People Spotlight : Kellie
Meet Kellie
Tell me about your background?
I grew up overseas in Norway because my dad worked in the oil fields. My dad lived in Egypt and Russia before he finally “settled down” in Norway with the family. My parents dragged my toddler booty from European country to European country for the first six years of my life, including Germany and Austria. I attended an International school where there were many cultures represented. This experience was formative for me and gave roots to my passion for traveling and experiencing other cultures.
We finally settled in Texas, and I’ve been here ever since. For college, I attended the University of Texas where I studied Management Information Studies (MIS). I actually took an aptitude test to help me figure out what I wanted to do with my future. It suggested lawyer or computer science, and I didn’t want to be a lawyer, so computer science it was.
What do you do at MRE?
I’m the quintessential generalist. I can play different roles from project management, business analysis, or development. It’s enabled me to learn a lot as well as add value by filling different roles on projects. My goal is to become a functional architect and work with clients to understand their pain points and help them improve their business process by leveraging Salesforce.
What skills does someone need to be successful in the role that you’re in?
You need to know how to ask the right questions. You need to finesse the information from people that they don’t even know they know. Someone may think they know what they need, but often, it’s not what they need so if you deliver what they actually asked for, they’re not going to be satisfied.
Funniest client experience?
We had a go-live which involved just myself and my client counterpart. We were there until midnight on Friday and continued on Saturday morning. As a joke, I suggested we work in comfortable clothes when we regroup. My client came in sweatpants and a baseball cap. I brought my bunny slippers. It was great and made working on a Saturday much more fun.
WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE THING ABOUT WORKING AT MRE?
It’s really the people. I was really fortunate that my first project had so many senior leaders. The amount of learning I have been able to do is amazing. I have a seat at the table. At other companies, I felt like I had to justify myself because I am younger. If I was in a meeting with people who were three titles above me, my role was to take notes and not contribute which is a challenging culture to be a part of. At MRE, if you provide your opinions, you are seriously considered. I was able to go from sitting in the room absorbing to being a real thought partner.
I do have to say that with the pandemic, I have really missed the Happy Hours and the Holiday party. MRE does a good job of making sure you have a way to meet other people beyond your project.
What’s a challenge you’ve had to work through with the pandemic?
Planning a wedding is already stressful without having to deal with a pandemic. I wanted to keep it to a normal amount of stress. I was supposed to get married in October 2020 but we postponed to this November 2021 because of the pandemic. Trying on dresses was such an interesting and fun experience. The last time I did formal dress shopping was for high school prom!
What’s something no one knows about you?
When I lived in New Jersey, I looked for indoor hobbies because the winters were freezing!! I took a cake decorating class and can proudly say I’m stellar at decorating cakes today. I make all of my family and friends’ special occasion cakes. It’s something I really enjoy. Now I live in the warm winters of Texas and love it.
I got my yellow belt in Tae Kwon Do for a college course and had to punch and kick through boards to pass my final.
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