Linda Wenger: Programmer To Entrepreneur
In episode #22 of My 2.0, guest Linda Wenger, Strategy Consultant at Urbaneer, shares her transition from a career in programming to entrepreneurship.
Linda’s first job was at a company called NCR for client support. She went back to graduate school to get her MBA and transitioned to the technical side. She then moved to a consulting company at MCI as a product manager.
Early on in her career, Linda had decided she was going to transition every 2 years to be able to learn and grow most.
Soon after, she had her first child and fully transitioned to motherhood. And that was not an easy transition. It was hard coming from a pretty exciting and changing life to transition into something that was a little bit more sedentary. But as we do as moms, we grow into our roles and we learn every day. About four years later, she had her second child and threw herself into volunteering with the schools, running auctions and fundraisers, to be active with networking.
Linda thought transitioning into and out of motherhood was very difficult. Starting with postpartum depression, losing the sense of freedom, workplace achievements, being physically exhausted all the time. Transitioning back into the workforce was equally challenging. She fought guilt about not being there for the kids. And on missing out being in the industry for 8 years.
And in 2007, she transitioned into helping her husband with his new business in the association industry, in SaaS. Not only did she not know anything about the industry, much less about the work. The world of startups was new and different. And yet, one of the best experiences of her life. It caused her to grow up very quickly.
She went back to school again, to Georgetown, for a leadership program. And is now consulting with a company in the construction industry, one in which she has no experience! But is using her strong skills in finance and strategy to advise them.
She also thinks transitioning is the most challenging, and it’s hard going from stable and known to a new place, one you may not know much about. She also finds that the more mature she gets, the harder it is for her to transition. Because the younger generation is hungry to get things done. And we start questioning our ability to keep up with them, and the learning. But the right answer is for us to continue to have the courage to transition no matter our age.
Her advice to her pre-transition self is to be aware of how easy it is to get stuck in the waiting place. And that there is no such thing as failure, just early attempts at success. And that women are the strongest people on the planet. And always learning is beneficial.