“What I try to do in any role that I have is learn a little bit about the next level and keep hold of the levels below, just to have that knowledge and keep it in balance so those transitions are not as scary or uncertain.”
The 2x Women in Tech Podcast with Chelsea Behrens
Cate Long, CMA; Global Board Member
The thing about tech is that there are many paths that will take you there. For Cate Long, the road started within a traditional financial services space at a time when software wasn’t even on her radar. In this episode, Cate shares how she moved from being a Controller in Accounting at a manufacturing company to a VP of Professional Services in the tech industry.
The conversation starts out with a look at Cate’s recent transition from her role as VP of Professional Services at SAP Concur to her post-retirement passion for putting the valuable skills she acquired over the course of her career to work on projects of all kinds. She serves as a global board member and also enjoys following the careers of her former reports, who have moved on, moved up and, in some cases, surpassed Cate’s own career milestones. It’s a source of pride for this perennially curious team player, whose commitment to getting projects done is matched only by her enthusiasm for mentoring members of her teams.
Cate shares stories about her career journey, including the stretch she made in taking on a managerial role at the age of 23. Was she fully prepared? Nope. But Cate made a practice of learning about positions up, down, and across the enterprise. It was a strategy that helped her stem the fear and build bridges to a progression of interesting challenges.
Cate could never have predicted a professional trajectory that would take her to the heights of a software company. But her accounting skills in combination with an open mind and eagerness to work with others made a perfect fit. She encourages women from all kinds of backgrounds to consider making a leap into the wide-ranging world of tech!
Key Takeaways:
Cate’s perspective on life hasn’t changed significantly post-retirement, but her focus most definitely has. Her interest in process improvement has shifted from corporate to various volunteer pursuits and interests.
Keeping current with the tech industry is important to Cate because there are constantly evolving improvements not only to business processes, but also products and tools for volunteer organizations.
It’s easy to let your vision narrow to a single piece of technology or role within your company, but Cate believes remaining engaged with the bigger picture makes the work more holistic and meaningful.
About Cate’s career trajectory: From financial services, where she got the language of business, she moved through advanced accounting certification and a progression of roles as a controller.
At SAP Concur, where Cate first crossed paths with Chelsea, she found a niche within the tech sector that provided her sustained growth and job satisfaction for 16 years.
All about Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software: What lit Cate up was fascination with the amount of data that could be captured, where it came from and wound up on financial statements. It was also a company-wide system that gave her an opportunity to interact with teams across the enterprise.
Cate reflects on her transition from controller to consultant, which she found a little daunting because she had to adopt new technologies to execute her function and provide what her customers needed.
Contrary to what some predicted, moving into consulting leveraged and built upon Cate’s financial background and skills.
Cate knew from an early stage in her career that leading teams would make a good fit because she enjoyed organizing around goals and helping others to do the same.
Cate shares the story of how she fell into her first managerial opportunity at the age of 23, which was a challenge that she was up for and a role she grew into quickly.
About Leadership: There are many ways in which to influence organizations — and not necessarily through traditional managerial roles. Fellowships and internships are a great way to explore opportunities.
Cate’s entire business vocabulary expanded when she moved into the tech sector, where she was exposed to and part of the deployment of software within a variety of industries.
There are many “hidden” jobs in the tech industry with which you may not be familiar. Consider things like training, data analysis, account management report preparation, etc.
Episode Resources
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