Sep 14, 2023

Some people only pursue their passions outside of work hours. These women decided to take a different path and built careers out of doing what they love. Written by Michael Hines September 13, 2023Updated: September 13, 2023 For Lisa Lilley it was Cliff Soll’s 1989 novel The Cuckoo’s Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage. Renuka S. Pugazhendhi remembers it being the computer she received as a present for her 12th birthday. In the case of Leigh Anne Buttrick, it was an unrelenting desire to understand how everything at an adtech startup worked. These are the exact moments three Chicago women in tech discovered their passion for technology. While the stories differ, what all three women have in common is that they weren’t content relegating their passions to their personal lives and instead decided to build their careers around them. This is no easy task — having a passion for technology doesn’t provide a shortcut to learning how to code or to understanding the business of technology. Turning a passion into a career requires hard work, and Built In Chicago spoke with Smith, Pugazhendhi, Buttrick and 11 other women in tech about what this work entails along with their advice to women seeking to do the same. Director of Product Management   UL Solutions provides product safety certifications and testing services. It also makes software for regulatory compliance, supply chain transparency and reporting, and sustainability. Tell us a bit about your career journey thus far and what you do at UL Solutions. I started as a software technology admin and then stepped into business analysis where I honed my problem-solving skills and gained a high-level perspective of my work’s impact on the company. I grew into management roles thanks to my technical background, skill set and business acumen. At UL Solutions, I’ve worked on various digital transformation projects, each allowing me to grow my knowledge of the business. As director of product management, I lead our customer-facing product suite, working closely with my team and leadership to solve customer challenges and enhance customer interactions through digitalization. How did you discover your passion for technology and how did you know you wanted to pursue a career in tech? I discovered my passion for technology while earning my master’s degree in information systems engineering. A data structure course was the spark that ignited my technology interest and following it up with technical courses clarified my career path. I loved programming and business analysis as they fueled my inclination for problem solving. What advice would you give to women who are discovering an interest in tech and are considering pursuing a career in the field? Apply for the job you want, even if you don’t have the exact background and experience. Especially in technology, it’s impossible for one person to know everything. What you bring to the table are soft skills — the ability to connect dots, see the big picture and ask questions with confidence. Don’t be afraid of gray areas. While some tech jobs can be clear cut, others operate in abstract concepts. Know your strengths and which situations you excel in and lean into those. Apply for the job you want, even if you don’t have the exact background and experience.” CPCU  Architecture Sr. Specialist CNA is a commercial and property casualty insurance company that operates in the United States, Canada and Europe. Tell us a bit about your career journey thus far and what you do at CNA. After graduating with a degree in math and computer science from UIC, it was not clear what career path I should take. I read how insurance offers choice, security, stability, variety and longevity and accepted a job leading a niche market insurance product at an insurance carrier. I accepted increasingly technical roles and excelled at software engineering, client and server-side applications, and writing queries. I worked through my first major defect and later requested an opportunity to support a solution architect. At this stage, I hired a consultant to help me brush up on technical skills. I reached out to some folks at CNA Financial to discuss a senior architectural specialist role. I accepted their offer wholeheartedly as I was very excited about the company leadership and the character and intelligence of the team. My primary work involves identifying and codifying standards and best practices for our global developer community and bridging gaps between departments to facilitate collaboration. How did you discover your passion for technology and how did you know you wanted to pursue a career in tech? In the early 1990s, an acquaintance shared enthusiasm for a book called The Cuckoo’s Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage by Clifford Stoll. The concepts and mystery of the internet piqued my curiosity and prompted me to register for a Unix course at a community college, which I really enjoyed! I started using Telnet and a 386 with my landline to explore. The internet fed my curiosity and I had to learn more. My passion for technology stems from that exploration. My current position at CNA continues to fuel my technology passions. This role has been a dream. It’s an opportunity to leverage my business knowledge and experience in the context of technology, work in a culture I feel passionately about, feed my brain with educational opportunities and keep my technical skills fresh. What advice would you give to women who are discovering an interest in tech and are considering pursuing a career in the field? It’s important for women to be selective on whose advice they consider — even the advice I write here. Give more consideration to folks you respect and who inspire you and those with impressive reputations and intellects. Also, be courageous and aware of yourself and your environment. Listen, ask questions, nurture your curiosity and help foster a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion. One tenet I have carried throughout my technical career is that mistakes are part of a fast development learning cycle, and risking failure is part of the innovation process. Throughout my career, I have remained ambitious with innovation sprint projects and asked questions, and it became part of my reputation to innovate, try new things and have fun. I challenge you to adopt a similar mindset. Making mistakes is part of a fast development learning cycle.” Senior Project Manager First responders and corporations use Motorola Solutions’ radios, video cameras and communications software to keep communities safe and increase productivity and security. Tell us a bit about your career journey thus far and what you do at Motorola Solutions. I came to the United States from India to pursue a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering and realize the “American Dream.” My career at Motorola Solutions led me through a variety of roles such as software engineer, database administrator and new product introduction manager. Along the way, I earned a master’s certificate in project management, a certificate in database technologies and the Project Management Professional certification. Throughout my more than 20-year journey as a Motorolan, I made it my goal to seize every opportunity to grow professionally and pay it forward by mentoring junior professionals. While my day job consists of managing a variety of engineering programs internally and with suppliers, my “yay” job consists of serving as Motorola Solutions’ global lead for the Society of Women Engineers. This role is my “ikigai”, the ideal intersection of my passion, strengths and the potential to make a difference in the lives of others. I made it my goal to seize every opportunity to grow professionally and pay it forward.” How did you discover your passion for technology and how did you know you wanted to pursue a career in tech? Science and math come naturally to me and I’ve always had an inquisitive mind. My father has a Bachelor of Technology degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay — a prestigious Indian university — and taught me the importance of always breaking down challenges using a logical approach. When I was torn between a career in engineering and medicine, I decided to pursue electronics engineering empowered by his influence. I am fortunate to have been raised by highly educated parents who nurtured my spirit of academic excellence. When Motorola offered me my first job after graduate school, it was a no-brainer. I was able to enter into my dream job at a great company that’s a springboard for a successful career in engineering and technology. What advice would you give to women who are discovering an interest in tech and are considering pursuing a career in the field? Build a strong foundation through education, formal training or on-the-job learning to position yourself for success. If you are the first in your family to consider a career in technology, be sure to leverage resources and networks that can help you in the process. It is important to gain mentors in the industry, in your community or through career counselors to guide you throughout the job application process as well. And lastly, keep in mind that as women, we bring unique and powerful natural abilities to the table, such as emotional intelligence, unique communication skills and the ability to multitask and collaborate. This dynamic combination of technical skills mixed with people skills make women a great fit for careers in technology. Senior Product Manager Companies use iManage’s platform to increase collaboration and knowledge sharing by organizing emails and documents together into a single, searchable and shared folder. Tell us a bit about your career journey thus far and what you do at iManage. After graduating from law school and litigating for a few years I burned out, and it was time to find a more sustainable career. An old pal from law school invited me to join an early stage startup, and I got a job as an account manager and moseyed through a few more roles and jobs before landing as senior product manager at iManage. I work on collaboration tools, and I’m lucky enough to work with the smartest and most supportive colleagues in the universe. How did you discover your passion for technology and how did you know you wanted to pursue a career in tech? My path to tech is something I found later in life. I have absolutely no technical background except for a growth mindset and a real interest in what makes things work. While working as an attorney, the tech we used was often frustrating, and I found myself spending more time on administrative duties than actual factual work. It’s the sneaky little administrative details that can really wear you down, and that absolutely wore me down. Since landing in legal tech, I’m delighted to represent our users’ voices and solve for those frustrations. It’s less that I’m passionate about technology and more that I’m passionate about how technology can make our lives easier and more enjoyable. I found a nice work-life balance since graduating law school; I hope I can help my users find the same by building tools to support the ways that they work. It’s less that I’m passionate about technology and more that I’m passionate about how technology can make our lives easier and more enjoyable.” What advice would you give to women who are discovering an interest in tech and are considering pursuing a career in the field? My friends, the rules are all made up and you can do whatever you want! If you have a sneaking suspicion that you want to try something new, it’s worth exploring. Ask people out for coffee, read up on the field and sit in on webinars. Don’t be afraid to ask for help: People absolutely want to help you and it makes them feel good to be able to share their background and expertise. It is never too late to try something new, and everyone has unique skills that they can bring to tech. Director, Product Management Qualtrics’ platform collects and analyzes employee and customer data, recommends courses of action related to that data and helps organize workflows to put those plans into motion. Tell us a bit about your career journey thus far and what you do at Qualtrics. I started my career in 2012 at a startup called Clarabridge where I had the opportunity to blend my interests in language, the Internet and technology. I studied linguistics, cognitive science and computer science but didn’t know how those things would blend together. It was serendipitous to find a company and a role that fit so well. I was a business consultant for two years and got a crash course in natural language processing technologies. I then took advantage of an opportunity to shift into the burgeoning product management team. At the same time, I started a master’s program at Georgetown where I explored the foundations of language tech and business strategy, which I immediately applied to my work. As a PM, I owned our NLP and text analytics capabilities, and I stepped into a management role four years later, managing larger parts of the Clarabridge product. Nine years into my journey, Qualtrics acquired Clarabridge, and I retained the same role and grew my scope. I am now the director of product management for the Qualtrics Intelligence Platform. How did you discover your passion for technology and how did you know you wanted to pursue a career in tech? I’ve always had a passion for technology. My dad is a chemical engineer, my grandpa was a nuclear physicist and my uncle is a neurosurgeon. Tech brought us together and bridged challenging divides. We took pride in building solutions from scratch, over-engineering house projects and tinkering with tools and devices. My grandpa passed away earlier this year and his eulogy was anecdote after anecdote about the simple machines he built with his kids and grandkids to accomplish routine tasks. My entrance into tech was more natural than intentional. I knew I wanted to pursue my interests in language and technology but had no idea what that amounted to. Growing up in the Washington D.C. area, I assumed I would work for the government like both of my parents and most of my friends’ parents. Clarabridge served as my first introduction to the private sector and the tech industry. I had no idea how much more fun it would be and I am so incredibly proud of being a part of it. What advice would you give to women who are discovering an interest in tech and are considering pursuing a career in the field? Your career is not linear. In fact, one of my mentors once told me that your career is a jungle gym, not a ladder. Some moves will be upwards, others downwards and many lateral. Having a career in tech is an unpredictable and transient journey. The roles and responsibilities evolve as fast as the tech itself. For many of us, the jobs we will have in two years don’t exist today, which is especially true for college hires. I encourage women in tech to find roles that align with their interests rather than ones with a perfect title. The company you work for, its culture, the people you innovate with and the space you’re given to experiment is way more valuable than a title. Remember that in tech, your role is perpetually evolving with the concurrent technology changes, and this yields resiliency, creativity and open mindedness. Those strengths will be your greatest assets in building an entire career in this dynamic space. I encourage women in tech to find roles that align with their interests rather than ones with a perfect title.” Principal Data Scientist PatientPoint provides in-office, digital engagement solutions to physicians, including screens that share health content and touchscreens that enable doctors to delve deeper into diagnoses. Tell us a bit about your career journey thus far and what you do at PatientPoint. I have more than 17 years of healthcare experience and started my career as a business office manager for an ambulatory surgery center after earning a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Cincinnati. After a few years I moved into an analyst role for a local health system but wanted to better understand the data. I found the Masters in Business Analytics program at UC in 2013 and fell in love with the program. After graduation, I took a role as a data scientist with that same health system and quickly moved into leadership managing the advanced analytics team. In January 2020, I took a position at a clinical AI company, but Covid negatively affected the organization to the point I felt the need to seek something new. I found PatientPoint and joined the advanced analytics team as a principal data scientist in May 2022. My work now focuses on measuring patient outcomes resulting from patients viewing our content in physician offices and tackling operational challenges, like prioritizing support for locations with offline devices. How did you discover your passion for technology and how did you know you wanted to pursue a career in tech? I didn’t set out to be in technology: I just found a program that matched my interests, talents and abilities and it grew organically from there. Data science was a very new field when I entered the space and it’s a huge area of incredible opportunity and challenges. It’s one thing to build a predictive model and get good results from an experiment. It’s a totally different ball game to actually get people to trust it, use it and make sustainable improvement that can be measured. I’ve grown in my leadership and influencing skills as much as my technical skills over the past few years because I’ve found it isn’t just about the work itself but also how you do it that matters. Faith has been an integral part of my adventure, and I always keep trying, learning and trusting I am where I need to be until I feel otherwise. I love learning new things and it’s fun for me to work with big data and use advanced analytic techniques to solve complex problems. I’ve grown in my leadership and influence as much as my technical skills because I’ve found it isn’t just about the work itself but how you do it.” What advice would you give to women who are discovering an interest in tech and are considering pursuing a career in the field? Think about the problems you’re motivated to fix and then start exploring what methods, training and tools you need to solve them. Sometimes it is directly tackling an issue that is important to you, but often it can look like supporting others by ensuring they have the tools needed to do their jobs. The technology space is vast, and it’s important to really dig in to understand your strengths, talents, abilities and passions so you can grow in confidence as you cultivate your skills. Don’t be afraid to learn from others you admire and respect. There will be challenges and failures along the way, and a willingness to learn and grow and not expect perfection goes a long way. Comparison and competition can be big distractions, but if you spend time really getting to know yourself, you’ll be able to trust your choices. Finally, just be creative, have fun and surround yourself with people who build you up and share your passions.