In our most recent installment of Tech Ladies Talk, we sat down with Heidi at Fidelity Investments!
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Tell me about your company and your role
Sure! I work for Fidelity Investments which is a financial services company that offers wealth management services, trading and brokerage services, investment products and retirement plans, along with financial planning and advice. In my role as a Chapter Leader in our Workplace Investing Digital Platforms group, I lead a team of software engineers and systems analysts that develops and maintains applications which provide our clients with the ability to manage their plan offerings for their employees.
What made you pursue your current role?
So I've worked in IT - specifically in data and analytics - for several years and in many different ways - as a subject matter expert, a developer, a designer, software trainer, application manager, project leader, etc. Those opportunities allowed me to do a lot of mentoring and coaching and even interviewing of potential team members, but it wasn't direct people leadership role. For a few years I freelanced in the film industry as a unit production manager and was responsible for hiring and developing people of various experience levels and across many disciplines. I really enjoyed helping people in realizing their professional dreams and providing them with growth opportunities in that space. I also recognized that I didn't see many BIPOC women - or women in general - in people leadership roles within tech. After being back in tech for some years, I was encouraged to seek out a people leadership role since I now had the hands-on experience and the culture of Fidelity is one that values diverse and inclusive workforce. And I took the leap!
How did you get into your field?
One semester before graduating from my master's program at North Carolina State University, I started working as a Business Intelligence Consultant for a small IT consulting firm. I didn't know anything about business intelligence but I understood the importance of getting data out of databases to turn it into information, and eventually into knowledge that could be shared and used. As I became more hands-on with databases, database reporting, and business intelligence tools from the perspective of providing insights for decision-making, and the focus of the discipline expanding to include more self-serve, real-time analysis and visualization, I became a specialist. The business and tech sides just "clicked" for me. I'm now in software engineering which is a night-and-day difference for me from a tech stack perspective, but I'm learning the tech stack we work with at a high level so that I can further support my direct reports and our platforms, while also bringing a data perspective to our space with a focus on data protection and privacy.
What lessons have you learned so far in your career?
The need to network is a lesson I did not learn until recent years. I was very much a go to work, keep my head down, knock out all of my tasks, and go home kind of worker early in my career. What's funny is that I enjoyed my work and got along with my co-workers and managers, but I believed what helped you move around in a company was through promotion only. I didn't realize it was important to build relationships with people so that they can understand what you want to do in your career and point out growth opportunities. I didn't know it was OK to share your aspirations - how crazy is that?! Now I make sure with my direct reports that we explore that from our first conversation on, and that we check in regularly on how they can best navigate our career paths at Fidelity.
Another important lesson I've learned is that it's critical to understand how you define success for yourself and how you measure it. I think many of us adopt very generic definitions for success that can come from your upbringing, the communities you belong to, or society as a whole. Then when we don't achieve it by a certain age we feel let down, and if we do achieve it, we still feel unfulfilled and let down in a different way. When you make the effort to establish your own definition of success, much of the stress and anxiety and indecisiveness we may face professionally falls by the wayside. It's truly empowering and can cascade it into all areas of your life and the lives of those around you!
What advice do you have for other women pursuing a similar career path?
Get comfortable being uncomfortable by meeting people, constantly learning, helping others, and asking for help when you need it. Be honest with yourself in understanding where your interests in technology lie and what your current skills and experience can take you. If you see gaps that need to be filled, invest the time and energy into gaining the skills, experience, and even certifications and/or education if required to prepare you. But don't wait to have 9 out of 10 job requirements checked before applying - if you have half of what's required or preferred, apply and see what happens! And finally, work to make lasting connections with others who are in the spaces you seek to enter but ensure you are bringing value to the relationship as well - it should never be one-sided in any relationship.
Resources for women in tech, and the companies that want to build inclusive workplaces where they can thrive.
