Meet Stephanie Minasian: Cloud Expert of the Month – January 2018
Cloud Girls is honored to have amazingly accomplished, professional women in tech as its members. We take every opportunity to showcase their expertise and accomplishments – promotions, speaking engagements, publications and more. Now, we are excited to shine a spotlight on one of our members each month.
January’s Cloud Expert of the Month is Stephanie Minasian.
Minasian is a technology professional with more than 20 years of experience providing technology solutions to enterprise and midmarket companies. Her areas of expertise include managed services, cloud services, professional services, data protection, disaster recovery, security and compliance. She is a southern California native, lives in Long Beach, California, and enjoys playing tennis, yoga, cooking, and gardening and is a die-hard Dodger fan.
Minasian also has been a member of Cloud Girls since 2013 and currently serves on the Strategy & Branding Work Group.
What do you value about being a Cloud Girl?
What I value about being a Cloud girl is the comradery, continued learning about what matters most both personally and professionally and, of course, the annual retreat!
How did you find a career in tech?
I worked my way through college at Albertsons grocery store with dreams of becoming a fashion designer, and never imagining that would ultimately be the start of my career path in technology.
My first job out of college was with a point-of-sale company, providing solutions to the grocery store and hospitality industries. I started out providing sales support, installation and training. I ended up on the product management team where my interest in technology grew and inspired me to move into the enterprise technology space.
I moved on to a business application software company as their marketing communications manager for five years and was offered an opportunity to move into sales and account management. From there, I’ve continued my career in sales and account management, including software, hardware, data center, cloud and professional services.
What’s your favorite inspirational quote?
One of my favorite quotes is from Steve Jobs:
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So, you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, karma whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”
What one piece of advice would you share with young women to encourage them to take a seat at the table?
I would encourage young women to be more confident when talking about their abilities and to step out of their comfort zones and not come from a place of fear that they don’t have 100 percent of the requirements for a particular job or career path.