Diva Tech Talk interviewed Rebecca Bray, Chief Sales Officer for recruiting/staffing company: Epitec (www.epitec.com). Rebecca did not start out intending to pursue a tech mission. “I just fell into it,” she said. She graduated Central Michigan University with a marketing degree, but it was a college internship at Epitec that inspired her 19-year current career. After graduation, “I figured it would be a good way to figure out what I wanted to do when I grew up,” she said.  She has remained with the company because “I love what I do. The opportunities have always kept me engaged, challenged and learning every day.” 

In her current role, with responsibility for a team of 50, Rebecca is thrilled to concentrate on challenging, inspiring and “growing our team.”   Focused on daily staff enrichment, Epitec celebrates each staff member’s personal, as well as career, accomplishments every year.  “Training and developing people takes a lot of understanding,” Rebecca said. Giving people the leeway to fail, she believes, is “very important to let people develop and grow. We call it ‘recovery-oriented’. “

Key personal characteristics that have contributed to Rebecca’s success include patience and tenacity. “When I started, I looked very young.  Having credibility was a problem for me.”  To overcome this, Rebecca stressed that learning “who my audience was, and what their needs were,” was essential. Among the teams reporting to her is Epitec’s training and development group, which has created and manages a three-week onboarding and training program for Epitec staff.  She constantly ponders “what’s going to motivate our staff, typically not the generation I come from or with whom I have worked.  It’s a new generation. So, overcoming challenges around different work expectations, different types of goal-setting, different types of reward and recognition programs,” are issues for her.

Rebecca is also concerned with the looming large potential gap between the growing number of technology jobs, and skilled candidates to fill them.  To address it, she said “We are partnering with organizations like the Michigan Council of Women in Technology to drive more exposure to young girls and people about technology. We are also working with colleges around some internship programs, and have a robust internal Epitec internship program.” 

Rebecca shared some very pragmatic tips for other budding leaders:

1. “Write down your goals. And put a plan, together, on how you are going to achieve them.”
2. “Be ‘recovery-oriented’ and move forward.”
3. “Invest in yourself. If you want to develop a solid career, it’s really up to you.”

Realistically, to achieve balance, Rebecca noted that “being in the present” is important. “When I am with my family, then I’m engaged with my family.” Conversely, “when I am at work --- I’m focused at work,” she said.  In her philanthropic life, Rebecca is very involved in a volunteer role with Vista Maria (www.vistamaria.org), a Michigan-based nonprofit which offers community-based programs including education, general and treatment foster care, youth assistance programs, independent living, transition services and after school programs for “at risk” girls. 

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