February Question of the Month - Join the conversation and receive a badge

Pam Ferguson

I started out just wanting to be a mom and now I working with AMAZING smarsheet folks, and lots of data. Who would have thought that I would have gone from doing clerical, to admin, to system admin, to web design, to contract administration, to project administration/management, to sharepoint developer, to BPM to financial/data analysis.....it's been a road well traveled!

kelceyg

As a child, I wanted to be a marine biologist. I loved whales, especially orcas, and desperately wanted to spend my life learning about them. Unfortunately, I quickly learned that science was not my strong suit! I was more adept at English/language arts. I ended up going to school to study advertising and public relations. Now, after many different twists and turns, I do reporting and process improvement for my company's project management office.

LeslieB

When i was a kid, I wanted to be Samantha on Bewitched. I still to, and i am no longer a kid.

Leslie

Debbie Sawyer

Ooh - good question.

I always wanted to be a music teacher. I loved music and played a few instruments to a high standard. After a degree in Electronic Music with Computing, I decided that I liked databases just as much as Music 😏 so started my career as an IT trainer teaching MS Office/Lotus Smartsuite on Windows 3.1!!!! Yes I am getting on a bit! 😂 Back then we had a training suite of 8 machines. I remember MS Office was something like 20 discs (small discs like the pictures on the Save button) to install and the Lotus suite was 32! I'd be there all hours putting discs in and out of the machines changing the set up from one system to the other. Almost 30 years later and no set up required, just an internet connection!

I am still teaching in an adult capacity and Smartsheet is my app of choice to share knowledge on. I also consult on Smartsheet builds and am fairly active here in the community.

Debbie Sawyer

Chief Smartsheet Solutions Office for Smarter Business Processes

Smartsheet Community Champion and Ambassador 🤩

jan aelbrecht

When I was a kid I wanted to be a chef in a restaurant.

This was because I helped my mother in the kitchen when she was a chef and I liked it very much. When I was 13 and need to decide what I want to study, my mother just told me that I could not become a chef as they always have to work when other peoples are making fun.

So I study engineering, many many years later I now work in a shared service center in the finance department

........but I still love to cook for family and friends.

Regards🎂

Gbur

I wished I could play for the Chicago Bulls, but, that was never going to be. My dad fixed elevators for a career in Chicago, so computers, technology, repair, home improvement and other tinkering were always present at home and especially on the weekend. However, once I have a working grasp of certain concepts, I tended to want to move on to the next thing. But what I really enjoyed doing, and wanted to do, was explain things to people, or invent things, as I enjoy figuring new things out and how they're connected. Inventor isn't really a job. Nor did I want to do be technical support and specialize fixing ONLY the same things, as I had a desire to know more about everything, but explainer isn't really a job either.

Having a somewhat sound handy, technical, troubleshooting upbringing, I eventually ended up going to school for engineering, but only the ideation, prototyping, and creation aspect resonated, I wasn't a rocket scientist. I was more of a big picture, idea guy at heart, with an analyst eye. Alas, I wandered into an Industrial Technology and Distribution technology degree and enjoyed optimization, efficiency, supply chains, and project management. I found myself as a TA teaching those concepts, and realized I didn't have a background in education. So I yet again hedged into an educational technology career, unaware such a thing existed.

Now I find myself more of a jack of all trades, master of none, but with some expert level experience that would contradict that sentiment. Inevitably, I have done plenty of technical support along the way, but I have found plenty of macro explaining, ideation, prototyping, creation, and workflow optimization to mix up the day. I've been at the same company, Orbis Education, for 16 years at the time of writing and currently with the title of VP of Product & E-learning. There are no straight lines in career paths outside of licensure fields, and many folks also stumble their way back into those professions in a roundabout fashion as well. Now I have the pleasure of helping them realize their career paths into licensure healthcare fields at a 10,000ft view.

Maili Kapfhamer

Growing up I wanted to own a coffee shop theater. I currently work at a bank in project management. I still haven't given up on my childhood job, I still would love to have my own coffee shop in the future.

SteyJ

I wanted to be a software engineer for the federal government. I thought it would be interesting to be at the cutting edge of technology and understand the possibilities that exist in the cyber sector.

While in the Navy, this essentially what I was doing -- but now I'm doing something similar in the private sector. ☺️

Erin Kim

When I was a kid, I wanted to be Barbie and then a teacher. Since Barbie can be whatever she wants, guess I successfully accomplished my childhood goal. HAHA

melissa.garcia

As a kid, I wanted to be a professional tap dancer, preferably on Broadway. Of course, the glamor of living in New York was really what it was about for me, but I definitely had the desire to pursue a tap dancing career.

Now, my job still entails tap dancing in a way 😂 except this time, I am a project manager for an LMS/CMS project that helps coordinate all resources for parents, families, and educators in special education on one website. I also manage and work with a Multimedia team on a film project that captures exemplary strategies being implemented across Texas by teachers and staff in public schools.

I still practice tapping at home and try to make sure I am kind to my downstairs neighbor by 1) giving them gift cards to Amazon to buy ear plugs, and 2) let them know I will be done stomping away by 8pm nightly. 😆

Darla Brown

As a kid, I wanted to be a teacher, a secretary (dating myself), and a singer. I had a teacher's attendance book and would take roll of my dolls and animals. Then I would pretend to answer phones and take messages for my dad. I sang all day long. My first solo in public was at age 5. Still remember it!

Now - I was an EA for most of my career until last October. I also taught music for many years. And yes, I still sing. Guess I always knew what I wanted to do! :)

JoHanna_Schultz

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a Kentucky Wildcats Cheerleader. Then, I realized that wasn't a career, so I then wanted to become a nun!

Sorry to disappoint, but I didn't follow either career path. I currently work for an online, supplemental high school as a Technology Analyst. One of my job duties, which also happens to be my favorite, is to be the smartsheet administrator!

To be fair to my younger self, I am a huge cheerleader for my family, coworkers, and community! That counts, right?

Kyle Morgan

As a child, I always wanted to write children's books. As an adult, I have written music for Film and Television, worked in the special fx industry, assembled skeletons for museums and now I currently work in the pop-culture collectibles industry. Although I have never found the time to actually sit down and do it... I still haven't lost my desire to write. One thing that I have learned is that anything is possible...so...who knows...maybe one day I can add "Author" to my resume'. 🤷‍♂️

jmhoward

As a kid, I wanted to be either a teacher or a lawyer. (I tended to be argumentative, so my parents thought I'd be a good lawyer 😄)

So, of course, I went to school for psychology and ended up with a minor in marketing!

I was an editor for 20 years, working on a variety of content ranging from several college chemistry texts at Prentice-Hall (Pearson) to the SAP Professional Journal.

Smartsheet landed on my lap a few years ago when the person who brought it into my company left. As a senior solutions engineer, I now manage the Smartsheet implementation across the company. It's a career path full of twists, but I'm learning to embrace that. 😊

Humashankar

I spent countless hours tinkering with gadgets, exploring software, and diving into the world of coding. My fascination with technology grew into a passion, and it became clear to me that I wanted to pursue a career in the field of information technology (IT).

As I grew older, my childhood dreams of becoming an IT professional turned into reality. Today, I work in the IT industry, utilizing my skills to solve problems, develop innovative solutions, and contribute to the ever-evolving world of technology. It's incredibly fulfilling to be able to work in a field that I've been passionate about since childhood, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to make a meaningful impact in the IT sector