The Reason I'm Pivoting in my Career

After a really long run doing something I loved, the realization set in that I needed to know more to make a real difference.

Why leave the comfort of what you know and jump wholeheartedly into the realm of that awkward, unstable feeling of learning something entirely new?

The more I learned the more I wanted to know.

For the Love of Data

I've worked in tech for almost 20 years. To write that seems odd. Although I've worked in tech, I feel like I've been doing it from the sidelines. How?? No actual tech...no programming, coding or engineering otherwise. I started as an admin working for a tech company just after I was married thinking I'd work for a bit and go home and have kids. To say the gig was too sweet to walk away is an understatement. Because they were a tech company, work/life balance is the culture and working remote is the way things get done.... and it was FUN! The initiative I was supporting was in it's infancy stage and has since grown to serve over 10 million in 180 countries by providing education, technical training and career mentorship. I built and operated budgets, wrote and managed contracts, built systems and coordinated projects. I helped with varying aspects of curriculum development, translation and testing, and was even one of the first to complete the very technical course as it was developed. Although I loved the idea that lives were changed by learning technology and it was the core of what we were working towards, the content itself never took hold of me as something I wanted to pursue. I was thrilled I could support something that made such positive change in so many. Once that initiative grew, scaled and normalized I moved with my team who specialized in education to support grantmaking from both the corporate and foundation portfolios.

I fell in love the second I fell into the opportunity. Philanthropy is where my heart is! Again, I found myself supporting and administering tech initiatives in education. I was once again surrounded by programs advancing incredible tech innovations to improve outcomes in literally millions each year. I learned first hand about the importance of collecting, storing, tracking, and analyzing the right information to drive deeper and more meaningful impact. Information is VERY powerful. My love for data began.

I developed metrics, created tracking systems, and found myself digging into how and why ed-tech programs succeed and or don't. I saw varying ways ed-techs collect and use data. I analyzed how much was invested at which stage of innovation, subcategories of investment types... how many we reached, and began to dig into who and how those reached were impacted: demographics and efficacy of interventions. Since our investments were in K-12 education, we were always looking at how interventions influenced improvements in attendance, behavior, and performance... if there was increased interest and persistence in subject matter... it was a slippery slope and I was hooked. I would find myself slicing and dicing outcomes in various K-12 education disciplines, then taking the data and compiling reports to illustrate outcomes and efficacy of not only the programs we supported but looking at the big picture of the support collectively. What were the greatest successes? Why? I watched how some of our biggest 'fails' informed future decisions. I watched how informed decisions help to make improvements in efficiency to help small, lean organizations do big, meaningful work. I saw too how by sharing best practices and removing silos collective impact can be multiplied.

I noticed that data is the way of the world now - that proof of efficacy is magic when it comes to attracting more support from partners in many different ways. It's how a well planned, organized, and forward-thinking organization makes decisions and tell their stories. Organizations like gooru.org and https://talkingpts.org/ are terrific examples - go check 'em out! I realized that I wanted to do some learning for myself!

I love this work... did I mention that?? It's rewarding. And now... I wanted to be a different part of it... I want to learn and know more, go deeper to illustrate, inform, or identify an opportunity, or more deeply understand how I am supporting it. To solve efficiency problems in a different way. It would be a dream come true to continue to make the real, impact-causing change from a different perspective. I realized that I've taken it as far as I could from my rudimentary, self-taught means and seek skills I know are required in this information age. The technical ones. The coding, machine learning, predictive modeling... oh my!

I realize that I need to know more. So I took the next step. I'm learning...