I’ve been working at IBM for almost 25 years now! During that time I have spent my career going back and forth between the technical and business paths. I’ve done that because I really don’t know what I want to be when I grow up. I love learning and at various times technology had more things to learn, and at others there was more to learn in area like business models, markets, business processes, etc.
I was lucky enough to work for an internal startup back in 2007/8, and during that work I was able to get my promotion to Program Director, the highest non-executive, business level at IBM. I had helped drive significant revenue and partnerships for the startup. I took that role and when it was clear that we were not going to build a new business from the startup, I moved into business unit strategy within one of IBM’s software brands. It was an exciting time, as we acquired multiple companies and set a direction to help transform the brand. During this time, I learned a lot of business and technical skills, and began working more closely with IBM’s research teams. This lead me to the opportunity to ultimately work in research helping bring technologies to market. Again bringing together my love of technology and business. I worked with research scientists, and companies, to figure out how get real value from research.
About two and half years ago, my efforts allowed me to move back to a “brand” to help drive more adoption of technology. This effort was once again in Strategy, but my focus became more and more technical. I decided at that time, that if I was ever going to try and get my executive level at IBM, I wanted to do it as a technical person. For the last few years, I refocused back to more and more technical activities, including building technical demos with partners.
By refocusing my activities to technical work, that had a direct impact on the business side, I have expanded my impact at IBM. I also took a much more active role in mentoring new employees, coops, interns, and college students. Helping these individuals reach their technical goals, while also infusing the value off having a business mind set.
This impact and focus, lead me to successfully receive the highest non-executive technical position at IBM – the Senior Technical Staff Member, in early 2020. The next step is Distinguished Engineer!