, you know, stay on top of things and, and you know, that's one of the things we have to do, but our customers just don't have that capacity from a time perspective to keep on top of it.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Yeah cool, yeah cool. And we all know how much you got going on, so I want to talk about something.
Speaker 2:I noticed that he was on vacation. Do you notice that, Emily?
Speaker 3:Not later.
Speaker 2:I just wanted to make sure you noticed it like I did.
Speaker 1:I'm just hey, you know the rare times I take time off. You know what I mean. I just got to talk about it. So let's talk about kind of something that's inspirational. Honestly, emily, seven years, eight, nine years, that's long, that's long, and I mean just to keep knocking down doors. If you had the ability to go back in time, what is something you'd probably tell yourself? What would you say?
Speaker 3:that's a good one. Oh my gosh, that is a good question. Just that you're on the right track. You know it was. It was really scary to dip my toe into this world and not know if I would be successful, but you know, being persistent and being, you know, having a lot of tenacity, I think has served me well. You know, if there was never a seat at the table, I would make my own, and that's, I think that's what a lot of women have to do. You know you make your own seat at that table. You have to figure it out and kind of push yourself to get to where you want to be.
Speaker 2:That's some really great advice, you know, especially for our younger listeners out there or you know really anyone listening out there right to make the. You know, don't have your hand out, don't expect you know people to just hand you anything. You have to go make it happen. Whether you know young, old, male, female doesn't matter. You know who you are, you know you got to work hard for you know, getting what you, what you feel you deserve or what you need?
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly, it's a lot of knocking down those doors, knocking down those walls and just pushing, pushing a lot.
Speaker 1:So what are some areas you think we could probably improve on? I mean, just be blunt, Like you know, I said those previous times, you know, years ago it wasn't easy, it wasn't fun. What are some areas in which you feel like we could help as a community? That would have made the journey a little brutal, Some areas I could say.
Speaker 3:I think, continuing to put women in leadership roles. I think, you know, everyone has a different leadership style and women especially lead with a lot of heart and a lot of empathy, which I think can be really, really beneficial in the workplace. Just kind of lifting each other up. I think that's really important, you know, kind of lifting each other up, I think that's really important. You know, if I see a woman in leadership, it's very inspirational to me and it just gives me the courage that I need to keep pushing forward in my own journey. You know, I think you know, when I went to the the women in microsoft event, I saw deb kupp speak, who's the president of Americas for Microsoft, and I thought she was incredible. You know, she was bold and courageous and obviously a very hard worker and I was like I want to be like her. You know, she's true to herself and I think people high up are great. You know, women in leadership are just incredible to see and to emulate. My own life after DARYL FOX.
Speaker 1:That's unreal. I got a quick, just a thought. I'm probably going to get in so much trouble for this, I'm going to navigate into the waters of politics. If we're okay with that, christopher COTTEN, go for it, daryl FOX. So you know, first and foremost, everyone knows I'm neutral in all these matters, so there's no side that I lean to or any of that garbage. Just leave me out of. It is how I feel. But I'm going here because I think that I'm going here.
Speaker 1:I think it's important to note that we're not talking about hiring somebody just based off of their gender. What are some skills that women can add that, quite frankly, men can't? Oh my God, where do I begin? That might be true in that women can add that, quite frankly, men can't organization like. I mean, we're not eating the heck out of each other with this conversation, but really, if you're somebody who's let's say, you're an entrepreneur, you're looking to. You know this word has gotten a lot of negative publicity, but if you look here I'm not gonna say the D word, I got a better one that they can't, people can't steal. Yet if you're looking to enhance your workforce, what are some things that you look at? You would see.
Speaker 3:Oh man, I mean, I think, especially with women, just being able to balance a lot of things at once, especially being a mother and being a woman in the workforce, is not inherently tied to being a mother or having a family. But being able to balance all of these different things and prioritize, I think, is something that women especially are really, really great at. We have to be, we do it all and we have to, and it's just part of our daily life. I think being organized and being great listeners is another thing. I think accepting feedback is something that we're inherently great at, and implementing change. You know women do a lot of things that I don't want to say that men can't, but you know we all have different skills.
Speaker 1:I would get, but you know it's not.
Speaker 1:I wasn't trying to, you know. Let me backtrack a little bit. I'm not making a hard line saying we can't do it or you can't do it. You know there's some things that maybe some people are, you know, more inept or it's a harder or it's an easier learning curve, and so you know you don't want to necessarily put people in a box, but you don't want to exclude them either. We don't want to say I'm not going to dare repeat the dumb things people say about women because I don't want to get in trouble, but also it's stupid, it's too dumb to repeat, but we don't want to put them in that box, right?
Speaker 3:We just want to basically keep our options open. So, you know, let me help soften it a little bit, if people are okay with that. Yeah, and I mean, you know, I think feminism has become a really challenging word in these recent times. To me, feminism is wanting equal opportunities for men and women, and so in that sense, you know, I think that feminism is really important in the workforce. We all deserve equal opportunities and an equal seat at the table.
Speaker 1:And they give everybody a shot. Yeah, that's all I'm saying, and they'll probably get us in trouble for saying that but that's, it so if you had to like, you know you got.
Speaker 1:You got your little one coming up. You know, yeah, some years in the future I look at retiring in the next 10 years, but it's never going to happen. I know it's not I. I can just see it's never going to happen. But you know you're looking at your legacy in the workforce. What do you want it to be for the next generation, especially with women in technology? What you are you looking for?
Speaker 3:I mean again and again, just equal opportunity, and I think that it has recently started to improve. You know all of the different initiatives for women in tech or diversity in tech. I think it has started to kind of level out the playing field and I hope it continues to be level and give everyone a chance to get into this field if that's what they want. You know, I want my girls to know that they can do anything and they can be anything that they want to be. I mean, right now, my four-year-old just told me she wants to be a princess. You know, I hope that changes and she, you know, wants to be a lawyer or a coder or president.
Speaker 3:You know, but I think that giving the next generation just the opportunity and the tools for success is what's most important. I think that especially, you know, in higher education it seems like they're really focusing on improving. You know, computer science degrees and all the different tech opportunities that college students have that I don't think they even had when I was going through college. You know, just these learning opportunities are just getting more and more advanced and, just, you know, the field is getting wider and I think that's really exciting.
Speaker 1:You know Charles said something really cool. He said you know that said something really cool. He said that people are going to have to start changing the way they develop applications, especially with AI being out and I can see it like 10 years from now. These folks are going to have to. Hopefully it's easier and the applications we're building are a lot better with some of the enhancements we're making, so I can see it being a better way. Just throwing my little two cents down there.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:And who knows?
Speaker 2:Your daughter could become like the next princess of some country overseas. Who knows? Who knows the world is her oyster. That's right, you know what? And if not, then you'll just have to teach her about all the ways of technology and and breaking you know additional barriers, because you know, hopefully by then the barriers will. You know there'll be a very even playing field, because we all know that. You know, unfortunately it's not and that's, you know, ridiculous in in my head, uh, and I'm sure many others like. But you know, hopefully, you know when she grows up it won't be like that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that is my hope and I'll be there to support her in any way that she needs.
Speaker 1:Hey, she'll probably have a session on one of these cool community groups, so it'll be fun to look back and she can play that recording and be like, hey, there's this guy who came back from vacation and this salty Red Sox I mean Yankees fan and they were talking about, you know, talking to my awesome mom about all these wonderful things that I'm going to do Never know.
Speaker 2:Let's hope so All right, you know, we're just going to. You know what. We'll send her the recording so she can have it. You know, put it in like a time capsule, right.
Speaker 1:Like in high school, they put a time and just bury it. Perfect.
Speaker 2:So many better options to listen to other than us. That's fair. That's absolutely fair, right.
Speaker 1:For real. All right, Emily. Anything else you'd like to say to our awesome group of listeners?
Speaker 3:No, I mean I just yeah, I think women rule the world and we can do anything that we put our minds to. Just got to really put yourself out there and be persistent. I think that's kind of, at the end of the day, all you really can.
Speaker 2:I think that's some really great advice for all the women and young, young ladies out there, especially those just making their way or finding their way in this you know in in this world way, or finding their way in this you know in in this world.
Speaker 2:So, um, listen to emily, she's super smart. But yeah, we had. It was a pleasure having you on okay podcast and you know we'll have to have you and others back for a round two. You know what? Maybe we'll have a lightning round, a round table man, we need her real team.
Speaker 1:You, can you imagine we're going to get you on here, emily? Can you imagine that round April? That would be a fun round table. That's right, and we'll do a round table with lightning round.
Speaker 2:That's right, fast paced questions stay tuned for November's podcast.
Speaker 1:We'll do a couple more before Thanksgiving. I think we'll do that round table idea. I think it're going to do that Fast-paced questions. Stay tuned for November's podcast. We'll do a couple more before Thanksgiving. I think we'll do that roundtable idea. I think it's a great idea.
Speaker 2:That's a great idea, that's fun, just saying. All right, thank you everyone. We appreciate your time and we look forward to our next episode and check team.
