Below is an article originally written by Jess Katz at PowerToFly Partner MongoDB, and updated on October 5, 2019. Go to MongoDB's page on PowerToFly to see their open positions and learn more.
In celebration of International Women's Day, we are highlighting some of our most influential leaders at MongoDB and how they've grown at the company. According to Fairygodboss, promoting more women into leadership positions is one of the top things employers can do to make their female employees stay.
At MongoDB, we invest in our employees' professional growth to enable them to become leaders in their roles while pursuing their passions. A few of our leaders developed an internal Underrepresented People of Color Network, while others created a mentorship group to provide management and productivity tips. We try to empower our employees to lead in their own ways and give them the freedom to create programs where they feel they are lacking.
There are several strong leaders at MongoDB who identify as women and they are making a huge impact on their teams and the company as a whole. Here are a few who have grown their careers at MongoDB and inspire us every day.
Rachelle Palmer, Remote, Technical Services Engineering
I've been at MongoDB for 5 years; I joined just after finishing an MBA and I come from a long career in technology consulting. I originally joined MongoDB as a Program Manager for the Cloud Engineering team, then transferred over to our Technical Services team. Now, I am the Global Director of Atlas Technical Services Engineering. I work remotely from North Carolina, so one of the things I have to praise is our flexibility in working arrangements!
I love MongoDB for so many reasons. I have found several teachers and mentors here and I'm always learning from my colleagues. I love that the company culture is based on candor and transparency. My management team has been more open with me than in any other company I've worked at, and they genuinely care about me as a person. I find it reassuring that I'm not the only woman in engineering and that I'm not the only woman in a leadership position. I love the passionate debates about politics on our Slack channels. I also love how people share pictures of their families and make jokes about Java and storage.
What I'm most proud of right now is my Reading Rainbow. I run a small mentoring group where we read articles on management, motivation, productivity, and more. I also mentor engineers outside of my team who are interested in leadership at MongoDB. It's so rewarding to help others grow in their careers and help them become more effective leaders.
Emily Cardner, NYC, Campus Recruiting
I first joined MongoDB in 2015 as a Campus Recruiter and am now a Lead in this role, I've helped grow our intern program from 30 interns in the Summer of 2015, to over 80 in 2019. My team also manages our New Grad Rotation program, which enables new grad hires who complete our intern program to try out different teams before choosing the best fit.
In addition to leading campus recruiting programs, I am on the leadership committee for the MongoDB Women's Group, which serves as a network of MongoDB employees addressing the challenges faced by women in the workforce. One initiative I am particularly proud of is a fireside chat I organized with Adena Friedman, the CEO of NASDAQ. The whole company joined in to listen to her journey and we opened it up for a Q&A. Everyone learned a lot from her talk, and it was great that I had the opportunity to provide an impactful message to my peers.
Something else I am really proud to have organized, along with my team, was the first ever Women in Computer Science Summit for undergraduate students in computer science last spring. It was a day of technical learning, career preparation, and networking for 15 freshman and sophomore students across the country. We are excited to host another Summit this spring with the goal of helping young women build their skills to become successful engineers in the future.
MongoDB is a great place to work because as an individual, I feel like I have been given ownership to make an impact on the company and that the company is making an impact on the world.
Cherish Richardson, NYC, Online Education Development
I am a Project Manager on the Education team at MongoDB and have been working here for almost 3 years. I started as an Operations Coordinator and was promoted twice during my time here. Now, I manage projects for New Hire Technical Training and MongoDB University events and I'm in the process of starting a speaker series for non-engineering teams.
When it comes to leadership, I lead by being authentic. I never ask of others what I don't expect from myself. That includes being a good coworker and building strong relationships with my colleagues, embracing ownership and taking accountability when it comes to my work, and admitting mistakes when the situation calls for it. I also always strive to communicate effectively and even more importantly, to be a good listener. I believe that great listening skills are a prerequisite for leadership in any context.
MongoDB is truly the best place I've ever worked. Every day I get to work with colleagues who are models of generosity, good humor, and hard work. My managers have given me the skills to achieve the success I didn't fully realize I was capable of while encouraging me to be my authentic self. I strongly believe in MongoDB's product and what we're working to accomplish as an organization, which makes me excited to come to work every day and give my all.
Something I am really proud of is the work I've done with my colleague, Danielle James, to get The Underrepresented People of Color (UPOC) group up and running at MongoDB in 2016. The goal of the group is to attract and retain UPOC talent, promote mentorship and strengthen our community outreach. It's also a place where we celebrate each other's successes and support each other through our tougher moments.
Gigi Neuenfeldt, Austin, Sales Development
When I first joined MongoDB two years ago, I was a Sales Development Manager for North America and am now the Director of North American Sales Development. I find that a lot of the reasons for why I originally joined MongoDB are the exact same reasons why I love working here today. I wanted to work at a company where I believed in the product, where there was ample opportunity to move up, and most importantly, where the core culture was one of growth and development. MongoDB has 100% checked all of those boxes. Specifically, I feel that I am challenged, empowered, and pushed to be a better sales person and leader on a daily basis. Not to mention, I've had the opportunity to work with and be mentored by some of the brightest people in the industry.
As a Director, I'm a firm believer in managing and relating to my colleagues on a personal level. I believe that teams perform at a higher level and innovate more quickly when they are provided with a positive and psychologically safe environment. If you spoke with someone on my team, I think they would tell you I am extremely invested in each of their futures and passionate about getting them to the next level — both while they work on the SDR team and beyond.
The Sales Development team has gone through a huge amount of change since I started, and I'm beyond proud of how far the team has come and what we've been able to accomplish over the past year; from strengthening our inbound SDR team to rebuilding our Outbound team.
Want to join some of our incredible leaders and innovate with us in 2020? Check out our open positions and help us grow!
