Welcome Beautiful Misfits! We are beyond delighted to introduce Jerrie Kumulah.
"I started my career having to navigate a chronic condition which greatly changed my professional trajectory and approach to work. Although it has been a challenge, one of the greatest lessons I learned was knowing when it is time to move on to something new and how to prioritize myself despite society’s or your family’s expectations of what is right... "
You can find Jerrie on Linkedin here!
Learn more about Jerrie in this week's Beautiful Misfit Spotlight!
Tell me a little about yourself.
So my name is Jerrie Kumalah, the J is silent. It's a tricky one it's not one that you see and immediately know. I am west African and my dad is Sierre Leonean and my mom is Togolese and so I grew up a little bit everywhere; partly Europe, across the whole west coast of Africa and came to the US when I was finishing high school and decided in terms of career to jump into public health. That's where I started my career... then pivoted in the last five years to data science for many reasons, the biggest one being flexibility in how I work, the kind of work I can do and all that stuff. I'm married, I have two little kiddos that keep me busy, very very busy and thats me in a nutshell!
What is your role and how did you get there?
So my job title is Analytics Engineer and I just started a new role at this company called SeatGeek. I used to be at this other startup a month ago, same kind of work, analytics engineering at a health tech start up. As I mentioned I started in public health and when I first was trying to figure out what I wanted to do when I grew up, I wanted to work at refugee camps as I came to the US as a refugee and that required a lot of travel and things like that and I also got very sick in grad school which is what prompted me to reach out to you all and share my story. So when I got really sick, one of the biggest things was that I couldn't travel in the way that I wanted to; I had way more limitations. I had to relearn a lot of different things to make sure that I could thrive and figure out what career looks good for me, if I could work full time. I started in public health because that's what I was trained for, I got a graduate degree in that, and worked primarily in government local health departments, state health departments and then I also dabbled in non-profit and one of the biggest challenges was that at the time remote wasn't a thing so you had to go into the office. I was living with an invisible disability which meant anytime that I had to require accommodations and having a conversation which isn’t easy to have... not everyone's understanding and you constantly go through the debate of whether or not to disclose, how much to disclose because it immediately puts a spotlight on you. It doesn't matter how well you do the work. I got one comment one day which was like, "oh it has nothing to do with your work, it‘s just that when you don't sit at your desk, there’s the perception that you're not working...". So things like that. I was getting very tired of that and my husband decided to go back to school... and so I struggled to figure out what does a career look like for me? I was struggling between full time and part time because finding the balance took a very long time for me to get there. When I didn’t have balance it meant multiple hospital visits, doctors visits ... Data science was big, everyone wanted to do data science and I love data. I enjoyed getting people to think about how to improve the work that they're doing and that's what I was doing in public health, a lot of evaluation. So while my husband studied for the LSATs, and GMATs I spent the year learning how to code and how to incorporate it into my work. It was very challenging but what got me excited was the fact that there were so many more opportunities in a way that I didn’t even know but it also meant new industry and figuring that out as well. So these last five years have been figuring that out. So I did marketing, tried the tech startup and trying to figure out what's the sweet spot for me and it turned out analytic engineering is a good combination of my skills, which is building things that could be useful to people but also helping others to understand the end goal and hopefully I can bring my own perspective.
What’s one of your biggest strengths?
I would say being able to get people on the same page is my biggest strength. So one thing I keep finding out is that... I'm a processor and a listener first but I like creating shared language if that makes sense. It doesn't matter where I am, I'm thinking about if we're all understanding the same thing, if we're all working towards the same goal. So it‘s really like bringing people together and making sure we all feel heard because that’s how I wanna feel and that has just turned out to be my greatest strength and something that actually works really well across any space which I am thankful for, so I‘m leaning into that work these days.
What’s one of your biggest weaknesses?
That‘s a great question because I feel like I've been doing a lot of reflection on that until recently. I'm actively working on this, the need to prove myself. It's like I go into a space where I don't feel like I belong and so I go out of my way to try and prove myself which also means overextending myself, saying yes to things I shouldn‘t say yes to, not knowing how to set the right boundaries, all this because I wanna show that I‘m supposed to be here. Which has led to burnout, to not feeling appreciated ,not knowing how to set good boundaries and not knowing how to sit back. In the recent years because I felt like I was restarting my career, I was trained in all this, I was a subject matter expert, now I have to prove that I belong here even though I wasn‘t trained formally in this ... So I would say that i‘m starting to own that and realize that I don‘t need to always try and prove myself everywhere.
What is one professional accomplishment that you're most proud of?
I'm gonna try to lean into something that‘s brand new because I feel like I struggle with celebrating... I got accepted into one of the big analytic conferences to share ideas that I think are important. I feel very proud of that because it‘s not about technical skills like I‘m leaning on the stuff that's exactly what I talked about. Like how do you make sure you're getting to what people need the most and you‘re understanding what people are asking for and that‘s the idea of a shared language and coaching and they liked that. So it‘s like not tied to a specific big job or specific role, it is tied to my way of working and I think in this quest of like finding myself, I'm very proud of that because it's a big conference but I get to share my ideas with a lot of people.
So ideas rooted in your philosophy? Congrats! What would you say is the most meaningful part of your job?
So I work with data and a lot of people have very strong reactions to what they think data is about or their relationship with data. They think about math, they think about numbers and they don't think it‘s useful to them. A lot of people have negative reactions to it. What I really enjoy the most is making them realize that it can be very useful to them. It’s like making it click. It shouldn't be something painful. If it doesn't resonate with someone, then you have to rethink the types of questions you're asking but also what data means to you because people tend to have a very narrow view of you collect it, how you process it, how you analyze it. So the most rewarding part of my job is always when I see it click. When they realize that I’m on their side and I’m not just trying to make numbers just to report to someone or to the board or whoever just to say the right thing. It’s more like, "Does this make sense to you?" and seeing people realize that they have agency in that conversation.
I love that especially because it humanizes the act of collecting data. Alright, what's one challenge that you found very difficult to overcome professionally?
I'll take a step back and share a story that has really affected how I approach certain people in the work force especially working remotely. I worked at a company where they made a lot of noise about diversity and I had a colleague who decided that she wanted to be my supervisor and wanted to correct my work and wanted to have input, even though she wasn't and when I brought that up in a very simple way, she decided that I was aggressive, confrontational and when she saw me at an actual meeting, she cringed. She was given the room to not speak to me for two months because she was uncomfortable and my comfort was never put first. I even brought HR in and all this stuff and I realized that at the end of the day my voice didn't have the same value as certain people and I'd like to pretend that it’s a unique situation but it isn’t. I have in another role tried to advocate for myself in terms of growth, and I was shut down, but these are things that I need to have conversations about, I need to feel like you’re going to advocate for me and if I feel like I know you’re not going to that, I have to advocate for myself and have to be given the room to do so. So the greatest challenge is feeling like people have my back. I’m at a point now in my career, in my journey as a human being where I know what I bring to the table, I know where I‘m strong, I know where I need to grow and there will always need to be [growth] but I know that I‘m good at what I do. The real challenge is that to grow in any place you need people to have your back and a lot of times it‘s not there... how do we find the people who actually wanna see you succeed versus just saying you’re a good worker.
Which feels like the bare minimum...
Yeah, I was speaking to one of my good friends, who's grown in her career and she was telling me that the only reason that she feels like she grew, is because the manager she had wanted to see her succeed and went out of his way to advocate for, coach her, link her up with the right people. I sit there and I'm like, that exists? I don‘t know what that looks like. I have yet to have that and i‘ve yet to have a real cheerleader and I‘ve yet to find the right connections. It’s always felt like a solo effort and that often comes with baggage. So yeah, feeling like I can’t always be myself, be as blunt or outspoken as I want to be it’s always measured ... and it’s a challenge because it's always there.Yeah, I‘ve gotten to the point where I realize we have to talk about it!
Thank you for sharing and not holding back because I think its an experience that so many people feel and it's so validating to hear you speak openly about it. Acknowledging that it’s okay to express the things you need to grow. That's exactly what Culture Unfit is about. knowing that we're not alone. My next question is what piece of advice do you wish someone had shared with you earlier in your career?
I'm also thinking about what I would tell myself... It might take many tries. It sounds cliche but it’s this idea that your path will look very different from others but you have to be patient and it‘s okay to fail and it‘s okay to keep trying until it works for you. What works for you might mean starting over multiple times and the way I grew up we have this expression that basically means you just have to go in and bare it, and maybe it’s not your generation, maybe you’re not being patient enough, not sacrificing enough and you're like no, it‘s just not working. So when I think about that advice, it took me a while to accept me for me and I also have health stuff that forced the issue for me. I was like well if I'm in the hospital all the time, then this is not working, something's not working. It's okay to try something else, you don’t always have to try to figure it out based on what someone else says. If you feel like it's really not working out, even if everybody else is telling you it is, that's okay.
... that feeling is valid
I feel like we're not all made the same. Some of us don't have the bandwidth. That‘s where I‘m at and some days I fully embrace it and some days I'm not fully there.
What does being authentic in the workplace mean to you?
Not putting on the veil. Being authentic in the workplace is a hard one because not many workplaces will allow you to be yourself. So for me it means being true to myself which means even when it feels uncomfortable , finding the way to say the things that are important to me, being dressed in the way that aligns that presents my personality, not filtering myself constantly in terms of how I talk, what expressions I’m using, all of these things that I’ve done at some point. The way that I was able to get there is through finding community in the workplace so you don’t feel completely alone. Even if you find at least one person who gets you, all of a sudden it’s like you can start letting the walls down. For example, I don't school my features well (laughs) but that's also true to me. Sometimes I can’t say things out loud, so my face is gonna tell you how I feel and I used to be very worried about that and then I realized well if I don’t feel like I can always speak up, let my face do the speaking for me... I’m learning balance because being authentic is such a hard one. Like in some workplaces I will slowly tell people, I have fibromyalgia for example, which means sometimes I can do certain things, sometimes, I can’t. Sometimes I have to cancel last minute. It‘s like slowly sharing pieces of yourself that are private but are important for you to thrive. It‘s important for you to feel apart of because you spend so much time in the workplace. Sometimes I'm gonna look tired and it‘s not necessarily that i‘m unable to process information it’s just that i'm tired. .Also being true to yourself when you also don‘t look like everyone and can‘t do everything like everyone is hard.
more on authenticity...
Something I absolutely hated when I used to go to the office. There was one job where they did stand ups. It’s this idea that you share updates, but years ago when it started they would literally stand up for fifteen minutes. Guess what? As someone who lives in chronic pain that doesn’t work for me but the assumption was that everyone can stand up for fifteen minutes... who wants to stand up for a twenty minute meeting? Not me. So I had to put being true to myself and this idea of being my authentic self, unfortunately also means exposing myself and I needed to say that I had to sit down. So being true to yourself sometimes means going completely against the wave.
Our next question is which of your personal values have you been unable to fully express while at work? Quite a hot take.
So something I struggled with for a long time when I moved to the states, when I was fifteen, was high school because people like to say things they don‘t mean. For example saying, "I love you", or, "we should hang out". Social norms that seemed very standard for people depending on where you grow up but for me if you say something, you mean it. We don’t just throw words around. It’s not how I operate or how my family operates and not how I was used to things. It’s this idea of when I say something I mean it and I feel like I’ve had to learn how to be fake because people are fake and this is across the board. Like offhandedly making promises and there’s a version of this in the workplace. I’ve always struggled with decoding, and I don‘t like it. I’d rather have people be direct and blunt. I'm okay with people being uncomfortable and people don’t like that feeling and so because of that you’re always having to dodge things in so many layers before being able to get to where you need to....just going in circles before you get to the problem. Why can’t we say things honestly? Can I just be real with you?
Leaning right into this, what skill, capability or competency has been the most difficult to develop?
Faking it. (laughs). At the end of the day how do you pretend to be what you're not? So i‘m a passionate person and I show emotion and when I do work I go all in and I expect people to want to do good work, it doesn’t mean everybody's gonna be that way but that's okay. When I’m tired and if I get to the point where I feel like no one cares and I’m the only one who cares, I can’t fake it anymore and I lose filter. So I struggle because I know filtering is important but at the same time how much of it do I want? I'm not sure what the balance is. There’s that and also a skill I’ve been learning more about is how to manage my manager because finding good managers are hard, so how do you ensure that you set up yourself for success? By asking the right questions, guiding and providing framework that are helpful to you. For example when I started this job I asked questions like about communication styles and payed close attention to how they worked and what didn‘t resonate with me and what I needed to put in place...
Where do you tend to draw inspiration from when facing a challenge or a problem at work?
I definitely look outside of work and I'm a researcher so I google and I’m usually trying to find people like me or who have had similar experiences like me or who have written about or talked about it in a certain space. These days podcasts tend to be a good space and I talk to my sisters. They’re usually a great resource in terms of telling me what is out there or sharing their thoughts. It's something that I’ve struggled with also being in this field now. Where do I go to find inspiration, community, support, all of that stuff and so I’ve been trying to be more proactive in trying to define that for myself, and part of it right now is trying to find people who think like me professionally, who I can bounce ideas with that are not within my workspace or organization. I also ask what does it look like for other black women in this kind of space and I haven’t found it yet . It’s always looking for women in more senior roles. Asking how do they make it, what does their journey look like, what are the challenges that they maybe have faced? I did a summer where I just spoke to people, based on a book about designing your life and I just interviewed people. It wasn’t with the goal for a job, but just wanting to hear what their stories were... and that was good inspiration, I leaned on that. For me that was really beneficial because they shared resources, things to listen to, read or just words of encouragement.
How has a particular leader, colleague, manager or mentor had a positive influence on you and your career? Have you found anyone that fits that role?
It's a great question and a hard question because I haven't had anyone fit that role. Between navigating health stuff, learning how to advocate myself in the work place and just dealing with a lot, it exposes a lot of things about people. At one of my first jobs, I had a really good manager that was focused on listening and wanted to know how I could grow and that was wonderful because I realized that those core skills are not always there. I’ve listened to podcasts by inspiring women. It's not like she’s a personal mentor or anything but the kind of words I seek out, that at the end of the day you define your path and it doesn’t always align with what people expect. For a while I looked for people in the invisible disability community who have paved the way and I can tell you until recent years, there are not many who are able to do it successfully because there are so many challenges. All this is to say is that I have not yet found a mentor or true advocate in the workplace that has made me feel truly... it feels like a lonely road and I'm on that quest.
What would say is your unique superpower at work?
It's definitely people oriented. So when I left my last job they did a ad libs and one thing they said that I was able to do, like no matter how serious a meeting is, I'm able to take a moment to really focus on how people are doing... to try to bring back the people aspect. So my superpower is like remembering who we are and creating space for something different.
How do you find balance?
Ah! The struggle is real (laughs). I'm still trying to figure it out and right now the things that force me to do that is having hard cut off times because I have to go pick up the kids or I have to go cook dinner. I have a three and a half year old and a one and a half year old, so they’re not big enough to do things on their own. So it means certain times whether I like it or not, it’s their time. I also have to worry about my health, whether I like it or not. For example last week, I ended up in the ER, because I had a complex migraine that mimicked a stroke and that wasn’t fun, it was very scary and I spent the night there. So how do I find balance? Sometimes it gets forced upon me. It’s a constant struggle because it also means letting go of guilt about certain things and so I’m working on it...
What does success mean to you?
That's one of the questions that I have redefined over and over again over the years. I'm a journaler so I’m always writing. When I got sick I had to redefine that and it took me five years to figure it out. So success means that I feel like I have balance. It feels like I am growing in my career. So it’s not about titles anymore. I would like whatever that looks like. You touch down all of those like feelings that are true to myself and where I get to share my ideas is true success in my realm. In my personal realm, it’s feeling like I'm carving out time for my family and investing in my community and I'm giving myself time to be creative when I want to be. So that’s what success looks like to me and I realize that it looks different in different seasons and so I’m excited to move towards that.
What career advice would you offer our beautiful misfits?
The biggest thing is that your journey is going to look very different to what's around you especially if you consider yourself a misfit which most of us are and it’s okay and it might mean testing certain things out. One thing that I tell people is don't be afraid and that means sometimes you have ideas that you just have to try. It might not be what you wanted but you have to embrace the failures. It didn’t work?Let me try something else. People tend to be afraid , I was afraid to do that. I’ve had to try and try again, but I'm owning it and my journey looks different. Share your story. It's not abnormal to have a very unclear path forward or having to navigate things differently, it’s just that not enough of those stories are shared.
Thank you Jerrie.
