According to Girls Who Code, 74% of young girls express interest in STEM fields, but only 26% of IT jobs are held by women. In our Women in Tech series, we look at what drives some of our most motivated employees to pursue successful tech careers. Michelle McCurdy opens the door to the meeting room with a cheerful "Hello!" and sits across from me. We recline in our plush mid-century modern armchairs, enjoying the morning sunlight that engulfs the room, pouring over the looming skyscrapers that characterize downtown Atlanta. As the Director of Customer Support at CallRail, our time to talk was carved out of Michelle's incredibly busy schedule. We dive right into Michelle's journey to technology. “I went to Auburn University. My dad was in the military and my mom worked for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), so I moved around a lot.
I actually told my parents that they would have to Employee Email Database disown me or emancipate me at some point because I didn't want to jump to different high schools. We finally agreed that I would go to a private high school in Georgia and then my parents would put me through college. My first choice was UCLA, but when I traveled to California with my mom to find a place to live, she decided it was too far. “Shortly after, we visited Auburn. I remember standing under Toomer's Oaks. I came back and told my parents, 'I love this school. It's family oriented and like I'd fit right in. As someone who has moved around a lot, it was a nice feeling for me, because home was never a place, it was people. Michelle majored in psychology, which allowed her to better read client behavior, exercise patience in difficult circumstances, and discern when to change approaches with someone she leads or to whom she leads. offers support services. “Every job I've held since I started working at sixteen has been, in one way or another, a customer support job. I had times when I wanted to try working in other departments, but customer service always set me back. I first thought of it as a way to get my foot in the door with good companies.
I remember working at one particular company with a very difficult colleague, but I was able to streamline their processes and create customer service. It was an “ah-ha” moment for me where customer support was something I could be good at. I now know how to build a customer service model and integrate it with the platforms used by a company. With this revelation came a lot of hard work to make his career what it is today, although many days working in customer support can be a thankless profession. “Whenever I struggle with the daily grind, I think about where things were and where they are now. I have to focus on that because at the root of it all, I want to create something that works. Michelle continues, “I'm a woman in technology. People immediately reject you. They don't think you can do it. You have to work six times harder to get somewhere. And I'm not just a woman, I'm a black woman. So I have to double down on that to show that I not only deserved it, but I deserve it. »