Jennifer Herrera: “Finding a [working] mom tribe locally in the same season of life was a struggle.” (Episode 22/S3 Ep4)
Good morning and welcome to Season 3 Episode 4 of Starting Trouble. Today we meet Jennifer Herrera, Senior Director at ProjectEd. She is our second guest from that mission-driven education consulting company.
Jennifer comes from a background in teaching and has worked in the EdTech field for several years before becoming a mother. She loves her job and like so many of us, she put a lot of unfair pressure on herself to be available at all hours even while being the perfect mother to her little one. As it turns out, it was completely unnecessary. She is fortunate to work at a company that understands what it takes to be a parent, and through seeking mentorship within, she was able to find the right balance that works for her and her family.
Jennifer has learned a lot through her transition from being a career-driven Type A person to a career-driven responsible parent. Her advise to young women and mothers is that its alright to accept parenthood as a season of your life. She wants everyone to feel confident about working with their employer to find a balance that works, or else to find an employer that understands the need for such a balance.
I enjoyed my conversation with the positive and bubbly Jennifer. Happy listening!
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Guest Profile
Age: 31 years
Bio: Jenny is the Senior Director of Strategy and Operations at ProjectEd, a mission-driven consulting group focused on making education products and services better. Her expansive knowledge of literacy and pedagogy is paired with her natural talent for interpersonal connection, a combo that makes her an indispensable partner for anyone looking to think deeply about the classroom. Previously, Jenny worked in professional services for a large EdTech company and in public school classrooms as a teacher and Literacy Coach.
Fun fact: ProjectEd is not only amazing to each of our clients, but our CEO is also amazing to her employees. We are given an unusual amount of autonomy and freedom. Though ProjectEd is headquartered in Brooklyn, many team members (including myself) work permanently from out-of-state, and others have worked for weeks at a time from places as far-flung as Bulgaria, Indonesia, Brazil and Japan. Working remotely has been such a blessing to me and my family, and I am so grateful to work for a company that truly values its employees and understands work/life balance.
What childcare option did you go with for your child(ren)? Why?
I was lucky to be able to stay home for 4 months with full pay. From then until my son was 6 months, I worked part-time. This was best for me as I was struggling with PPD, nursing, and balancing it all. My boss was incredibly supportive. My husband and I own a Latin dance company, so he works nights and was able to stay home with my son. We decided to put him into daycare part-time shortly after he turned one. My husband and I were getting really irritable with each other, and we realized it was because we were both working full time, on opposite shifts, and also full-time parents while the other was working. It felt like we were single parents living together, so putting our son into daycare twice a week allowed him some time to rejuvenate, and then we carved out Friday evenings as my “me-time.” Since then, we’ve upped his daycare attendance to 3–4 days a week and made some budget cuts elsewhere (i.e. eating out.) It’s a Reggio-inspired Spanish immersion preschool, and we feel he is getting so much out of it. If we have more than one child, though, we would not be able to afford the preschool for two children.
How do you continue to work on your professional growth with motherhood in the balance?
At the beginning of the year, I pick out 3–5 conferences that I know I will attend. Some of these conferences are for learning, while others are for business development, but I love how that anchors my schedule for the year. I don’t like to travel too much, but I work around those dates. When I am traveling, I throw myself into the work, trying to absorb as much information as possible and network with as many people as possible.
How do you proactively network given the constraints of motherhood?
I find myself doing more networking online than before. I am in many motherhood online-forums, where I can ask questions and search topics at any time of night. Professionally, I use LinkedIn and follow many other companies. Before I went to ISTE, for example, I searched LinkedIn using that hashtag, and then reached out to others who posted they would be there. So once I was physically at the conference, I had a prioritized list of who to meet and some meetings already scheduled. Unfortunately, I’m not able to make local networking events because most happen in the evenings when my husband is working. I try to plan my trips to NYC around when the NYEdTech Meetup meets. I also am a co-organizer of the RTP EdTech Meetup, and I make sure to create events that happen during the work day.
In what ways does your spouse/family/friends support you and how much does that factor into your success?
My husband is an amazing support, and I am so lucky to have him! In general, he is more of a baby person — my friends even call him the “Baby Whisperer!” — while I had never felt comfortable around young children. In the beginning, we used to joke that “D” is for dad and diaper and “M” is for mom and milk. That worked for us! His family is from Ecuador and my parents were living in Budapest, Hungary at the time my son was born, so we really relied a lot on each other.
Anything else you’d like to add…
Don’t be afraid to take care of yourself! I learned the hard way that putting everyone else first doesn’t work out in the end. It is so hard and scheduling ahead of time is key, but join the gym (take advantage of that free daycare there), find a hobby, get your nails done. I am an avid horseback rider, so I drop my son off at daycare as early as possible to squeeze in a ride before my work day begins. I believe you will be more productive during the workday if you make sure to recharge.
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