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Vivien Chia
Ask Me Anything Event
Welcome to the Cisco Community Ask Me Anything conversation. Submit your questions from Wednesday, April 10, 2024 through Wednesday, April 24, 2024. Our Community VIPs, Kathy New and Maren Mahoney will be waiting to assist you and resolve any questions that have not been clarified, or answer and new questions that you may have.
More about this event:
Join us for an Ask Me Anything (AMA) event where you can get to know our Community VIPs Kathy New and Maren Mahoney. They talk about their experiences as women in tech, being a Community VIP, role models in the industry and so much more! This AMA session is your chance to ask them any questions you might have about their expertise and experiences.
Tell us a bit about yourself...
Kathy: I have been supporting Telecomm and Communication Services for a School District in Colorado for over 25 years. My career began as a software support tech but I moved into Telecomm Support and became the lead Telecomm Engineer. We installed Cisco Call Manager in 2019 and fully deployed Webex during the pandemic. My job has changed from traditional analog phone services to VoIP and added all our Cisco collaboration services and devices administration. I enjoy helping staff to be more effective in their jobs and networking with other customers to enhance my knowledge of the Cisco systems.
Maren: I have been in the IT industry for over 30 years, starting with a Help Desk and moving into Systems Administration, then Network Administration, and then got started in Collaboration (then AVVID) in 2000 as Cisco was just moving into that arena. My first version of CallManager was 3.0.5 and Unity 4 and I was hooked. I earned a CCIE in Collaboration in 2015. In addition to collaboration engineering, I taught Cisco Collaboration certification courses for almost 15 years and consider teaching one of the most important things I will have done in my life. I'm honored to have had the opportunity to help grow people! I am currently back in the field working for a large integrator designing, deploying, and maintaining Cisco Collaboration systems. I am also a US Army Veteran, musical theater buff, and proud wife and mother.
Your career and community VIP journey?
Kathy: I’ve always been active in user groups and found that networking with other users and customers are often the best way to find solutions to problems and proactively identify future solutions for my District. I found the Cisco User Group early in 2020 as we were supporting Webex Meetings for Education during the pandemic. While I found many answers for my questions, I realized that I also had answer for others and began posting replies. I hadn’t heard of the Cisco Designated VIP program until I was selected as one of the first women in the group in 2022 so I was surprised when I was notified.
Maren: I am lucky enough to have entered the IT field when it was smaller and less complicated, and have been able to grow along with it. It's been 30 years and you'd think I'd be settled, but instead I have recently started down the programming and automation path so I am a beginner again. The Cisco Community and Cisco Learning Space have been invaluable resources to me in my original journey in Collaboration, and I am relying on them again in my new journey. I have tried to help along the way, too, and am honored that my contributions have led me to being named a VIP.
Your role model(s)?
Kathy: I typically look at what others do well and try to emulate them but I do have one person that truly helped me during my career. Years ago I worked in the Marketing Department for US Swimming. The Marketing Director had been an entrepreneur starting her own business before working at US Swimming and eventually became the CEO of Running USA. She helped me to improve my interpersonal skills and provided guidance on how to be an effective employee and leader. Her personal drive and expectation to be judged based on who she is and her business acumen has guided me to never use gender, age, race or other physical attribute to judge others or assume that others are judging me based on them. While a lot of my job is working with computers and software, she taught me that no one can work alone and we should always treat others the same way we expect to be treated.
Maren: Generally speaking, my role models are women who forge ahead despite obstacles, take no grief, and are willing to speak out for themselves and others. In tech these ladies are: Radia Perlman, Hedy Lamarr, Ada Lovelace, and Katherine Johnson to name a few. (And if you don't know who those four are, look them up...they are inspiring!)
Your top Cisco and Cisco Community (community.cisco.com) resources?
Kathy: Since I have transitioned to being the primary collaboration administrator in our School District and it is a new technology for our organization, I focus most of my time in the Webex community. The new Webex Academy is a great place to get training on all things Webex. I began using it just for the Meeting Collab resources but we will be migrating to Webex Calling and it has great resources for learning more about migration from on-prem calling to the cloud. The Webex Help center at help.webex.com is another great resource for administrators and end users.
I also keep up to date with posts from the Insiders Group. Posts are available for all things Cisco and include unique opportunities to do challenges to learn more about Cisco products and services as well as participate in member only activities
Maren: Cisco documentation first and foremost. Everything you ever wanted to know is there. Cisco blog and articles on both the Cisco Learning Space and on the Cisco Community Forums. Google is your friend. You are likely not the first person to need a particular piece of information, so search and read and search some more. You'll learn things along the way.
Your recommended resources for aspiring girls in ICT?
Kathy: Find the learning environment that works best for you. Take advantage of tech social groups where you can network with others in addition to the more traditional college and online courses.
Maren: Girls: Girls who Code, STEM like a Girl, SciGirl on PBS. Go find a teacher that you respect and ask them to help you find resources, too. Women: Take advantage of places you can learn like Cisco U, Microsoft Learn, and the like. YouTube videos are awesome, but you will learn more if you read and do rather than just watch! (And when it feels overwhelming remember: "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!") And, whatever you do, VOTE!
Your advice/message for young women considering STEM or tech career advancement?
Kathy: Women can excel in STEM and tech as easily as men. If possible find other successful women and men that don’t believe gender should define what someone can do. Learn how they interact and manage other people, work and projects and emulate those traits that make them successful and resonate with you.
Maren: Don't underestimate or under-value yourself. Women are often the first to discount themselves, when the reality is they are usually among the smartest and hardest working in the room. If you are there you belong. Own that.
Thank you for all this great insight!
Now take the opportunity to interact with Kathy and Maren!
Note: Please post your question or comment no later than April 24, 2024.
Post your question/comment below by clicking "Reply"
(Answers will be processed depending on the availability of the experts)
Don't forget to thank the expert by giving it a helpful vote!
I believe yes @DevNate. Acknowledging and honoring a person's choice for their sexual identity should be a normal professional courtesy. With that said, I look forward to the day when women/men in tech is an outdated term and it's all just People in Tech. A person's ability to do a job, especially tech jobs, should not be evaluated based on their gender or chosen sexual identify.
I became involved in this community initially through Google searches when trying to troubleshoot problems and find solutions for staff in my organization. Initially I bookmarked some of the Community Pages and would visit them periodically but I eventually changed so I subscribe to multiple communities and see all posts from each of them. It's a little more work to sort through but I mainly look at the subject title to decide if it has anything that might interest me. This has helped me to find information posted in one community that is also relevant in another community.
As a newcomer, I would recommend visiting each of the communities and looking at some of the posts. This will help you to decide which communities are most relevant to you. In addition, look at the other resources like the Cisco Insider Group, Guided Resources, etc. Register for webinars and events as well. Good luck!
Thank you @delfinacarruagem for your question. I don't know if this is my biggest impact but it does bring a smile to my face everytime it happens. I work in a K12 school district which lets me work in the schools and interact with students and teachers. I love it when I get to work on equipment and tech and get to see the reaction on from boys and girls when they find out what I do. Sometimes they are surprised that a woman is doing the work, both from the boys and the girls, and it their reaction then changes to one of admiration. I have also been invited in as a guest speaker for students taking networking/collab courses.
My advice would be to continue to do what makes you happy. You have to find confidence and happiness from within. Cherish it when you get it from your peers and others but don't depend on it for your motivation. Remember that you have to live with yourself so you need to get self-satisfaction from what you are doing. Find others that feel the same way and use them as a support group.
Not sure if others would agree but I have found a common thread when talking with others regarding Cisco exams, @telmacassange. The tests are very challenging and sometimes there appear to be more than one right answer to a question but there is always only one Cisco correct answer. It takes skill to evaluate all answers and be able to select the one answer that is 100% Cisco and not 90% Cisco and 10% real world reality.
