‘I Love My Job’: How My Company Supports Me As an AVP and First-Time Working Mom

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Emily Dresser

Photo courtesy of Heap.

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Welcome to I Love My Job, the series where we hear from real women who really love their jobs. In this edition, we sat down with Emily Dresser, the AVP of North America Commercial Sales at Heap Analytics, the future of digital insights, providing the best alternative to costly, slow and inaccurate legacy analytics. Heap’s low-code, easy-to-use digital analytics software provides the quickest time to insight so teams can create the best possible digital experiences and accelerate their business.

Dresser loves the close-knit culture at Heap, where everyone is ready and willing to support each other. “You can reach out to anyone in the Heap family, and they will give you 30 minutes on their calendar,” explains Dresser. Even if “you've never met them before, they would let you learn a little bit more about their role and who they are. I think that's incredibly special. And I don't think that would happen to any company.”

Heap is also an incredibly supportive culture for working parents. For instance, Dresser herself was recently on four-month maternity leave. While she was gone, Dresser notes that, “I was, frankly, scared. I was scared about what would happen to me. What would happen to my career? I've been very career-driven since I was very young.” However, Heap was there to support her every step of the way. And, when returning, Heap offers part-time arrangements to ease parents back into the office, virtual or onsite.

“I came back [from maternity leave], and actually won manager of the year,” shares Dresser. “And, on May 1st, I'm getting promoted [to take over all of Commercial sales efforts for the United States]. This really speaks to the leadership that I have around me — they had me delete my emails while I was gone. They really took it seriously that I was out and enjoying my special time being a new mom. And, coming back from maternity leave, they've been so supportive of what my new role now looks like. I'm a first-time mom who is working, and it matters to have people around you that really support that.

In the video below, Dresser shares more on why she loves working at Heap. We also provide lightly edited highlights from this video discussion in the following article.


Tell us about what you find most exciting about your work.

What I find the most exciting about my job is actually threefold.

  1. The first thing is the people. As a people leader, I really have the opportunity and pleasure to work with young AEs and mold their professional skills to help them get promoted to a mid-market role or management.

  2. Secondarily, working at Heap allows me to be a part of something much bigger than myself. I get to be a small piece of this puzzle, of this rocket ship that we're building, which I find to be really motivating. 

  3. Lastly is my career development. Personally, I'm really motivated by career development, and I have the right leaders in place that help me grow and really give me the attention that I need to become the best people leader that I can be. 

How else does Heap support working parents?

The benefits that Heap offers are pretty incredible. [Not only do] we have all the basic necessary benefits that any other tech company would have, [but, also,] work-life balance really means a lot to Heap. So, we do a company ‘ME day’, which is basically a day just for yourself to recharge. We do this because, sometimes, when you take PTO, you feel pressure to work because everybody else is working. But, with a company ‘ME day,’ the whole company shuts down, which really allows you to recharge, not open your computer and enjoy a day to yourself without feeling that corporate pressure that you need to log on. [Heap also has a treat yo’self stipend.]

[Also], I just got back from maternity leave and… the benefits allowed me to be gone for four months, be with my family and really enjoy that time, while not feeling pressured to need to turn on my computer.

And then, in terms of career growth [...], our CEO Ken and our CRO Sean really believe in people development. That makes it extremely easy for us as people leaders to work with our teams, to grow our teams and to help them progress in their careers and get promoted.

And, as a people leader, that is ultimately why I love my job. I want everybody to get promoted and have that career growth. And Heap really fundamentally believes in this and gives you the resources needed to get there.

What advice would you give to other women who are thinking about working at Heap?

The advice I'd give to other women looking to work at Heap would be to never give up. Go on LinkedIn, reach out to the hiring manager, see what peers you might have, reach out to them to learn a little bit more about the role and who would be successful in that role.

Secondarily, believe in yourself and know that you bring something important to the table. At Heap, when you come here, you will feel like your work actually does matter. So, if you demonstrate that growth mindset, sense of ownership, empathy for both yourself and others, then feel free to check out our profile on Fairygodboss to explore opportunities at Heap.




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Check out other posts in the ‘I Love My Job’ series: