In this blog series, women at Datto will post stories from their interviews of each other. This week, we hear from Samantha Ciaccia, Partner Marketing Manager, and Erin Turner, VP of Financial Planning and Analysis.
When we’re young, most of us have some pretty funny aspirations of what we’d like to be when we grow up. I first wanted to be a veterinarian, but that changed sometime in middle school when I learned about the digestive system. Then, I wanted to be a “stomach doctor,” which still makes me laugh! My career today in Marketing at a technology company doesn’t align with my childhood dreams, but that’s normal – for most of us.
This wasn’t the case for Erin Turner, Datto’s VP of Financial Planning & Analysis. When I got the opportunity to interview a woman within the organization, I chose Erin for a number of reasons, but mainly because of two things. First, she’s a very successful, confident, yet humble woman. Second, her strengths are different than mine. She’s great with numbers, and I’m great with words.
Sometimes, what we think we want to do and what life actually brings our way, can be two very different things. However, for Erin, she was able to identify Finance and numbers at a very young age. Erin grew up in Florida and went to Auburn University for Accounting, where her focus quickly turned towards financial planning and analysis. The plan behind this was that you can do Finance, anywhere for any company. This sentence right here is gold when we talk about women in technology. There are many different and necessary aspects of a business. Just because you’re working for a tech company, doesn’t mean you have to be the one developing the technology.
In the spirit of this blog series, I asked Erin if she believes there are any challenges that women specifically face when working in the technology industry. She answered:
“Finance in a tech company is harder than being a woman in a tech company, however, I believe women, in general, don’t stand up for themselves enough, and when they do, they often times are considered pushy. There’s a difficult balance between the two. Being a woman in any job, we put pressure on ourselves to have more facts, remain non-emotional and have a poker face in order to prove ourselves.”
If she could go back in time and give her 20-year-old self one piece of advice, she would say to make the most out of every opportunity. There were often times she traveled for work and didn’t appreciate the opportunity to do side travel for leisure, but instead only focused on the work. Erin said, “we’re only here once, make the most of it.”
My last question to Erin was about building confidence in the workplace, as I shared some of my experiences as my own worst critic. Her response was to always seek out feedback from others because it is a helpful way to learn other perspectives. A huge part of building confidence is truly knowing your stuff. It’s clear that Erin does both, and I’m thankful to have gotten to know her on a deeper level, and continue to build our relationship together.
The Women in Technology blog series is coordinated by Customer Experience Innovations project coordinator, Rachel Powers.