Obstacle Racing and Starting Over: How Mentoring Found Me

Pictured with mentee Kaitlynn Innes

Pictured with mentee Kate Tolman

I can recall the moment I made the decision to sign on as a mentor with PDXWIT and when I began describing myself on my resume as a mentor to my teams. But how I got there isn’t a story of defining a plan and driving it into existence. I didn’t find the mentor role; it found me.

Early in my career, I encountered colleagues who acquired deep wells of knowledge but guarded what they knew. Perhaps they believed they were fostering job security, although I disagreed. I’ve always found it more rewarding to share knowledge as I acquired it. I started doing this as a peer mentor, when I was handed a clipboard and wireless headset and asked to coach other teammates from my training cohort. We had just completed a crash course in fielding technical support calls at one of the region’s first cable internet service providers. Not long after, I would hand off the clipboard and ask the next person to take over, and I would move up a tier and learn all over again. 

Though it took a while for me to recognize, the pattern would echo in my life. I internalized my approach to leading teams in a phrase “Lift as you climb.” It reminds me of the Booker T. Washington quote “If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.” The mantra would follow me at work and beyond, including my venture into obstacle racing.

When I impulsively registered for my first Warrior Dash and Spartan Race, I didn’t train too seriously (full disclosure: I just wanted the t-shirt). I naively planned to run solo, no partner or team. I signed up expecting to succeed or fail on my own. 

I would have failed. In these races, there’s always some kind of slippery mud mound obstacle (sometimes several) designed so that even experienced and conditioned athletes will find them challenging. Their true height is sometimes obscured by a waist-deep pool of muddy water at their base. As the hot sun dries the mud, volunteers helpfully hose the mounds down so they’ll get slippery again.

I expected to struggle. What I never expected was that waiting atop some of those obstacles was someone looking back, ready to stretch out a hand if I started sliding back. They didn't know me. They didn't ask if I needed help. They just knew — from experience — that it was hard. With some resolve and a few more attempts I could have done it, but how much time and energy would I have burned? Turns out it was both efficient and gratifying to be part of a chain of people who grabbed the hand ahead and offered one back behind. I was in a big pack of runners so opted to help a couple of people until it felt okay to look at the next grateful runner and say, “Okay, your turn!” and move on.

I’ll never forget that feeling of deciding in the moment that I would accept help. Or the feeling when I extended my hand to help the next person who was struggling. I experienced a level of gratitude that cemented itself. Lift as I climb.

Meanwhile at my day job, I had moved on from call centers and desktop support. I was a senior systems engineer managing a healthcare application platform. I led a remote support team of application engineers and analysts that grew from 3 people to 30 global members, supporting hospitals and data centers in 4 U.S. time zones. I taught them everything I knew and then, in 2014 just weeks after my dad passed away, the company sold its IT outsourcing division and notified employees there would be a reduction in force. I was laid off for roughly 10 months.

I’ve been asked by friends and former colleagues, what could be more discouraging than putting all my effort into training a team that replaced me? But compared to digging my fingernails into the mud and clawing my way up and over those mounds, I can’t say it was all that bad. I knew I did everything I could and I’m still proud of the work we did together. I liked the work. It was hard. And it was time to move on.

I’m the luckiest person I know. I learned so many lessons from that experience that I use or share every day. I learned how to get up and start conditioning for the next challenge. I learned how to start over. I have so much yet to learn and I couldn’t have found the path I’m on if that year never happened. I’m climbing again but from a solid foundation.

I recovered from a bleak 10 months of uncertainty and rejection a little at a time. I accepted a temporary role at a higher rate than my former salary, albeit on an hourly basis. Later, being offered terms for the role to transition into an open-ended contract, I briefly considered accepting the comfortable offer. I realized instead that I was ready to advocate for myself. 

Successfully negotiating an ambitious raise felt like a steep obstacle, but I had seen this hill of mud coming and I had made some allies along the way who helped me build the confidence to overcome it. I signed up to be a mentor with PDXWIT in 2018 in the wake of that success sensing it was time for me to reach back and extend a hand up. Striving to lift as I climb every day, I joined the program to align my actions with my values. In return it lifts me up, connecting me to the growing cohort of women joining tech and helping me define my purpose in the industry.  

Are you a mentor? As the PDXWIT community grows, the range of experience extends from neophyte to retiree, boot-camper to entrepreneur. Not everyone is ready for the obstacles that loom in a career path. Becoming an expert contributor, a leader, an inspiration to others undoubtedly results from overcoming common challenges, and together we have an opportunity to lift as we climb. Join our community of PDXWIT mentors.

Deana Solis (she/her), is a PDXWIT volunteer and mentor. She spends her workdays as a contractor in a large athletic shoe and apparel company. She manages infrastructure, with responsibilities ranging from lifecycle and risk management to cost optimization. Deana’s tech journey began as an undergrad in electrical engineering, eventually earning a BA in English, an MBA and a bunch of technology and infrastructure management related certs over the past 20+ years because getting badges for learning complex things brings her joy. Connect with Deana on LinkedIn.