Celebrating Women's History Month: Natchaya Phoyen

We’re celebrating Women’s History Month with a series highlighting the experiences of females in our company. Check out the other spotlights by Hadas Tamir, Tyi Whitcomb, and Alexandra Solimano.

Natchaya Phoyen, IT Support Specialist

I have mainly worked in the customer service based industry (retail and bartending) for most of my 20's. Then I landed a part-time position here at Notarize in 2017, while I was finishing up school. I started off working here as an Operations Associate, mainly working in Closing Ops and customer service chats. Eventually, I made it to Senior Documentation Specialist and then joined the training department as Notary Quality Specialist. Eventually, I saw there was an open position in the IT department for a Helpdesk Technician. I was a bit nervous to apply, concerned that I wasn’t qualified enough to work in IT (even though I graduated with a tech degree). But with a push from some coworkers, here I am, currently working as an IT Specialist at Notarize.

I’m not a woman in IT. I am in IT.

While I was in school, most of my tech classes were male-dominated. And in general, people have always had the conversations that IT is a job for men.

But I think time has changed, and with that, the behavior of stereotyping certain jobs as being “for a man” (or “for a woman”). I’m lucky to have started in the tech world a bit later, with progress having already been made around equality for women in male-dominated fields. I’ve been fortunate to have an amazing experience so far as a woman in IT. I have the pleasure of working with a really great group of people at Notarize — both females and males. I’ve been met with support and have learned so much from every single person on the team.

Maybe this is specific to Notarize and its culture, but as a woman and furthermore, as a specialist in IT, I have felt welcomed and respected as a member of the team. In fact, I don’t think of it as, “I’m a woman in IT.” I think of it as, “I’m in IT.”

Internally, I have occasionally struggled with the mentality that I am behind and need to catch up to everyone else in the tech field. Or I get this feeling of needing to learn more in order to be successful. And maybe that’s part of being a woman in a field that, though there are many more women than there used to be, is still male-dominated. 

When I have these feelings I think back to the best — though simple — piece of advice I’ve gotten: “You are learning on the job and improving yourself everyday. Have confidence in yourself.”

The people in tech have shaped my experience (and career)

There are a few people here at Notarize (both male and female) that I look up to, and without their help and support, I don’t think I would be where I am now as an IT Specialist.

When I first started my journey at Notarize, I had the pleasure of working with Michaela Stice. She was my trainer and my team lead. She was always very supportive and pushed me to better myself. She provided me with great guidance, but what stood out to me was her work ethic and how much she goes above and beyond to get the job done.

Transitioning into IT, I’ve had the pleasure of working with Tyler Sadler, April Johnson and JT Lewey, who have helped me tremendously with transitioning into the IT world. They are kind and genuine people, and they’ve provided guidance and support so that not only can I be successful at my job, but so the whole team can be successful.

I believe that women should join tech fields like IT and feel empowered to do so. It's a great opportunity and there is so much to do and learn. And I’ve found that there are a lot of people in this industry who are willing to guide and help others (man or woman), which is one of the reasons it has been such a great experience for me.