Blog: HER Story Meredith Hovarter
HER Story
Help make the world a better place alongside Meredith Hovarter
Technology is magnificent, isn‘t it? Social media has taught us influence in a digital age and given everyone a means to be heard. Great technology helps save lives, gets people home on time, has the power to change the world for the better. But that requires systems running smoothly and people doing what only people can: refining a myriad of points of data to a solution.
The journey into technology started with an itch
My parents influenced me to go into technology – but not in the typical ways one might imagine. My mother was a high school dropout Mensa member whose discerning eye influenced me in science and math. She would feed me books by great Sci-fi authors that, in turn, fed my imagination. But she never got to work in the field that interested her most – genetics. My father worked long hours in a factory doing physical labor and would come home to help us with art projects and discuss history and myth.
Around me I saw brilliant people, but technology was not accessible. It wasn‘t improving things for them, for us. It seemed so far away. The awareness of technology, yet the inaccessibility of it, created this itch in me. I wanted to work with technology, and I wanted to make a better world. I don‘t have a technical degree, I come at this from that value question: How can I improve the most lives and solve the most problems?
Now I am able to positively impact millions of lives by doing what I do.
Making the world a better place
I‘m a customer success manager at Nintex. I love the effect I have in my role. This is a role where the reward becomes greater the more questions that I can ask. The more I can learn, the more knowledgeable I am, the more I can demonstrate that knowledge and earn the respect of our clients. The better the connection I have to the people or organizations that I work with, the better solutions we can discover, and the better we can make the world.
When I first joined The WIT Network, I saw it as a way to connect and broaden my acumen. To move forward in what I could be. But I think now it is responding to the dire reality. Women and people of color continue to be expendable to economies and organizations when it comes to financial re-structure. This means diversity and inclusivity comes off the table when we are under stress. This is indicative, I think, that diversity and inclusivity are new ideas in most of these organizations. They are sacrificing higher engagement, revenue, and loyalty. So now I see my involvement in the organization as yet another place where I can help to make the world a better place.
My advice to women who are just starting out: Know what‘s at stake. The right opportunity will never have you compromise your integrity or values. These things are priceless and never included in any salary.