Looking back at my time at Openflows, it’s almost unbelievable how poorly I was paid—something that might be hard to imagine for today’s graduates. More than once considered taking up manual labor in construction, even temporarily, because it paid better.
By 2005, the job market for technical roles was starting to improve, and I landed a position with the Canadian office of Deluxe Corporation in Midland, Ontario, as a Database Analyst. After quickly mastering their analytics systems, I was tasked with hiring a Digital Analyst for their U.S. office in Groton, MA.
When I saw that the salary for the role was more than double what I was making, I asked if I could transfer to the U.S. and take on the position myself. Deluxe agreed, and I moved to Groton, Massachusetts. There, I managed and implemented Webtrends digital analytics while continuing to work as a Database Analyst, using SAS and driving process automation.