I started working in IT in December of 2016 with Calyx. Life before Calyx, I was in customer service roles and retail since I was a teenager. I started working with my aunt and traveled the U.S. learning the basics of customer service and how to interact with people. I excelled in customer service with every job. My goal was to always make an impression on the people I worked with. I wanted people to be happy they worked with me.
Journey to IT
Getting into IT was different for me than it usually is for others. I knew some IT basics because I grew up a PC Gamer and was always interested to learn more about the IT world but never fully pursued that path. I got hired with more of my customer service background in the forefront. When I started, Calyx was smaller. We consisted of five men and myself. Working in retail, I was constantly around women. So, coming into this field and working every day with just five men was foreign but exciting.
When brought on, my role was to assist with phone calls, basic printer issues, and password resets. In my second year with Calyx, we grew, and more female associates joined the team. One female coworker has truly been a mentor. She showed me how to thrive as a female technician in our environment and is still teaching me new things today.
I continue to build my knowledge as I progress with Calyx. I now do more things, like manage calls, triage issues, schedule service requests to the correct technicians, manage our phone systems, manage our ticketing system, schedule hardware configurations, on-site visits, and work as a second hand to our technicians. There are still some service request tickets that I handle that come in like security changes and back-end infrastructure monitoring, user setups, and application issues, so I have two roles in a sense.
I believe that my customer service background helps me in IT because I want people to know their issues matter and we want them to be productive and happy while working. I want people to know they have a friend in me, and I will do my best to make sure they are taken care of.
Life at Calyx
Calyx is very different from any other company I have worked for because we are like a family here. I have never worked in an environment where everyone had everyone else’s back so much. If one person fails, we all fail, if one person stumbles, there is a team there to help get the footing back under them. Never once, in my five years with Calyx, have I ever felt less important than anyone else here, regardless of male or female.
Women in IT
As a female in a mostly male-dominated Information Technology world, it can be intense at times. From my experiences, it can be hard for women in IT as some people simply prefer working with a man over a woman. As a zealous people person, I am determined to make everyone happy regardless of personal opinions.
The advice I would give to any female looking to join the IT field, do IT (pun intended). I love fixing things and I still get to use my people skills to talk with people daily. IT can be different roles, so find one that makes you happy. It’s ever-changing, some basics stay the same, but there is always a way to do something different. In the long run, it doesn’t matter if you are male or female, you can thrive in any field as long as your desire is there.
Are you looking to kickstart your career in technology? Visit our careers page to see what opportunities are currently available.