Tech in the Right Direction

Growing Your Network: How it Can Benefit You

Enjoy this podcast replay:
This week's guest is Beth Bridges, a networking motivator who has run over 2,500 networking events over a ten-year span. She is the author of "Networking on Purpose," which focuses on networking strategy and how it helps grow businesses. Beth is now focusing on taking networking to the virtual world with her nine-minute network training courses. Beth is also the Chief Networking Officer for Blitzr.com, a networking platform that combines traditional one-on-one networking with the digital realm.
Beth has an extensive background in marketing and networking. Early on in her career, her niche was traditional marketing, but the digital world was right around the corner and Beth knew she had to develop her skills. She worked on these skills independently by writing HTML and then developed into a full-on digital marketing guru. This growth set Beth up for success in digital marketing and helped her grow her network within the business world. Beth credits networking with helping grow her career and knows that she couldn't have made it to where she is today without a little help from her networking friends.
Thank you for listening; we hope Beth's story helps inspire others to grow their network and see the benefits of leaning on other professionals. If you would like to learn more about Beth and her company, Visit their site: https://blitzr.com/
Learn more about her book here: https://thenetworkingmotivator.com/

Overcoming Obstacles and Self-Doubt to Drive Change

Enjoy this podcast replay:
This week's guest is Jane Wiseman, CEO of the Institute for Excellence in Government. This consulting services organization helps state and local government clients with strategy development, policy analysis, program implementation, and performance management. Jane is a seasoned government innovation and data analytics thought leader, strategy consultant, and experienced board member for social enterprises and non-profits.
Today we talk about Jane's move into the tech industry and how she became an executive-level leader within her organization. We also talk about how women can drive change in male-dominated industries by overcoming their self-doubt and knocking down obstacles.
Thank you for listening; we hope Jane's story helps inspire others to seek or grow their tech career.

Women In Tech: Finding Your Purpose

Enjoy this podcast Replay:
This week's guest is Ayumi Moore Aoki, the Founder and CEO of WOMEN IN TECH - a leading global organization whose mission is to empower and grow women and girls’ presence in STEM. The organization focuses on four primary areas that are a call for action: Education, Entrepreneurialism, Social Inclusion, Science & Research. The aim is to educate, equip and empower women and girls with the necessary skills and confidence to succeed in STEM careers. She is also the Founder and CEO of the award-winning agency Social Brain® and the Co-Founder of HER Digital Academy.
Today we talk about Ayumi's early years in business and how she eventually transitioned from a career in marketing to finding her purpose with a career in technology. Ayumi was fully immersed in technology - learning to code, build websites, and create apps. During this time, Ayumi learned about the ever-widening gap between women and men within the tech industry. To help close this gap, Ayumi founded Social Brain, WOMEN IN TECH, and HER Digital Academy with the focus of empowering and lifting women up.
Learn more about Ayumi and WOMEN IN TECH here: https://women-in-tech.org/
Thank you for listening; we hope Ayumi's story helps inspire others to grow their tech career.

Tips on how to be seen by Technology Staff recruiters.

Enjoy this podcast replay:
Tech in the Right Direction host, Jennifer Didier and Manager of People and Culture at Curate Partners,  Natasha Thomas talk about how she got involved in the Technology industry.  Natasha also shares some great insight on how to represent yourself to be considered for technology opportunities.
Natasha's Bio:
Natasha Thomas is the Manager of People and Culture at Curate Partners. She studied at SUNY Fredonia, majoring in Psychology and minoring in Sociology and currently resides in the North end of Boston, MA. With over a decade of IT industry experience, Natasha is passionate about building programs and opportunities to support people of all backgrounds in achieving their career ambitions. A major focus in her current role is expanding DEI&B initiatives for internal/external employees and clients.
Professional update: 
Natasha Thomas now works full time at Boston Public Health Commission as the Director of Human Resources.

Building and Leading Teams in Technology

Enjoy this podcast replay:
Katherine Kress is VP of Strategy and an awesome women leader at Percepta. She has extensive experience in marketing, customer experience consulting, and the contact center / BPO space. She has 25 years of experience in marketing and customer experience consulting, having managed global marketing, product and services development, and more. Her ability to build and lead teams is second to none, and she has a great vision on the path to success for women working in any industry – especially marketing, technology, or the BPO space.  
Today we talk about Katherine’s career journey, how she went from a degree in Asian Studies in Political Science to the technology world. Katherine discusses steps on how to build and lead amazing teams, being passionate in her work, and how much technology has changed in the last several years. 
Connect with Katherine Kress HERE on LinkedIn. 
Thank you for listening, we hope Katherine’s expertise has encouraged you. 

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 

This is A Great Time for Women in Tech

Enjoy this podcast replay:
Christine Bongard is the President of the WIT (Women in Tech) Network, and she is joining us in this week’s episode to discuss the amazing work her organization does. The WIT Network is present in over 30 countries worldwide and it is working diligently on encouraging women and girls to pursue careers in the technology sector, enable more women to attain leadership positions and support more female entrepreneurs in their professional endeavors. Christine talked to us about including more girls in the tech world through working with schools, creating work environments that are more welcoming to women and insisting on inclusion strategies. She emphasizes the importance of inspiring and coaching each other to gain confidence needed for a successful career in the fast-paced technology industry. Despite the long road that is still ahead, Christine is confident this is a great time for women in technology as companies are opening up and more opportunities are being offered to marginalized groups. Tune in to learn more about Christine's efforts and pick up on some great advice that she shared with our listeners.

Venture Capital Pursuit

Enjoy this podcast replay:
Sit with Jennifer Didier and Jean Anne Booth as they discuss the world of Venture Capital.  After a great career and millions of dollars made, Jean Anne Booth come out of retirement for a corporate adventure that would change the life of loved one and those like her. 
As a serial entrepreneur, Jean Anne Booth has 30 years of experience in high technology. Her background spans from P&L business unit management to marketing; product definition; systems, software, and applications engineering; silicon development engineering; and operations and product engineering. Jean Anne was the founder of Luminary Micro, the creators of the Stellaris® microcontroller (MCU) platform and the first to market with ARM® Cortex™-M3-based microcontroller solutions. Luminary Micro was purchased by Texas Instruments in May 2009. Jean Anne left TI in November 2011 after serving as the General Manager for TI’s Stellaris family of products. Early in her career, Jean Anne worked with AMD’s embedded microprocessor products for 10 years in a number of management, marketing and engineering roles. Jean Anne holds a BSEE from the University of Texas and an MSCE degree from National Technical University.
Reach her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeanannebooth/
Website: https://www.unaliwear.com/
Career Update:
CEO of UnaliWear