SmartBear Career Growth & Development

Describe your career journey so far. What skills and experiences have you acquired along the way that have helped you get to where you are now?
One of my first jobs was at a recruiting agency where I had to make cold calls and negotiate daily. I was shy back then, so this pushed me far outside my comfort zone and showed me what I was capable of. From there, I joined a venture capital firm and eventually one of their portfolio companies, which was a small team. I wore many hats across recruiting, benefits and being a human resources business partner. I said yes to everything, made mistakes and learned lessons I wouldn’t have anywhere else.

A great example of this was when I oversaw compliance and mistakenly classified certain employees as “exempt” when they should not have been. It took a lot of unraveling to fix my errors and I remember going to my manager in tears. They told me I had permission to not know things and ask for help and that kind of changed the way I approached my role from then on.

Over the past 10 years, I’ve worked in fast-growing tech companies, collaborating across teams to build high-performing cultures. My biggest lesson has been to embrace feedback. Early on, I feared “negative” feedback and saw it as criticism, but I’ve learned that honest feedback builds relationships, trust and personal growth.

What support did you receive from individuals and/or resources that helped you step into a leadership role?
I’ve been intentional about working closely with people who can help me become better. That rarely means people who will just share my point of view. These connections helped me level up, because their direct and honest feedback pushed me to overcome challenges and see things differently.

Looking back, one of the chief people officers I worked with taught me a valuable lesson about perception. The first time I went through a 360-feedback process, I felt completely overwhelmed and vulnerable. A peer shared that I came across as passive and I strongly disagreed! When I shared how frustrated I felt, she calmly said, “It honestly doesn’t matter if you agree with the feedback or not. This is how people are perceiving you.” That moment snapped me out of my spiral and completely shifted my mindset. I realized that feedback on my style and leadership wasn’t something to take personally, it was an opportunity to see myself through others’ eyes and grow.

How do you encourage other women on your team to become leaders themselves? Are there any stories you can share that showcase how you’ve done this?
I want women on my team to trust their instincts and have confidence in their decisions, even when the outcome feels uncertain. A few years ago, I worked with a woman who had natural leadership qualities. When I pointed this out to her and noted that colleagues often looked to her for advice, she doubted whether she had the personal brand to be a leader.

I worked closely with her to ensure she received the feedback, visibility and confidence she needed to succeed. Visibility was particularly important. I made space for her to share ideas with the leadership team directly, not through me, so they could experience her as a peer. Today, she’s a strong, respected leader. She just needed someone to remind her of what was already there. It was rewarding to be the one to point the mirror back at her.