Learn to appreciate the journey
Q&A with Emily Merritt
Not everyone sees a clear career path for themselves right out of the gate. Emily Merritt, Product Manager in the Silicon Valley, learned to enjoy and appreciate the ride as she looks back on the work and life experience that has led her to where she is now. Product Management experience wasn’t something she sought out; it landed in her lap, and she hasn’t looked back. Her advice centers around embracing your experience and background as a very important piece of the diversity that makes up a successful team and company.
Interview:
Kelsi: When were you first exposed to the tech industry?
Emily: I grew up in the Silicon Valley, in Mountain View, so I grew up seeped in the tech boom and watched this area grow and evolve over the course of my life. Even more so through parents work, although not in the traditional sense, as both parents were in education. My dad was a high school teacher, then Assistant Principal but moonlighted as the school’s tech specialist. So I got to see education tech through his lens and all his work. That was the first exposure I got to tech and why we need it and what’s really cool about it.
Kelsi: Walk me through how you got to where you are today, professionally.
Emily: It’s been a windy road. I spent 6–7 years of my early career focused on EdTech, mainly at startups. I spent many summers at iD Tech Camps, then worked briefly for their corporate office. I’ve done marketing, content, operations, and during my 2.5 years at Swivl, I built up a customer success team from ground up. It was a great team, an amazing product to get to work on, and I credit where I am now to those years. It was my first exposure to product management, which I didn’t even realize at first. I was the first customer success person on the team, and we had no Product Manager dedicated to software, so I was the person who was talking to users most frequently. Hearing the value our software was bringing to them really helped me understand their needs, and I started bringing a lot of their feedback back to the team. I started writing up feature specs, etc — activities I didn’t realize at the time were considered product management. Now looking back I can see that started me on the path to where I am now.
Kelsi: Are you doing Product Management now?
Emily: Yes, I’m currently in a fully product-focused role, a Product Manager on a contract basis, which has given me a great opportunity to work with some great clients, and also gave me the flexibility to go back and get my Master’s degree in between contracts — my Master’s in Communications with a focus in Journalism.
Kelsi: What do you value most about your colleagues/team surrounding you right now?
Emily: The thing that amazes me about my current team is their ability to keep so many balls in the air at the same time. So much juggling, they make it look so easy. I’m always very impressed by their ability to keep such a wide variety of projects moving along. Also their adaptability, as things change so quickly and they can turn on the dime.
What I’ve loved at all my others jobs as well is that my colleagues have all been diverse in background, communication styles, and personalities, yet have been able to move and work as a unit. To all focus on our own responsibilities, but also come together and see the big picture, wear different hats, and propel a company in the same direction effectively is so awesome.
Kelsi: What do you look for in a company or role?
Emily: Trust is a big one for me. We spend so much of our time and our lives at work that it’s important that the rest of the team sees what each one of us is putting in. When you have trust that your team has made a commitment to the company, you trust that the team to doing their best. You then know everyone is putting in effort, is committed, and is always acting with best intentions.
Another thing I look for is a role or a team where there’s a good balance of autonomy and collaboration. To me most roles and jobs require both of those things. Very often offices or companies are designed around one of those things, but find a place that can do both and do them really well. That makes everyone on the team that much more effective.
Kelsi: What has been your biggest professional obstacle?
Emily: One of the things I consider a strength of my work experience and background — especially as a PM — also poses a struggle, which is the fact that I had a very meandering or winding career path early on. I started off my career hungry to try a lot of different things, didn’t have one role I was going into that I knew I wanted the next 10 years of my career to be about. I experienced different teams, a lot of times took contract jobs. I got the opportunity to learn a ton in those years. The obstacle is that now it can be a challenge or take more effort to explain this unconventional path to people. I have had to really think about why I’ve made all the moves I’ve made and figure out that narrative.
Kelsi: Who were key mentors or people who deeply influence you and your work?
Emily: I have to give a shout out to my very first work friend at my first job after graduating college. She took me under her wing, as she had 5 years experience on me. It was so great to have her support and for her to share with me about her experiences and her internal thought process. Having that person who I could look up to and learn from is so valuable I can’t stress that enough. Then to watch her grow and thrive in her current career path has been inspirational.
Kelsi: What advice do you have for women who want to work in tech?
Emily: I still think of myself in my early career so it’s hard…but I would say don’t be ashamed if you do have an unconventional path or background or experience. It can be a struggle — or feel like one — to explain, but as long as you’re able to stay true to yourself and really understand why you’ve made all the decisions you’ve made, that narrative will resonate with somebody. You’ll find a team or a person who really gets it. You’ll find someone who sees it as an asset and not as a weakness and finds the right place for you on their team.
And another piece of advice, or rather an ask to women who are further along in their careers: When you see the opportunity to take someone under their wing who is early on in their career or searching, just please go for it. Both people can benefit greatly and there’s no reason to hold back. To me, that’s how we change tech for the better.
Know someone who should be interviewed? Have feedback? Find me on LinkedIn and let’s chat/connect.
