Tech in the Right Direction

Jennifer Didier

Welcome to Tech in the Right Direction! Every week, Directions Training President and CEO, Jennifer Didier discusses how women can take tech in the right direction to drive social change and close the employment, pay, and culture gap for women in technology.

  1. 3D AGO

    A Journey to find a way after college

    Enjoy this podcast replay: In this episode Jennifer Didier interviews Jennifer Murray. Jennifer Murray shares her journey from graduating college with a Marketing degree, navigating it through a technical job she received.  From there she found her purpose and started her own company.   She discovered that small and medium businesses could create the same industry-leading employee programs by leveraging proven principles and program frameworks to increase employee engagement for the long-term. Enjoy this podcast replay: She earned her BBA in Marketing from The College of William and Mary and attended the Poole School of Management at NCSU to earn her MBA. She is actively involved in RMSHRM as VP of Membership, mentors, and volunteers with Dress for Success and St. Mary Magdalene Church in Apex, NC. Jennifer adopted a servant leadership style while leading and developing a team of sales professionals at Cisco Systems and working cross-functionally to launch Channel Partner training programs to hundreds of team members at both Cisco Systems and AT&T. She launched the first college hire sales program at Cisco Systems – immersing over one hundred recent college graduates in a multi-year training program in preparation for independent field sales positions. She and her partners believe that organizations of all sizes can create a strategic advantage to win and retain top talent. You can reach Jennifer Murray on her website www.onboardwithus.com  Or by email: Jennifer@onboardwithus.com

    24 min
  2. SEP 2

    Reasons For Not Joining the IT Industry?

    Enjoy this podcast replay: Jennifer Didier has a wonderful conversation with Courtney Quinn, Senior Director of Career Change Marketing at CompTIA. As they reminisce gain wisdom in  the importance to Own it, Know it, and Grow it. These steps can help you set the stage for the next chapter of your career.  You should definitely Consider a career in the IT field.   Bio: Courtney Quinn is the Senior Director of Career Change Marketing at CompTIA, the largest trade association for technology professionals. Courtney has played a vital role in the organization's efforts to help over 2 million people earn tech certifications and gain the skills they need to succeed in the tech industry. With a strong background in both technical and leadership roles, Courtney is a valuable resource for anyone looking to start or advance their career in technology. Connect with her to know more about your potential to launch a tech career and how to get ahead in the industry: https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtneyquinn1/. Passion areas: Helping job seekers develop career transition strategies through the OWN IT, KNOW IT, GROW IT framework - Transferable Skills (OWN IT) - Own the skills you have and make them your competitive advantage - Financial Goals (KNOW IT) - Know where you want to go in life and how long it will take to get there - Skill Building (GROW IT) - Grow the skills you need to take your first step towards a new career Courtney thrives on Instilling confidence in job seekers about their ability to work in tech and achieve job satisfaction. Comtia.org  Career Update: Senior Director of Marketing at Paragon Micro

    27 min
  3. AUG 19

    How-to Envision Success and Accomplish Your Goals

    Enjoy this podcast replay: This week's guest is Heather Doran, Chief of Staff for Business Applications Marketing & Global Industry at Microsoft. Heather is an enthusiastic leader with a proven record of implementing high-performing marketing, operations, and event strategies. She has an innate ability to collaborate with cross-functional teams to successfully develop a vision based on customer-focused insights and data that delivers results. Today we talk about Heather's move into the tech industry and how she moved her way up through the ranks at Microsoft. We also talk about how women can find success and break down barriers in a male-dominated industry. Thank you for listening; we hope Heather's story helps inspire others to seek or grow their tech career. Career Update: As head of Business Operations for Commercial Cloud & AI Marketing, I lead operational excellence at the center of product, marketing, and technology. My impact spans across organizational strategy, financial management, and operational enablement. In my role, I am an agent of change management, organizational design and thriving team cultures. My focus is driving operational efficiency at scale while influencing business growth and meaningful value creation. I partner across Microsoft’s senior leadership teams to improve quality, delivery and value, while optimizing to accelerate our AI transformation. I am known as an enthusiastic leader with a proven record of leading successful teams to drive business strategy, operations, rhythms of business, spend optimization and organizational efficiency across cloud & AI. I have an innate ability to inspire teams, collaborate cross-functionally, and successfully deliver business results at scale. My responsibilities include successful management of $500M+ marketing budget, discipline in portfolio management and optimization, and commitment to creating marketing excellence and growth-oriented team cultures that are marked by collaboration, growth mindset, accountability, and integrity. Specialties: business operations, executive communications, financial management, portfolio planning, product marketing, events, organizational design, change management, and inclusive team cultures. Known for high professional standards, attention to detail, inspirational leadership, inclusive teams and high impact.

    44 min
  4. AUG 5

    Networking, Learning and Growing in the Tech Industry

    Enjoy this podcast replay: Join Jennifer Didier and Elise Carmichael and they track their roads to success in the tech industry.  They will share about networking, the importance of learning, and growing inside the industry itself. More About Elise Carmichael: As Lakeside’s Chief Technology Officer, Elise is responsible for building and delivering the next generation of Digital Employee Experience solutions. She has over 20 years of experience working with enterprise organizations on high-tech, big data, and machine learning-based products. Before joining Lakeside, Elise held senior technology and product leadership roles at Functionize, Tricentis, QASymphony, and Mobiquity throughout the last ten years. Elise founded a nonprofit in Florida to encourage more women and minorities to enter and stay employed in high-technology fields. She studied Computer Science and Music at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  The best way to Reach Elise,  is to find her on LinkedIn and engage her about things that are not sales related.  :) Career Update: Find Elise on LinkedIn under Elise London.  She currently is an Ubiquity Extended Team Member.  Ubiquity Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm investing in software in the real world. We take an “early and nerdy” approach to investing in smart hardware and machine intelligence applications. Our goal is to back founders making software ubiquitous in the real world.

    27 min
5
out of 5
13 Ratings

About

Welcome to Tech in the Right Direction! Every week, Directions Training President and CEO, Jennifer Didier discusses how women can take tech in the right direction to drive social change and close the employment, pay, and culture gap for women in technology.