Commencing

To commence is to begin.

I'd never thought about it before - the ceremony that marks the end of years of study, homework and exams is called commencement.  Not the end, but the beginning...

A little over three years ago, I decided to take the GMAT (Graduat Management Admission Test) and apply to UNC Charlotte's Belk College of Business as an MBA student.  I thought an MBA would bring some closure to a thread in my career.  After three years of night school, I can say that I've sorted things out, so I do have a sense of closure or completion.  But, at the same time, I'm 'commencing' not finishing.  Time to get on with things-

Towards the end of my final semester the university issued a call for student commencement speakers; all graduating students (undergraduate, graduate, and PhD candidates) were eligible to submit a draft five minute speech.  I took them up on the offer, and made the 'short list', but the panel chose a young undergraduate who was a bit less jaded...  She was an excellent speaker; I admit that it was nice to see a young face at the podium, looking out on her horizion as a freshly minted graduate.

But, I did enjoy taking the time to write down a five minute perspective on my journey as an MBA student - my unspoken commencement speech is below:

Today I will receive my Masters Degree in Business Administration from the Belk College of Business. I started the program three years ago in January, as an evening student and working mother of two. My two sons, Alex and Erik, ages nine and seven, and their father Bob are here today so I want to thank them for getting by without Mommy for two nights a week for the past three years. You guys are the best!

I’ve worked in Technology for over 25 years now, beginning my career as a software engineer at IBM, and working for many other companies along the way. Like most people in technology, I like to figure out how things work, and that’s what led me to the MBA program. A little over three years ago, I managed a large IT team for a company that had grown through acquisitions to be third largest in its industry. I was part of the M&A team, and evaluated our acquisitions’ technology assets and contracts.  As a result, in early 2006 my husband and I stood on skis at the rim of the back bowls at Aspen, along with a private ski guide provided by our generous hosts, Bear Stearns, to celebrate the close of a successful deal.  You may have heard that Bear Stearns is no longer hosting these types of events...

Later that spring, the company’s stock fell 75% in a single day, and let’s just say life got interesting. I was just an IT manager, and even though I managed our operational and financial systems I didn’t really understand the company’s finances.  After things got just a little too interesting, I left the company and decided to go back to school and get my MBA to figure out ‘what happened’.

 I think that being curious, or in my case, having a desire to ‘figure something out’ and a time based goal are great motivators.  I didn’t pursue my MBA because I wanted to ‘be something’, like a financial analyst. I started the program because I wanted to learn something, and figure out how companies manage their finances (or don’t).  My success comes from my own knowledge and understanding, and is not dependent on getting a job with a particular title.  Believe me, it’s always nice to get a job in your desired field, but having a job doesn’t define me, and not having one doesn’t take away my success.

As for my achievements and activities as a student, I’m thrilled to graduate with highest honors today.  For my sons Alex and Erik in the audience, this means I got a lot of A’s!  I owe some of that to my goals, which kept me focused.  I wrote several of my term papers about the company that inspired me to get my MBA, and I do think I’ve ‘figured things out’.  I also have to thank my parents for passing along some of their intelligence; my GMAT scores resulted in merit scholarships, and I am very grateful to UNC Charlotte for those awards.  Through the Belk College, I volunteered as a student escort for business leaders who taped a panel discussion with Charlie Rose called ‘Southern Roots, Global Vision’, interviewed Erkine Bowles, and had breakfast with Cynthia Marshall, President of AT&T Carolinas.  I took advantage of career coaching, and gained a whole new circle of friends with all sorts of backgrounds, from all sorts of industries.  I’ve enjoyed every minute of it all.

In closing, I’m not sure you really need to hear more advice from someone who may be old enough to be your Mother (or who is your Mother, for Erik and Alex), but I can share something that I learned from watching my two sons play online role playing games, one of their favorite pastimes. In their online adventure games, there’s always another quest, and always another level.  Sometimes the only thing you need to do is stay in the game, and another quest appears.  And, the only way to get to the next level is to stay in the game.  I’m now off to my next quest, and hope to see many of you again in my travels.  Thank you for your time – thank you UNC Charlotte, and congratulations graduates!

Let the wild rumpus begin!

Ada Lovelace Day

I'm dusting off the blog for Ada Lovelace Day - fulfilling my pledge to join bloggers around the world in appreciation of women who excel in technology.

As a woman who has enjoyed a loooong career in technology, I'm taking this moment to say thank you to all the women I've worked with over the years. I can't think of a single one who isn't exemplary. In the crazy-quilt tapestry of my technical career, the women I've worked with have all been exceptional, few and far between, the sparkle in the fabric.

Before I get to these fabulous women, one short detour to thank two men who are responsible for my own membership in the community of women in technology...

I count the beginning of my career as my 1981 internship with IBM, in Poughkeepsie, New York. My courses in mechanical drafting (the pencil and T-square kind) landed me an internship with the Mechanical Design Automation group, which set standards for mechanical design work done within IBM. The move to Computer Aided Design (CAD) was underway, and I set about learning to produce isometric views of widgets on a 2D drafting package called CADAM, produced by Lockheed. I also learned to write documentation using the tag language GML (a precursor to SGML and XML), blithely unaware of the future of these fun tools and toys I was tinkering with.

No women worked with me during my internship, and to be honest I didn't really notice. My future as a woman in technology was cemented one morning when I was happily typing some GML tagged documentation at the green screen in front of me. A senior staff member walked up behind me and asked if I would enter (type) a large stack of paper documentation into the system for him. Even after all these years I distinctly remember furrowing my brow for a moment, then I smiled and took the paper from him.

Later that day I stopped by my manager's office and stammered a request to ask him a question. He asked me what was on my mind, and I told him that I'd been asked to do some typing... and I wasn't sure if that was the type of assignment I should be working on. I can't remember exactly what I said after that, but I know it involved a reference to my Dad and that he didn't send me to IBM to type for people...

The senior staff member was summoned to the office, given a lecture about handing off typing to the college intern, and the stack of paper disappeared. I can still remember my mixed feelings of shock and awe at the outcome. I will never forget Dick Merrill for that moment in my early career - it gave me the tiny seed of the ego I would need to continue my career in technology for the coming decades. It goes without saying that I will never forget Dad as well, for the inspiration to speak up (and for building me a little drafting table when I was young).

My internship came to a close, and I was determined to finish my degree as quickly as possible and go right back to IBM. I landed in Sterling Forest, New York, as a mainframe product programmer for IBM's computer integrated manufacturing products. I was the only woman programmer in my department for the first few years of my career, but I remember looking up to Helene, who managed another development team in our area, and Pat, who was a senior programmer in yet another department. Oh, and Beverly, our 'code librarian'... in those days the librarian was an actual person who administered the source code control system. Once we submitted our batch compiler jobs and verified everything was working as designed, we dutifully handed our listings over to Beverly for filing.

The military discipline of product development at IBM gave me a solid grounding in software engineering. IBM also put me through nearly 560 hours of classroom training on programming, system internals, and team development that I still think of as 'the basics' to this day. But, in the early 90's IBM offered to buy out employees who were willing to depart, and I was young and footloose enough to take the money and run.

My path from IBM led to the 'shrink wrap' PC software industry, and I joined MapInfo Corporation in 1992 just prior to the IPO of the company. Again, although they were few and far between, I was in the company of some extraordinary women - Kim, Sharon, Marilyn, Elizabeth-

The burst of tech IPOs led me straight into the tech bubble in the mid 90's, when I moved to Boston with my husband and joined the technology wing of a management consulting company, Renaissance Solutions. Companies like Renaissance and Boston Consulting Group were changing the way that software was delivered to corporate America. Rapid prototyping, iterative development, 'agile'... aggressive, sometimes visionary. Bringing together young Harvard MBA's and bright technical types (like me!) made for a whirlwind learning experience with Fortune 500 companies (Lucent, Monsanto, AT&T...) as our classrooms. I still keep in touch with Patty-

And, after awhile, I hung out my own shingle as 'Paul Software, Inc.' and enjoyed my Boston consulting circles and adventures in the tech bubble.

The end of the tech bubble led me to Microsoft; I joined the Microsoft's Financial Services Group as a senior consultant at the turn of the century. Given I'd made the switch from mainframe programming to shrink wrap PC products and Windows development at Renaissance, going to work for Microsoft was the ultimate career move for me. Again, the women were few and far between but all extraordinary in so many ways - powerful, capable, brilliant. Tracy, Patti, Natalie, and my dear friend and former manager, Kimberly.

But wait, there's more (goodness, I've been doing this a long time). Travel weary, I departed Microsoft in 2004 to pursue my first operational IT role, responsible for the business applications at a local reinsurance company, Scottish Re. I was also responsible, for the first time, for managing and mentoring some phenomenal younger women in technology. And, for the first time after over 20 years in my field I saw the benefits of working with a truly diverse team of both men and women in IT. Heather, Melandee, Tonya, Emily, Joyce, Abigale, Catherine, Jasmina, Shri, Paula...

I learned so much from them all.

Scottish Re was something of a bellwether for the current economy, with M&A activity orchestrated by Bear Stearns, and substantial investments in securities based on subprime loans. I departed as the stock tanked, inspired to go back to school for my MBA to make sense of it all, and to become more than 'just an IT person'. I've been in night school since then, and am on track to graduate at the close of this year.

Going back to school has been a fantastic (ok, grueling) experience. It's amazing to see the young, and not so young, women in my finance and economics courses wielding Black-Scholes option pricing and statistical analysis tools in classes where women are finally not so few and far between. I'd like to thank all these women, too, because they're evidence that Ada Lovelace and all the extraordinary women who participate in technology have helped make it less extraordinary for women to apply themselves in any field.

Good grief, I'm only halfway through my career!

After giving roughly a decade to mainframe programming, and more to Microsoft platforms, we're now the proud owners of a Mac mini. I've set my sights on iPhone development (although my husband has now beat me to the punch by writing his first application for our sons' Nintendo DS handhelds). I just want to make sure I'm not 'just another MBA'.

And, heaven help me, I think my son wants to be a video game developer. When the time comes, I'll ask him to take a look at my alma mater, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where they have a terrific game development curriculum taught by the talented Dr. Tiffany Barnes.

Thank you, to all these women who have been such extraordinary inspirations, colleagues and friends-