From Admin Assistant to Sr. Director to Professor – How Karen Ahern Navigated Her Tech Career | Ep 016

Episode Information

Show Notes

In this episode of Career Downloads, host Manuel Martinez sits down with Karen Ahern, Professor and Networking Program Director at the College of Southern Nevada, who shares her inspiring journey through the technology industry. From her unexpected start as a computer lab assistant to becoming a Senior Director of Technology Services, and ultimately finding her calling in education, Karen’s story demonstrates how being open to opportunities can lead to a fulfilling career in technology.

Guest: Karen Ahern Current Role: Professor, Computing and Information Technology Department, College of Southern Nevada Focus Areas: Networking, Cloud Systems Administration, Infrastructure, and Systems Administration

Episode Highlights:

• How a chance conversation led Karen into technology without any prior tech background
• The importance of being willing to take on tasks others avoid
• Transitioning from technical roles to leadership positions
• Managing imposter syndrome while advancing in career
• The value of emotional intelligence in technology careers
• Why lateral career moves can lead to unexpected growth
• Securing and managing National Science Foundation grants
• The transition from corporate IT to education

Key Insights:

• Finding and leveraging mentorship opportunities
• Building confidence through continuous learning
• Balancing technical expertise with people skills
• Managing teams and expectations in IT leadership
• Creating opportunities through networking
• The importance of being uncomfortable for growth

Career Advice Highlights:

1. Be open to tasks others avoid – it can lead to specialization
2. Don’t let imposter syndrome hold you back from opportunities
3. Sometimes a pay cut for the right opportunity can lead to greater rewards
4. Network consistently, even when comfortable in your current role
5. Consider lateral moves for skill development
6. Be patient with yourself and others while learning

Resources Mentioned:

• CompTIA A+ Certification
• Management Information Systems degree programs
• Society of Information Managers
• National Science Foundation grants

Connect with Karen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karen-ahern-88805523/

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Transcription

Manuel: Welcome everybody, my name is Manuel Martinez and this is another episode of Career Downloads where basically each episode I hit the refresh button and bring on a different guest to learn more about their experience, their background and really how they manage their career over time with the goal to really help you understand and pick up different techniques that you can use to be able to manage your own career. So for today’s episode I have with me Karen Ahern. So Karen we have worked together in the past and even currently so she used to be one of my directors when I worked for higher education and then eventually she moved into a teaching role where she became a program director and then kind of brought me on to be a part-time faculty instructor. So with that let’s welcome Karen.

Karen: Thanks for having me.

Manuel: No thanks, thanks for coming on and when I was kind of looking at your background so I know that you’ve spent basically your entire career within higher education but within that you’ve done a number of different positions, you’ve kind of moved around a little bit and one of the things that was really interesting to me was kind of how you came and again you’ll be able to help fill in the gap for me is when you got out of college you always kind of went into a role almost right away.

Karen: Right.

Manuel: So then just real quick can you just tell me wha