Paige Howarth

Tell us your story.

As a Millennial, I’ve always been involved in the digital space to one degree or another. I created a (albeit terrible) Angelfire site when I was in fourth grade, was one of the first people in my high school to have a Facebook page (and subsequently grounded by my confused mother), and also created by own blog in college.

My first position out of college was at a traditional PR firm, working on a thought leadership account. My first taste for a website redesign was when it came time to redesign the CEO’s internal blog. Unfortunately, I didn’t stay long enough to see the final product but it as interesting to see all the internal processes and technical complications that arise during a redesign for such a large organization.

I became a digital project manager purely by accident. I started working at Social Driver as an executive and operations assistant. Even though I was an internal role, inherently as a small business, I was pulled in to help on client projects as well. I found myself becoming more interested in all the website build and redesign projects. How do you choose what platform to use? What information impacts design? My previous manager, Devon, took me under his arm and taught me everything I know. He encouraged me to ask questions, make mistakes, and think from all sides of a problem. Without him, I definitely would not be where I am today.

What do you most want other women and young girls to know about being a woman in our digital culture?

“Don’t be afraid to make a lateral career move.” At my previous job, my client said this constantly in interviews and I never really understood what it meant, until now. Most people believe that you need to constantly keep moving up in your career but if you are switching jobs or industries that might be in unchartered waters, lateral careers moves are not your death. This is especially true in the tech industry where the learning curve can be especially steep. Give yourself time learn the industry or skill set you need to crush it.

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The Women in Tech campaign exists to help redefine what women in technology means in the 21st century. Started independently by a group of professional women who, after many impassioned discussions about women in tech knew we wanted to expand this definition beyond ‘traditional’ technology skills. To us, it includes most every current, emerging or evolving role within an organization. By featuring leaders and emerging leaders across industries who embody this we hope to collectively ‘stand up’, be proud of our place in the digital world and inspire young women or those new to the ‘tech space’ to get involved.

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