#InternationalWomensDay: Paying it Forward

In reflecting on #InternationalWomensDay, I am overcome with gratitude, appreciation, and inspiration for the support I’ve received throughout my career.

I began my professional career in the services industry, holding customer-facing jobs at Baskin & Robbins, Pottery Barn and Bath & Body Works throughout high-school and college. From the beginning, my managers and co-workers across these companies taught me that every person at a company matters and can have impact, creating a safe and supportive environment to share my voice. This, coupled with my grandma’s advice to work hard, stay humble, be kind and be YOU, gave me the confidence to bring the best of my authentic self each and every day.

Through a summer internship with Ernst & Young as an assistant in Human Resources, I continued to benefit from a manager and co-workers who invested in me and reinforced that all contributions, big and small, matter and pave the way to increased opportunity. During my internship, I was responsible for ‘filling the gaps’ and helping the HR department were needed. With the support of my team, I found myself quickly moving from executing tasks to taking on projects that benefitted the whole of the organization. As my confidence increased through each project, the confidence others had in me grew as well and I took on progressively larger projects.

After graduating college, I began a career in business consulting and joined Accenture. I immediately benefited from committed mentors and sponsors both within Accenture and through the clients I served who saw my potential, often seeing more in me than I saw in myself. One mentor helped me transition from the role of full-time consultant to a program manager role at Microsoft. Soon after joining Microsoft, it became clear to me that I found an environment where I could grow both my professional and personal aspirations and be supported along the way. 16 years later, the number of mentors and sponsors that have supported me in my career journey at Microsoft are simply too numerous to list. From support and encouragement to literally ‘take a seat at the leadership team table’ during a meeting where I was the only female, non-engineer, and the youngest person in the room, to advice on how to prepare for becoming a new mom while juggling the demands of my intense job (I’m now a mom to 4 kids between 5 and 11 years), to how to transition from a people manager role of a larger organization to a senior individual contributor role and back again, to how to be vulnerable, ask for help and not be afraid of saying “I don’t know”, my many mentors have guided me every step along the way. My sponsors have seen me and my potential and served as my advocate even at times when I was ill-equipped to advocate for myself. Having had 4 kids and experienced 4 different parental leaves, each time I questioned whether I should return to work and whether I was getting a positive ROI from my professional career that outweighed leaving my baby at home. And each time, my sponsors rallied around me, helping me see a path forward where I could have high impact as a mom, a wife, a daughter, a sibling, a friend and as a professional.

The impact of having strong mentors and sponsors throughout my career has given me the strength, confidence, and support to grow professionally and personally. It has also inspired me to pay it forward to others and has become one of the most rewarding aspects of my career.

Each month I dedicate ~16 hours to coaching and mentoring men and women within Microsoft and my broader network. And I’ve found mentoring is a two-way connection. I learn just as much from those I mentor, especially those who are early in career and their unique and fresh perspectives, as I believe I am able to share with them.

In addition to mentoring individuals, I am proud to have established a 15-month rotational program for early in career professionals to gain experience in business strategy and operations. Now in the third year of the program, 12 people from a diverse range of backgrounds, education, and experience across the globe, have been able to accelerate their careers through this immersive rotation, providing them with hands-on experience working with and supporting executives to drive our business strategy.

As I reflect on my career journey and the learnings I’ve gained as both a mentee and mentor, I conclude where I began. I am overcome with gratitude, appreciation, and inspiration for the support I’ve received throughout my career and I’m humbled to now be able to pay it forward to so many others and help grow the next generation of leaders.