Ginny works remotely for a company called Serviceminder. Ginny explains her journey from community college to working in the tech industry. Hear how both technical skills and interpersonal skills are important in Ginny’s work. Ginny also talks about her experience at community college and how it shaped her career.
The Talking Technicians podcast is produced by MNT-EC, the Micro Nano Technology Education Center, through financial support from the National Science Foundation's Advanced Technological Education grant program.
Opinions expressed on this podcast do not necessarily represent those of the National Science Foundation.
Join the conversation. If you are a working technician or know someone who is, reach out to us at info@talkingtechnicians.org.
Links from the show:
The Micro Nano Technology Education Center (MNT-EC): https://micronanoeducation.org/
A-B Tech: https://abtech.edu/
Serviceminder: https://serviceminder.io/
Episode Web Page: https://micronanoeducation.org/students-parents/talking-technicians-podcast/
Ginny works remotely for a company called Serviceminder. Ginny explains her journey from community college to working in the tech industry. Hear how both technical skills and interpersonal skills are important in Ginny’s work. Ginny also talks about her experience at community college and how it shaped her career.
The Talking Technicians podcast is produced by MNT-EC, the Micro Nano Technology Education Center, through financial support from the National Science Foundation's Advanced Technological Education grant program.
Opinions expressed on this podcast do not necessarily represent those of the National Science Foundation.
Join the conversation. If you are a working technician or know someone who is, reach out to us at info@talkingtechnicians.org.
Links from the show:
The Micro Nano Technology Education Center (MNT-EC): https://micronanoeducation.org/
A-B Tech: https://abtech.edu/
Serviceminder: https://serviceminder.io/
Episode Web Page: https://micronanoeducation.org/students-parents/talking-technicians-podcast/
Peter Kazarinoff 0:02
From MNT-EC, the Micro Nano Technology Education Center, this is Talking Technicians. The podcast about technicians: who they are, what they do, and where they come from. I'm your host, Peter Kazarinoff. I teach technicians and engineers that Portland Community College. In each episode, you'll meet a working technician and hear their story. That means real interviews, with real technicians, about real jobs. At the end of each episode, you'll hear actions you can take if you want to be a technician too.
In this episode, you'll meet Ginny. Ginny is a client success manager at Serviceminder. Ginny works remotely, but Serviceminder is based in Texas. Ginny, welcome to Talking Technicians.
Ginny 0:55
Thanks, Peter. I'm Glad to be here. Happy to have a chat.
Peter Kazarinoff 1:00
So Ginny, I mentioned that service minder is based in Texas. But you currently live in North Carolina, where in North Carolina or Yeah,
Ginny 1:09
I live in Asheville, that is in western North Carolina in the mountains. It's a beautiful place. Leaves are starting to turn here now. So it's especially nice in that Chris fall weather. And it's mainly known for, you know, Biltmore, mansion, Blue Ridge Parkway, lots of breweries, people love beer here. So that's kind of the main draw to have, we have a lot of tourists that come to town. So that's typically what they're here for.
Peter Kazarinoff 1:41
Ginny, what originally brought you to Asheville.
Ginny 1:44
You know, I had grown up in southwest Virginia, northeast Tennessee. So kind of over the mountain from here, had moved around the southeast a lot throughout my 20s and had decided to relocate, I was actually married, went through a divorce to have a child and we decided to relocate back here a little closer to home, but little bit of a prettier spot to be.
Peter Kazarinoff 2:10
So Ginny, I mentioned that you were a client success manager in the intro, what's a client success manager? And what do you do day to day at work?
Ginny 2:20
So client success manager is one of those terms that I think is being used more often. Now it sort of has replaced the customer support, basically, I basically do tech support. So that's kind of when people ask what I do, I typically will just say tech support, because I think that paints a clearer picture. But the client success part comes in because you are working with your clients to ultimately help them use your product service monitors the software, so we're trying to help them use their software successfully. So that's kind of where that comes in. I think client success is just a newer spin that I noticed, I started seeing a lot in the past couple of years, but day to day, basically, I'm taking client tickets, you know, we have a ticketing system, they send an emails, this is broken, or I can't figure out how to do this or the setting isn't right, what do I need to do. And we sort of work with them one on one, fix the thing or tell them how to fix the thing. And we do some meetings, you know, kind of over zoom, since we all work remotely, or cloud server used to that. So we'll have kind of training sessions and things like that here and there. But the most part is working primarily on excuse me primarily through email. So it's basically not a lot of phone support, luckily, but we do do a lot of back and forth emailing with our clients.
Peter Kazarinoff 3:45
Ginny, you mentioned that you manage tickets, for those that don't work in your industry, what does that mean? What's a ticket.
Ginny 3:52
So instead of a client, emailing, you know, one person directly or even trying to send out some sort of email blasts to a company, lot of companies will have a ticketing system, there are a lot of platforms out there that basically have it set up. So they can send an email to one email address. And that reaches the whole team, the whole support team or client success team. So it enables the client to instead of having this one person they're trying to reach, maybe that person is on vacation, or you know, maybe that person isn't the best person to reach out to for this problem. So basically, it comes in, like an email. But then we have this whole system set up so that we can see new tickets that come in, people can take them and assign them, people can share them. And it helps us keep track of that. So the requests aren't getting kind of lost in the shuffle. For instance, we can get anywhere from 30 to 60 tickets in a day. It would be very easy for someone to sort of lose track of that in a regular email inbox. So kind of think of it as a group inbox, like Guess with lots of flags and designations.
Peter Kazarinoff 5:03
What kind of salary would someone expect if they get an entry level position in this type of industry.
Ginny 5:10
So I did notice that pre COVID, a lot of the entry levels to kind of starting positions in this, this kind of work were pretty low, I would see them listed in the 30s. And I know that more recently, in the spring, when I was looking at job postings, I had basically been doing this at one company, and then I moved to another in the spring, but doing the same type of work. I noticed that in the spring of this year, a lot of the job postings were starting at at least 45, typically 50, sometimes I would see them depending on the size of the company, I would see the the range going all the way up almost to 100 grand. So I mean, I do think that there's a lot of demand for this type of work. And it can be a demanding job. And I think that the salaries are now starting to reflect that a little bit better over the past two to three years.
Peter Kazarinoff 6:05
Besides earning money for your work, are there other benefits that you get from your employer? Things like health insurance, dental, insurance, and retirement?
Ginny 6:14
So I currently get health insurance and dental insurance, we don't have retirement yet. company I work for now is smaller, it's had a lot of growth over the past couple of years. So looking to add some more of those benefits. I've noticed that that's something else I've seen in job postings. It's a little touching, though, you'll get kind of some of the things but not all of the things. So I do think that that's something to keep in mind when you're kind of scoping out this line of work. Jenny, you
Peter Kazarinoff 6:45
mentioned that you had a family at home? How much flexibility is there in your work schedule? What kind of hours do you work regularly?
Ginny 6:53
So I work basically 8:30 to 5:30 ish Eastern time. Very flexible, though, the company is technically based in Texas, most of my co workers work more of a central time schedule. And then I have a couple of co workers that are in mountain and Pacific time as well. So there's some flexibility to where people can kind of stagger their schedules a little bit. This company in my last company, as well are also really great about allowing people to, you know, run, do the school pickup or the school drop off, or you have to attend an event or your your kid is sick and you have to stay home kind of thing. Obviously, you don't have to worry about it now, because I'm working from home. But there's kind of the set schedule ish, but it's very flexible. I don't have to do any weekends, though. So that's great.
Peter Kazarinoff 7:48
Ginny, what did it feel like your first day at work? You've been remote this whole time? What does it feel like being a remote employee on day one?
Ginny 7:58
That was a very different experience. I hadn't done that before. It was both less nerve wracking and more nerve wracking. So you don't have the typical nerves of where am I going to park? Do I pack my lunch, you know, what's my desk gonna be like, you don't have those kind of practical logistical nerves. But at the same time, you know, you're sort of sitting there waiting for your first meeting to start and you're a little nervous, you're not sure. You've barely set up your computer, there's no one there to help you. You're just hoping everything works. And so it was it was very different. I had kind of an introductory meeting, almost first thing in the morning. But then I was kind of left on my own for a few hours. And then I had another meeting a little later around lunchtime. So that first day was interesting. And you know, meeting people over video like that is you just, you have to adjust. It's not quite the same feeling as meeting people in person. But in one way, it did kind of take actually some of the stress and anxiety away because I had all my comforts around me, I had my my chair and my place and my snacks, and all of that. So in one way it was better, but it is it's a different experience.
Peter Kazarinoff 9:17
Ginny, is there opportunity for professional growth in your industry? You mentioned that people can start at an entry level, where can you take your career from here?
Ginny 9:27
There's sort of a few paths you can take. If you're more interested in a managerial type of path, you can start sort of at the bottom, learn the basics, learn the company really well. And then you can work your way up and be more of a manager of the team, especially as most companies the team will the support team or client success team one of growing over time. So sometimes they'll need additional managers and as the the support will sort of branch off and you'll have kind have different areas of support. So that's one route. Also, depending on the company, if you're doing like a my job, I do some light development work along with my support tickets. And so if the company that you're at is open to that, some companies will let you sort of, again, learn the basics, learn how the company works, certain learning the software, and then you can sort of move up and laterally more into like a development type position.
Peter Kazarinoff 10:31
Ginny, you mentioned that you might do some light development work, for those that don't work in this industry, what is like development work and development work? In general, what does that mean?
Ginny 10:42
So for something like a software company, we have a customer facing part of the software. So that's, basically if you sign up with, with any company, even like online banking, something like that, you know, as a customer or client, you're gonna see things you can click on boxes to check radio buttons to select accordions that will sort of you click and it opens and shows you more things. And so we have to kind of build that out to make it pleasing to the customer, and also follow a boat, you know, it needs to be usable. But then on the back end, there's all sorts of very intricate things that, you know, on the on the front side of the customer facing side, it seems like, Oh, this is just a few checkboxes for my account settings. On the back end, it's just tons of stuff, that's all tied together to make it function in that way. So for development, you might be building the back end of that making sure everything's working as it supposed to. So if you have a checkbox that says I don't want to receive these types of emails, you know, we need to make sure that in the back end, everything is talking to everything else and saying, don't send this customer these emails anymore. But then there's also the front end development, which is make this look nice, make sure it looks okay, on a phone, make sure it looks okay, on the desktop. So that's sort of the heavier development. So what I do, and what I think a fair amount of people will do that are in support or client success positions is the lighter stuff. So that's making very small adjustments. Maybe you're updating an email template, something like that changing a color, changing out a photo kind of things that require a little bit of technical know how, but it's pretty easy to pick up. So it's not something you necessarily you don't necessarily have to go to school to learn how to switch out a photo. But you might be able to switch out the photo and then kind of move beyond that.
Peter Kazarinoff 12:45
So Ginny, I've heard a lot about your work. And it sounds pretty varied and kind of fascinating. Working in this area. Let's transition now to talking about your work experience and your education. What was your work experience before your current role?
Ginny 13:00
So previously, I had done a lot of different things. Right out of high school, I actually did cosmetology school. So I was a hairstylist for a few years. That was until I went to community college for this type of role. That was the only higher education I had was cosmetology school. So I was hairstylist for a few years, I worked a lot of retail over the years, you know, big box stores and things like that. I did some screenwriting here and there. And then when I had my daughter, I have stayed home parent for a little while. So I've done a lot of things kind of over the course of 1012 years, nothing was really clicking fully for me. There wasn't anything that I really wanted to stay in, I guess. And around the time that I turned 30 and had gotten divorce, I was sort of at that, you know, crossroads in life where I have to kind of figure out what I'm doing at this point. So I had spent a lot of time just sort of looking around and was kind of ready to choose my path commit to something. And it was kind of nice, though, I'd done a lot of different things worked in different industries, lots of different people. So I felt like I had gotten a good level of experience just being with other people working with other humans. It's important to know how to do that.
Peter Kazarinoff 14:32
Ginny, you mentioned that when you're a single mom, you went back to school? Where did you go to community college and what program did you enroll in?
Ginny 14:41
So I enrolled at AB Tech which is stands for Asheville Buncombe Technical College. It is the big community college here in Nashville. Pretty much everyone ends up going there at some point you can tell because the parking stickers on everyone's cars. I mean, everyone talks about AB Tech. It is very well known, it has a really good reputation. And I had a few friends that I had met when I moved to the area that had gone there before. So I knew that it was a good school to check out. And I'd been looking at a few different programs. You know, I really didn't know what I wanted to do, I was looking at the dental hygiene program, I was looking at maybe a transfer degree, I really wasn't sure what I was going to do, I just knew that I needed to do something. So I had enrolled. And I can't even remember what I, what I picked, because you select something when you enroll might have been the transfer program, it was something not related to this. And then kind of in that last two to three weeks, right before classes started, I was talking to some of my friends and I just wasn't sure about which thing I wanted to pick what program I wanted to enroll in. And more I talked to them. And some of them had actually, I had one friend who had gone through a program at AB Tech that I that is the one that I ended up choosing to go forward with. And then a few others are in also kind of computer science related fields. And they I'm not gonna say they talked me into it, but they opened my eyes to a little bit, that might be something that I would enjoy and would be able to succeed in. And so just a week or two before classes started, I switched to what's called the Digital Media Program, which is sort of a all encompassing program where you learn development. So you can learn how to build websites and things like that you learn graphic design, or a little bit of marketing. And you can also choose some electives to kind of hone in on some deeper development type classes, you also get to do what I believe are called kind of professional business classes, professional development. Those are things like learning how to write emails, in a professional setting. You know how to actually use Microsoft Word. It seems so simple, but things like that, you don't realize there's a lot to learn. So the digital media program was sort of a mix of some creative stuff, but then also you get into some computer science journey.
Peter Kazarinoff 17:28
What did it feel like going back to school and enrolling in a technology program? How did you feel when you started?
Ginny 17:36
I was very nervous. So I, since I had gone to cosmetology school, and that was the only thing and that was when I was 18. I hadn't been in any type of higher education situation, you could say. So I was very nervous. And I, I felt kind of old. And I felt a little out of place. But honestly, the great thing about community colleges, I get there, I immediately see that my classmates are a wide range of people and ages. And I didn't feel like I stood out in any way. It was just it was really nice. There's tons of other non traditional students there. You know, there were a few that were right out of high school. But for the most part, it was a with a really wide array of people. And so my nerves kind of settled down almost immediately once I realized that I wasn't going to be some random, old single mom just sitting in these computer classes. And it ended up being really great. I made some really good friends while I was there, that a few people that I've stayed in contact with and met one of my best friends there. So it ended up being really great. I was very nervous, but was extremely glad that I had bit the bullet and went in to in person classes. I did do a couple online classes. But it was nice going and for the first time in my life, attending classes sitting in the room like that. So it was it was a pretty big deal.
Peter Kazarinoff 19:08
Ginny, how long did it take for you to finish your program at community college?
Ginny 19:13
It took me right at two years. It is a sort of intensive program. You have to you have to do some summer classes in order to finish it in two years. Not a big deal. But you have to you can't finish it in two years without kind of really putting in the time somebody that was definitely going full full time and then did summer classes and was able to finish right in the two years which was my goal I you know, as like I said as a single parent had a sort of tighter timeline. I didn't want to take too long to complete something and that was another reason why I really wanted to go into this field this type of industry is because I felt like I would be able to really get a job at the, you know, after two years, I wouldn't necessarily need to complete another two years or three years somewhere else. And so I felt like getting this associate's was the best way to be able to get a good job. And kind of in the shortest period of time,
Peter Kazarinoff 20:19
Ginny you mentioned that at community college, you learned some technical skills, like a little bit of coding and web design. But you also mentioned that you learned some interpersonal skills, how do you use those interpersonal skills or things people sometimes called soft skills in your work?
Ginny 20:37
So it is just me, it is actually kind of surprising how often you have to use a lot of those soft skills, even if you are, quote, unquote, a tech nerd sort of sit at home by yourself, on your computer, you have to interact with a lot of people, you have to interact with your customers or your clients. But most likely you're working on a team, you have a lot of teammates that you have to work with. And that was something that sort of surprised me was how collaborative this work can be. And if you aren't a team player, if you've never really worked in a group project, for instance, I mean, everybody knows, in high school, community college is the same, you have group projects, and sometimes they're the worst, because you don't know who's going to actually do work, who's gonna show up, who's not going to do anything. Because then you get out there in the real world. And life kind of is a group project. And so you have to be able to work with other people, way more than you probably would anticipate going into this. Luckily, for me, I have worked retail and have a lot of customer facing jobs in the past. So I feel like I kind of already had some experience with that. And I encourage some of my classmates that really hadn't had those types of jobs before to take advantage of some of the things that are teaching us in those kind of professional development classes. We had mock interviews, we had some mock networking events, things like that, where you're, you know, really going through the whole thing, and meeting people from companies and introducing yourself and, you know, writing up your resume and then talking to someone about it. And stuff like that is is really valuable. I honestly think that's one of the most valuable things you can take away is how can I, how can I talk to other people? How can I talk to a potential employer? How can I talk to my colleagues? How can I talk to customers, so those soft skills and learning how to interact, I think, can honestly set you apart I think when you get to the stage of actually interviewing for jobs.
Peter Kazarinoff 22:55
Ginny, how did your life change when you started working in advanced technology industry? What happened after you graduated from college, and you got your first job? What was different?
Ginny 23:08
You know, I, I do think that you can get a lot of fulfillment, you know, from a job. And I think that, especially when you go to school, you work hard, you finish this thing. And then you get out and you actually get to do it, and implement these things you've learned. And you realize that all those classes made sense, even when at the time some of them didn't make any sense. And, you know, it feels really wonderful, I think, to be able to have that transition to work hard at something. And then you get a job, you know, and you're just like, one day, suddenly look around, you're like I'm doing, I'm in this career, I'm actually doing the thing I wanted to do. So I think that there's a big sense of accomplishment. And you know, what's really interesting is that, I think specifically in this type of work, you learn a lot of technical skills at school. But it's amazing how many you continue to learn and you really continue to build on that once you're actually out in the field working I learned so much. My first year, especially out of school, when I was working full time, just so many little crumbs of things that I've been picking up in school are all suddenly starting to come together and build this whole bigger thing that I was finally understanding. So if even if you're not necessarily, you know, continuing your education and way of taking classes, you will continue to learn so much in the computer science field when you're actually working in it day to day. Journey.
Peter Kazarinoff 24:56
Do you have a final call to action for students or People want to transition their careers and work in technology like you do?
Ginny 25:05
So my probably biggest pieces of advice, and I actually gave this to a friend recently, so it feels fresh in my brain, I guess. But it can be really intimidating, especially if you are like I was kind of having this big life change and having to make some some big decisions, you're not necessarily 19 living at home, and have a lot of time to figure it out, you know, maybe you're in a situation where you need, you also have a tight timeline, and you need to kind of turn this around pretty quickly. So, because it's intimidating, I think that the big questions of what do I want to do with my life? What kind of career do I want to go into? I actually think those sometimes can be a little too big. And so if you start smaller if you start smaller, and just think about what's really important to you. Things like, do I need to be able to work remotely? Do I need a really flexible schedule? Do I want to make sure I never have to work on a Saturday. You know, things like that. Do I want to work for a big company don't want to work for a small company. And I think when you start figuring out kind of what you want your life to look like, it actually helps you narrow down the potential career fields that you would go into, you know, you probably don't want to be a nurse, if you don't want to work 12 hour shifts. You don't, you might not want to be a dental hygienist. If you actually hate the idea of being in an office and looking at people's teeth. There are certain things that you have to start thinking about. And I think that if, if the questions are too big, break it down into smaller questions first, I honestly had never even considered not even once going into anything computer related. I owned a computer. I did not use it very often. I never understood the internet. And I would have never thought that I would go to anything kind of tech related, and but ended up being a great fit. And it helped answer a lot of those smaller questions about what do I want my day to day life to be like? What's flexible? What's challenging? You know, I like I love you know, reading crime fiction and watching detective series. I like being a detective. And this was a really great way for me to use my detective skills when you're troubleshooting or doing tech support for someone and trying to figure out what's wrong and following the trail of clues. So I think you don't necessarily have to find that special theme that you're super passionate about. And that's the exact job you want to do. I think that if you answer some of the other questions that you you may be surprised by the industry or field that you end up going into. So I think if it feels overwhelming to have this big transition, you know, break it up into into smaller pieces, smaller steps. And I think that that will help you make the bigger decision ultimately.
Peter Kazarinoff 28:10
Ginny, I love that advice. And I hope there are people out there who considered careers in technology just like you have, cuz you have got a really inspiring story. So thank you so much for being on talking technicians and talking with me about your work.
Ginny 28:27
Yeah, it was great to be here. I appreciate you having me.
Peter Kazarinoff 28:30
Please keep in touch.
Ginny 28:32
Thanks.
Peter Kazarinoff 28:39
Talking Technicians is produced by MNT-EC, the Micro Nano Technology Education Center through financial support from the National Science Foundation's Advanced Technological Education grant program. Opinions expressed on this podcast do not necessarily represent those of the National Science Foundation. Join the conversation. If you are a working technician, or know someone who is, reach out to us at info@talkingtechnicians.org. We're always looking out for great guests to share more stories with you.