What drew you to a career at Cyara originally and how has the company changed since?
Having built Contact Centers in my previous life with varying degrees of success, the concept of automated CX testing and assurance was interesting and new. The opportunity to move to Melbourne, Australia from Auckland, New Zealand also appealed to me. In the 10+ years I’ve been at Cyara, I feel like I’ve worked for 5 different companies with every evolution being more exciting than the next. It has been so rewarding watching us mature from where we came from.
What does a typical day look like for you and what are you currently working on?
I’m a morning person, so I like to get up early and either exercise and/or meditate. I then like to punch out the type of work I need to focus on without interruption. I’ll then be collaborating on Zoom calls, or via Slack, with my US counterparts who are headed towards the ends of their days and my local teammates who are just starting to get into their days. Following that, I’ll have a few customer calls before I get back to working on building out presentations and content and following up on emails I may have missed.
Finally, if I haven’t meditated in the morning, I’ll meditate in the afternoon.
Tell us about your work life harmony at Cyara?
In these times of Covid and lockdowns, work-life harmony is critical for everyone’s mental wellbeing. It’s not something I’m particularly great at, but my manager is very supportive in ensuring I’m not overdoing it. For me personally, it’s about making sure I meditate and exercise daily and block out some time during the day to leave my home office and get some vitamin D.
Describe your current role at Cyara
I’ve just started a new role as Global Field Enablement Manager, so I’m in a bit of a transition period from my previous role. Essentially, I’m creating content and developing programs to improve onboarding and messaging for our customer-facing teams. We have an amazing solution suite here at Cyara and for me, it’s all about ensuring that our internal teams understand the positive impact and value that Cyara can bring to the great brands we work with.
How would you describe the culture at Cyara?
It’s a family vibe. And I say that being single and not living in my country of birth.
Since my first Cyara Christmas way back in 2011, it’s the one thing that’s remained constant. And yes, I was Santa. I’ve made some extremely close friends, who I pretty much consider family. People are willing to help you out, whether that be in a professional sense or personal. Just a great crew of people.
What has been the most empowering moment in your Cyara career journey?
This happened recently, believe it or not. I had the opportunity to present to the leadership team on a concept I had come up with. I was a little (a lot) nervous, but they put me at ease, and I feel it went well; they were receptive. I think that really speaks to how flat or non-hierarchical the organization is and how there are always opportunities to make a massive impact.
What are you passionate about in your role?
For me it’s about helping people. Whether that be in my current role or my previous role as a Pre-Sales Solution Architect, the passion is the same. I attain fulfillment through helping people learn new things and achieve their goals.
How does Cyara help support your sense of purpose in your career?
For sure it does. I struggled for quite some time with working out my next step career-wise. My manager and my VP gave me the flexibility to dip my toe in the water on various projects to provide me with exposure to my various areas of interest. This, along with some great mentoring and guidance, helped me figure out exactly what my sense of purpose was.
What have you gained from working at Cyara from a career perspective?
Exposure to many projects, many technologies, many delivery approaches, and many people. I’ve gained a lot of confidence from these experiences, which has allowed me to come out of my shell and develop a voice to help my colleagues and customers.
If you could describe Cyara as an employer in 3 words, what words would you use?
Exciting, challenging, rewarding.
How has Cyara’s global approach to diversity helped you in your career so far?
Having such a culturally diverse workforce has exposed me to a lot of different ways of thinking, in and out of the office. It has helped me improve my communication, more generally speaking, as it provides me an awareness of how that communication will be received. I think it’s bigger than career, though. I feel like it has provided a powerful life tool.