These industry experts from Progress share stories about their backgrounds, their paths to professional success, and the lessons they learned along the way.
Loren Jarrett
General Manager of Developer Tools Business
How would you advise a woman interested in a career in STEM?
Take risks and try new things until you find what you love. From there, believe in yourself and believe that your abilities, your intelligence, and your skills will get you where you need to go. Don’t worry if you don’t fit the mold of what other people look like or how they act. Your difference is what makes you unique, and that approach is what’s going to make you successful. If you’re not sure if you can do something, there’s nothing better than trying it. And it’s OK to fail. A successful career is not about not failing. It’s about learning from each and every situation so that you get better and better with time.
What do you wish you knew 20 years ago?
Those moments when you’re lucky enough to have a big career opportunity can be super scary because a lot of people, and women in particular, tend to look at those opportunities and say, “You know, I’m not qualified yet. I don’t meet 100 percent of the criteria for the job. So I probably shouldn’t try it at this point.” Whereas men who are only partially qualified would more likely look at that and say, “I know I haven’t done everything in the job description, but I’ll be great. I’m going to go after it.” The reality is that no one is 100 percent qualified. There are a lot of partially qualified people out there and one of them is going to get the opportunity, so it might as well be you.
Who is a woman you admire?
Honestly, the women who have inspired me the most have been the women in my family. My mother was an entrepreneur; she started a successful technical recruiting business as a single mother. My older sister has had a long career as a senior-level software engineer and is one of far too few women in her position. In another generation, my great-grandmother came to the United States from Ukraine on her own in her twenties with nothing and started a series of businesses that became successful. These stories of strength and limitless possibility inspire me.
How has Progress empowered female employees?
As leaders, we need to pave the way for women in the future and create an environment at Progress that supports inclusion and diversity at all levels of our organization. This is something very close to my heart and something we take very seriously here. Progress has a long history of inclusion and diversity. Our first engineer, Mary Székely – employee No. 1, one of the founders of Progress – was a software engineer. She wrote our flagship product that still powers thousands and thousands of organizations around the globe today. Progress actively pursues best practices for inclusion and diversity (I&D) in our business, and we work within our local tech communities to further I&D in our industry.
Why is diversity in leadership important?
There have been many studies done to date, by McKinsey and others, that have shown that a diversity of perspective in leadership leads to better decisions and better business performance overall. So, there’s a dollars-and-cents reason for every company to invest in this, but it’s a lot more than that. Diverse teams make us all better at what we do – they create an environment in which everyone can bring their best to the table. When we see different perspectives and different approaches, that enables each of us to grow, and that makes all of us better leaders and better team members.
How do you hope to shape the future of Progress?
At Progress, we want to lead the way in I&D. We want to have an inclusive and diverse environment internally where everyone feels empowered to bring their best every day. We also aim to become an example for other businesses to follow. We want to make a contribution, not just to our company, but to our industry overall. We’re living in a very dynamic time with a lot of evolution in our industry and ongoing changes in our country as a whole. We have the opportunity right now to truly make a difference for future generations of employees both at Progress and in the broader industry.
Lilia Messechkova
Senior Director of Software Engineering
How would you advise a woman interested in a career in STEM?
Regardless of your gender, if you are interested in a career in STEM, I’d recommend that you ask yourself a few questions first. Are you passionate about solving problems and logical thinking? Do you have natural curiosity driving you to discover how things work? Are you excited to constantly learn new things and discover new ways of doing them? Do you keep yourself open-minded for what’s possible? If the answer to all those questions is “yes,” then STEM is the right path for you.
What do you wish you knew 20 years ago?
Looking back, I wish I’d been more focused on self-improvement rather than on being perfect in every aspect. Perfectionism leads to stagnation, limits creative thinking, and begets tension. It’s one of the most common reasons students give up on their dreams before even having made the first step. Striving for excellence and self-improvement, on the other hand, leads to internal satisfaction and empowers you to be brave to try, fail, rise up, and move on. Success is a journey, not a destination.
How has Progress empowered female employees?
One of the areas where female employees struggle most is work-life balance. To help all employees manage their personal and professional lives without sacrificing one at the expense of the other, Progress offers flexible working hours, work from home allowance, and even our own kids center in one of our locations. With all this, we all feel we can be our best selves both at work and at home.
Why is diversity in leadership important?
Diversity in leadership means having more skills and perspectives to leverage when solving problems and having to come up with solutions. Leaders in diverse groups have access to more opportunities to explore and more challenges to prepare for that otherwise might not have been brought to the table at all.
How do you hope to shape the future of Progress?
Today, technology makes everything easier – from providing faster access to commodities and services, to transforming underdeveloped regions, to giving real-time access to information at critical moments to all citizens across the globe. I believe that Progress will make people’s lives better through the technology we create.
Joan Groleau
Senior Director of Global Partner Program
How would you advise a woman interested in a career in STEM?
For me, I didn’t go into technology as my first step. I was massively interested in marketing and I chose an organization where I could focus on marketing a solution that made the customer’s life better. That’s the passion within technology for me.
What do you wish you knew 20 years ago?
What I really wish I had 20 years ago is more confidence in myself. At this stage of my career, I find myself looking back at that woman I was 20 years ago and saying, “How do I bring her back a little bit more into my day?” So bringing that wonder, bringing that kind of sense of fascination with everything. I wish I could have given her some of the confidence I have today.
Who is a woman you admire?
I’m a huge fan of Eleanor Roosevelt. You talk about a woman who overcame things. For example, she was not a good public speaker, but she put herself out there because she had to, to support her husband and to support her causes. She was shy and reticent and then went from being really ridiculed over her looks – she had to really deal with a lot of unwarranted criticism – to overcoming it and becoming an inspiration to so many people. And that’s just really something that I think we should all do.
Why is diversity in leadership important?
When you have a team of people with unique backgrounds, the whole group benefits from the collective energy and new ideas. So when you have a group of people with different approaches to life, different experiences, different backgrounds, I think you create amazing things.
How do you hope to shape the future or Progress?
We just launched The Progress Accelerate Partner Program in January 2020. I’m very excited about my charter to build upon this launch over the next few years for growth across all of Progress and our partners.
