This blog is part of our on-going Women in Technology series.

Caroline Shields joined us as a Compliance Consultant, working in the client services group within Riskovery here at Consilio. Caroline earned her undergraduate degree in Math, Computer Science from Carlow University in Pittsburgh, PA. Her background is in IT, and she has worked in eDiscovery all along, but she never knew that there was a specific industry for it.

Caroline Shields Women in Tech Quote

What is the most exciting aspect of working at Consilio?

To me, the most exciting aspect of working at Consilio is the people I am surrounded by. The group I collaborate with is absolutely awesome, it’s all teamwork. We build each other up, instead of competing against one another. I have been in workplaces where this is not the case and its quite a discouraging environment. It’s so nice to be a part of a company that has a family-like culture.

Has there ever been a time when your gender affected your professional experience?

I’ve only had two experiences where gender was an issue. I’ve had a female VP tell me that I had to be more “girly” and not be so “aggressive.” The other issue was my first trip to Japan (on their request) to do training/server upgrades. The look on their faces/energy in the room told me that they were expecting a male. After the upgrade, they kept trying to find things wrong in what I had done, but I was able to show them that was not the case. After this project, they had contacted me several times over the years to help them with various issues. They eventually did trust me and accept my help.

How did you respond to this?

I didn’t really let it get to me, as over-thinking wouldn’t be worth my time. However, my advice to women in these situations would be to continue speaking up and voicing your thoughts and opinions. Your input is valuable, your confidence is necessary, and you are here as the expert.

How do you manage chaos in your work?

I love the chaos! I actually work quite well in it as my thing is to take on about 30 jobs all at once. Then, I split these up into the simple and more time-consuming ones. I complete the simple tasks first to spend time on the more complex ones later.

What do you do in your free time?

I broke my leg in the first couple of weeks of starting at Consilio! Such perfect timing! So, I really haven’t been able to do much lately. However, I’ll play volleyball and go to the gym when I am fully-functioning.