Women in Tech: Career Growth & Client Success

In this edition of our Women in Tech series, we hear from Jordan Jennison, Account Manager - Mid-Market. With nearly three years at the company, Jordan shares her journey into the tech industry, the value of the team-first culture at SmartRecruiters, and the crucial advice she wishes she had received early in her career. Read on to gain insight into her rewarding work and her encouraging message to aspiring young women in tech.

What sparked your interest in a technical field/tech industry?

Jordan: My dad did, actually. My dad was 20 years military. When he retired from the military, he went directly into sales, and he crushed it. I just looked at him like he was this total hero, and I wanted to be just like my dad. So as soon as I graduated from high school, 17 years old, I applied at Citrix Systems and I started making phone calls.

How did you get to where you are today at SmartRecruiters? Can you share a pivotal moment that jump-started your journey?

Jordan: I started from the bottom, now I'm here. I started off as an Sales Development Representative with SmartRecruiters, and I learned so much from the people that I was working with: Michelle Slaughter, Bill Peterson, Delilah Morales, Armando Villa. They taught me so much on a day-to-day basis, not just around the SmartRecruiters product, but also on different ways to sell and communicate with potential prospects.

Looking back, what's one piece of advice you wish you had received when you were starting your career in this industry?

Jordan: The one piece of advice I wish I would have heard is slow down. I am Energizer Bunny all the time. Go, go, go, go, go. My mom calls me the Tasmanian devil at times. Not everything has to be rushed. Not everything has to be right now. Some things can be pushed back to make sure accuracy and miscommunications don't happen.

What’s one myth that people think about what you do?

Jordan: That it's easy. Working from home. I'm a mom of 2 under 2. I take care of my kids while I'm working, and there's this big misconception that just because you work from home means that you don't do any work and you can just kind of have a willy-nilly schedule. That is not accurate, but we love it.

What's one project or accomplishment at SmartRecruiters that you are particularly proud of and why?

Jordan: One project that I did when I was Sales Development Representative: I was able to gather up all of the other SDRs and create daily "power hours," which was awesome. Not only did we learn from each other and how we would speak, but we also got to encourage each other, which I think is a big part of being a team.

What aspects of SmartRecruiters’ culture make it a great place for women in tech to thrive?

Jordan: I think the better question is what aspects don't make it a great place for women to thrive in technology. Not only do we have a massive amount of support on a day-to-day basis, just as employees, but as a mother, I have had two children with this company, and this company has supported me at every single angle: living a full life personally and then coming back to work and still having opportunities to grow.
Right after I got back from my second maternity leave with SmartRecruiters, I immediately got promoted to an account management role. It's just all around the best place that you could ever possibly work.

Which of our new values do you think plays the biggest role in your day-to-day work?

Jordan: That's a really good question. I think that it's Together We Will Win. I'm a big team player. I love supporting my team and being able to lean on my team. I couldn't imagine doing my job without my team.

What message do you hope to convey to young girls and women who are aspiring to enter technical fields in tech companies?

Jordan: Do it. Full send it, you will not regret it. And the beautiful thing about life is if you don't like something, you can always change. You are not committed to anything. But once you get in an industry and you find a company that supports you the way that SmartRecruiters has supported me and plenty of other women in this industry, you're going to want to stick around. The job is rewarding. The people are rewarding. It's worth it. Just do it.

What's the most rewarding part of helping customers leverage our technology to achieve their goals?

Jordan: Succeeding. I love when companies look at me after a year and say, "Wow, SmartCRM really changed the dynamic of our organization," or "Adding that extra touch with SmartMessage and being able to send text messages to candidates through the recruiters really amplified our process. We've seen such growth." That's an amazing feeling.

In your role, how do you balance the technical understanding of our solutions with the business needs and challenges of our clients?

Jordan: Transparently, this is one that was very difficult for me to start with when I became an Account Manager. I'd never worked in the Talent Acquisition space before, so I didn't understand what was important to TA leaders, what their day-to-day life looked like.
So I took time to do some self-enablement, exactly like I tell my customers to do on our product. I attended external webinars. I Googled a lot. I talked to my manager and fellow teammates about what is important in this space, not just to TA leaders, but to the recruiters who are really getting into it on a day-to-day basis. By learning what was important to those people, I was able to connect what products would be helpful and where I should really be focusing on internal pain points to support different customers.