What's your name, official title, and where are you from? 

My name is T.J. Patel, and I am a Product Support Engineer from Houston, Texas.

How did you get into Product Support Engineering?

Before moving into tech, I was actually a public school English teacher for four years. At some point during my last year teaching, I was at a backyard wedding cookout for a dear friend and started chatting with a guy I had known in high school. I told him I was looking for something other than teaching, and he asked me what I was good at. Considering I had been thinking about leaving education, I had given this question a lot of thought, so I told him I was good at systems and processes. That's what carried me through teaching--I always looked for ways to optimize processes to get more learning out of each minute in the classroom. He told me I should enroll in a coding boot camp, and I guess the rest is history! The minute the school year ended, I was in coding boot camp. Eight months later, I started my first tech job at Finix.

Did you always know you wanted to get into payments/fintech? 

In case you couldn't guess from my last answer: absolutely not. I barely knew "fintech" was an industry before my first day at Finix.

Here at Finix, what's most important about your job? What do you enjoy the most about your role? 

The most important part of my job is being able to empathize with and reconcile peoples' needs. When a customer asks for something, I work hard on it not because I want to impress my manager, but because I see how my work helps our clients, and, further down the pipeline, the small businesses they serve. On the other hand, I frequently need help from internal Finix employees who have their own needs and priorities. It's easy to get frustrated when my needs aren't met immediately, but instead of asking when I'm going to get what I asked for, I try to focus on meeting people where they're at. How can I communicate this better to help this person help me? What are their goals, and how can I reconcile them with mine? I think seeing things from other peoples' perspectives always leads to better outcomes.

What other advice would you give to people interested in a career in fintech infrastructure?

We talk a lot about "payments nerds," but the truth is I don't think you need to be super passionate about payments to find your place in this industry. If you're passionate about solving interesting problems within a complex industry, there's something for you in fintech.

Share one interesting thing people may not know about you.

I play guitar and piano and write my own music. There is an alternate universe, I'm sure, where I also sing well and catch the eye of a big-time record producer, win many Grammies, and inspire my fans as I talk about my humble beginnings as a Product Support Engineer. 

What's your name and official title, and where are you from?

Marianne Motus, Product Support Engineer. I am a Bay Area native based in Oakland.

How did you get into Product Support Engineering?

At my previous company, I moved laterally from an Ops role to a Product Support role and found it to be a really good fit for my skillset and career aspirations. Product Support allowed me to work cross-functionally with the Product, Sales, Customer Success, Engineering teams. The close collaboration with these teams allowed me to create processes and think strategically. Additionally, it also gave me the opportunity to listen to customer pain points and figure out how we could make the product experience better. I've been able to bring those skills and learnings and use them here at Finix.   

Did you always know you wanted to get into payments/fintech?

Nope! I did not have a payments or fintech background, but in my next career move, I was looking for a challenge, a good culture fit, and a place that would allow me to grow. One of the most memorable moments that influenced my decision to come to Finix occurred during my interview with Finix. The hiring manager said my name, and a beat later asked if he had pronounced it correctly. I told them that technically it wasn't right, but most people said it as "MARY-ann" so it wasn't a problem. He said, "here at Finix names matter," and pronounced my name correctly for the rest of the interview. I knew then that while the payments space is brand new to me, I could always learn the material, but finding a culture fit like this would be rare.

Here at Finix, what's most important about your job? What do you enjoy the most about your role?

Communication, especially as we enter the remote working world for the next few months. As a Product Support Engineer, my hands are in a lot of projects, which means I am constantly communicating with different internal groups as well as customers. 

What I enjoy the most about my role is the direction; there's alignment in what we want to accomplish as a group and what my contributions should be. It's not always easy, and some days it's very focused on getting things done, but it feels great to step back and see the bigger picture. I also have great leaders and stakeholders invested in my future, and it's helped me excel and accomplish new things.

What other advice would you give to people interested in a career in fintech infrastructure?

Take it one day at a time! 15-year industry veterans were not built in one day. I remember the feeling of wanting to rush and take everything all at once, but it wasn't until I slowed down and broke this big machine into smaller little pieces that I was able to understand how they all fit together. 

Share one interesting thing people may not know about you.

My parents are from the Philippines, so I was raised bilingual and can speak Tagalog.

What's your name and official title, and where are you from?

Hi! I'm Caylee Rosa and a Product Support Engineer at Finix from Cincinnati.

How did you get into Product Support Engineering? 

A year ago, I knew very little about the technical and financial world. At my previous company, I had the opportunity to join our technical support team and learn the tech while developing processes to communicate these complicated topics to customers. I had an incredible mentor (Justin Doran) who taught me everything I know. The rest is history! I joined the Finix team at the end of March to help apply them while focusing on automation.

Did you always know you wanted to get into payments/fintech? 

I didn't know much about payment/fintech, but I've learned from my time here at Finix that it's an incredibly interesting, ever-growing field. It has been a great experience to learn about payments and how it functions on a variety of levels.

Here at Finix, what's most important about your job? What do you enjoy the most about your role?  

In my current role, what is most important about my job is anticipation and automation. Finding ways to track and anticipate what our customers will ask about and determine ways to solve those problems in an automated fashion. My favorite part about my role is the cross-functionality. I love getting to work with a variety of team members throughout our company on different projects. It's great to see a project come together that the entire company has contributed to in one way or another. 

What other advice would you give to people interested in a career in fintech infrastructure? 

Embrace the unknown! You'll quickly learn in the payments world that you will never know everything. Embrace (and enjoy) the learning experience and never be afraid to admit you don't know something.

Share one thing people may not know about you.

I love to bake! Ever since I was a kid, it has always been one of my favorite past time/stress relievers. If you can name it, I've probably baked it.  

What's your name and official title, and where are you from?

Hi, my name is Cara Ding, and I'm currently a Product Support Engineer at Finix. I grew up in China, but I call Cincinnati home now. 

How did you get into Product Support Engineering?

I wasn't looking for a specific role when I left corporate America. I was fully aware that what I was doing early in my career would not indicate where I would end up in 30 years. The most important thing for me was to find an environment that encouraged change and growth. Despite my lack of experience in payments, product support engineering provided an opportunity to learn all the ins and outs of our products quickly. This knowledge enabled me to lead implementations, which is where I am focusing on right now. 

Did you always know you wanted to get into payments/fintech? 

I never planned to get into this sector, but the randomness of life took me down this path, and I'm very grateful for it. During my job search, three things mattered most to me: continuous learning opportunities, inspirational people, and the autonomy of making a difference. It didn't matter what industry I was in or even the job title I have; I just lucked out with Finix.

Here at Finix, what's most important about your job? What do you enjoy the most about your role? 

Communication is incredibly important for my job. Keeping clients happy is a priority, but it is only possible through effective communication. Also, one of Finix's priorities is a focus on quality, which can mean saying no to customers, so effective communication is critical. Setting the right expectations from the get-go gives the team room and time to plan and be thoughtful about execution. It is the best feeling when I deliver promised plans. However, I am also very transparent with our clients if and when challenges occur. It gains their trust and understanding when we are honest, and more often than not, they are willing to work with us because of that.

My favorite part about my job is that I get to work with multiple teams across the organization. For instance, I meet regularly with our sales engineers to help solution deals, and the delivery team and I are attached at the hip during implementation! I also love troubleshooting with the engineering team, and I get to manage features and implement solutions with the product team. There is never a dull day. In fact, there's never a dull moment, which I love!

What other advice would you give to people interested in a career in fintech infrastructure?

Be creative. There is no handbook for the problems we are trying to solve every day. You have to dive in, get your hands dirty, and take one step at a time. 

Be bold. You will likely fail before you succeed, but it's the failures that will lead you to the right paths. 

Be curious. There is no weeks-long structured training, so you have to take the initiative to learn, shadow, and ask questions. And this journey never stops.

Share one interesting thing people may not know about you.

I have a two-and-a-half-year-old half-sister who lives in China, and I have only met her ONCE! I have been the only child my entire life, so she is very important to me, even though we are basically strangers. I want to bring her to the United States someday to show her what my life is like. 

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