“In order for people to know what you want, you have to just tell them. It’s scary and feels unnatural! But that’s the only way they will be able to know how to help you.” - Kelly Cheng
Kelly Cheng, USIS Attributes and Score Quality Leader at Equifax, amusingly shares her story about how she dealt with rejection when applying for a role and some of the valuable lessons she learned along the way. Kelly is now leading a team of data scientists, and also mentors others in their career growth. Watch and listen to her story here.
“It’s really important for me to not only feel fulfilled in my current role but also feel like future opportunities are available and actually possible for me, which is what really keeps me happy here.” says Kelly.
We spent some time learning more about Kelly and her experience.
What do you enjoy most about the culture at Equifax?
I love how helpful and open people are here. I’ve been in roles where people held on to their knowledge like it was a map to the fountain of youth. So coming to Equifax where people are so willing to share information, and there are so many people with so much of it, was super refreshing. And that continues to this day - there’s always something new to learn.
What mentorship opportunities are you involved in?
I am involved in a couple of different mentoring opportunities across Equifax. What’s cool about them is they are all structured differently, so you can choose one (or multiple, like me) that works for you.
I am a mentor for my department’s mentoring program, which is more of a traditional 1x1 style program, but is targeted because you are able to connect about our department’s specific career challenges and opportunities. I also mentor in other 1x1 programs like the graduate development program for new college graduates at Equifax, and our WAVES security mentoring program.
Other structures I participate in are the Women’s Career Development Network (WCDN), which is a larger group format with a group mentoring lead and Women Advancing Technology Together (WATT) which is a small group or partner format with mentorship partners instead of a traditional mentor/mentee relationship.
Being a mentor to me means being a safe person for someone to talk to and get frank advice from. It’s important to me to be very straightforward to allow mentees to view themselves and their situations from an outside perspective and support them with kindness as they move to reach their goals or resolve their challenges.
Learn more about available opportunities at Equifax.