As Senior Director of Product Management, Marissa Schmidt manages development of the core features of Citrix ADC, as well as pooled capacity, licensing, and platforms for hybrid multi-cloud solutions. She loves how working in product management helps to drive product strategy and enables her to interact with customers, engineering, and sales to deliver innovative, important solutions. This blog post is part of our ongoing Women @ Work series.
How did you get into technology?
As a little girl, I couldn’t afford dolls, but we had old tape player and radios that I always wanted to take apart to figure out what was inside and put them back together. The same applied to the computers we had at school. I like math and science, so I did my undergraduate degree in computer engineering, with a focus on networking technology. It was fascinating to figure out how computer A talks to computer B and how the infrastructure of the internet (and all the plumbing) works.
What advice would you give to women who are building careers in technology?
Don’t be intimidated. Start playing around with the technology yourself. This will help you build confidence as you talk to other engineers or other groups in your organization. And most of all, have fun.
What do you know now about building a career in tech that you wish you’d known sooner?
That everyone else probably has the same questions as you, and it’s OK to ask those questions out loud. It’s important for you to get involved in these conversations and share your feedback and to learn how to take feedback constructively. It’s also helpful to network across your company and at other companies so you’re educated about what’s happening in your organization and your industry.
How can women help to shape a more empowering culture?
Create community. I co-founded the Women’s Inspirational Network at Citrix. It’s an employee resource group (ERG) that focuses on networking across the company; supporting learning and growth; developing leaders; creating an internal ecosystem of supporters and advocates among all employees; and supporting charitable initiatives in our communities. Really, shaping an empowering culture is about embracing learning and sharing knowledge to empower other women, no matter their role or title.
What advice would you give to a first-time leader (or someone who strives to be a leader in their organization)?
Understand the positive impact you can have on others and how that impact can be exponential. I didn’t know that helping to start Citrix’s WIN group would have an impact on so many people at Citrix. It now has a presence at Citrix sites around the world. We get feedback from women across the company about the things they’ve learned or shared through WIN. I had a former Citrite tell me she’s doing and sharing what she learned through WIN at her new employer, a leading technology company where she’s an executive. Mentoring is also critical. I work with my colleagues at Citrix and other companies regularly, and I also serve as a mentor to women who are studying engineering in college. Strive to be an inspiration in whatever you do. You can make an impact far beyond what you ever imagined!
Click here to learn about diversity and inclusion at Citrix and all our employee resource groups.
