Episode 8 - Evandra Tager

Whenever we see another woman #CrushingIt in the working world, it’s easy to assume that she got to that point by possessing a skill or quality that’s out of our reach. She had more education, better networking abilities, some element of privilege, or a leg up in the world that others lacked. But more often than not I’ve found in my conversations with successful women that there is one underlying factor that separates them from the pack, and that is their consistent ability to show up and work hard.

That is exactly why I wanted to share the story of my dear friend & sister-in-law, Evandra Tager. Evandra is the VP of Customer Experience & Advocacy at Oracle. For those who aren’t familiar with the company, it is ranked #82 on the Fortune 500 and generated $964 million in revenue in 2017. Just by sheer size and status of the company she works for, it’d be easy to assume that Evandra got to her position by having some special advantage over the rest of us. However, when you listen to her story you’ll discover that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Evandra is a queer Brazilian daughter of an immigrant family, who never studied anything remotely related to technology. Her career in a call center at AT&T began out of necessity, and each role she has risen to has been the result of her hard ass work. She isn’t the product of privilege, and anyone who knows would tell you she brings humility, strength, and kindness to everything that she does. I hope that by hearing her story, you’ll see where you share common ground with her. Ground that is ripe for planting the seed that success isn’t about what we have or where we come from, it’s about the intentional vision we bring to our work and to our lives each and every day.