In honor of Mother's Day this week, we're shining the spotlight on one of our hard working moms at UnifyWork, Tracy Ponce. Tracy has been with us for a little over 2 years, and has made a significant impact as our Director of Data Science & Analytics. But her journey to this role wasn't necessarily planned.
"I'm a problem solver," Tracy said. "I didn't go into my career planning to do analytics, but my love of puzzles, patterns and coding led me to the world of data and I haven't looked back. I feel lucky to have found a field that excites and challenges me."
So what inspired Tracy to join UnifyWork? "I want to do work that matters," she said. "I see the challenges our society is currently facing with the growing wealth gap and the limitations and frustrations many of us are trying to navigate as a result. While access to good paying jobs with growth potential won’t solve all issues, it’s something we should all have access to and UnifyWork is working to make that happen."
Tracy also loves the unique company culture at UnifyWork. "We're scrappy!" she exclaimed. "Our team is nimble and ready to pivot if new data reveals a clearer path to our goals."
When asked about her favorite feature of the UnifyWork platform, Tracy raved about the ease of finding the right job. "I love that you don’t have to be a search engine master to find jobs that are a good fit for your experience and interests. No more trying to come up with the best job title to search for or a dozen different keywords – just build a profile and let the jobs that fit come to you!"
As for her proudest achievement so far in her career, Tracy reflected on her journey as a working mother. "I had my first child at 23 years old. Being a working mom, nonetheless, a young working mom was insanely tough. More than anything else, I’m so proud to have persevered beyond what I thought I was capable of."
When asked what advice she would give to her younger self, Tracy said, "Never let fear that 'this might be the best there is' stop you. If you feel the urge to move on to the next step, always take it. The best is yet to come."
In the spirit of Mother's Day, we also asked Tracy about her experience as a working mother and balancing work and home life. "Being a working parent is exactly the opposite of balance," she explained. "It's an energetic scale. It's teetering. It's tottering. It quickly falls in and out of balance while you are doing whatever you can to stop the whole thing from crashing to the ground. It's a challenge! Sometimes you give more to home life. Sometimes you give more to work life. For me it's gotten easier in many ways with time and I would say I'm now nimbly adept at keeping the scales in a state of controlled chaos, but I've had to learn how to give myself a lot of grace along the way."
One of the many things that attracted Tracy to UnifyWork was their commitment to supporting working parents with paid parental leave. “After my first child was born, I was given only six weeks of unpaid maternity leave before I had to return to work. This was at the beginning of my career and I felt no power to advocate for myself at that time. I needed the job. I've vowed to never work for another company that doesn't provide paid parental leave for its employees. Way to go UnifyWork!”
Tracy's advice to other working mothers? "Never forget, not for a moment, that you are doing everything you can, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week and for that, you are being 100% awesome."
We hope this spotlight on Tracy Ponce has inspired you, whether you're a working mom or not, to give yourself the credit you deserve for all the hard work you do. And with that, we want to wish all moms a Happy Mother’s Day from the team at UnifyWork.