Intro
Welcome to Tech Talk, a podcast featuring employees and leaders discussing all things tech at Mutual of Omaha. Join us to learn what tech professionals can gain from a career with us. Let's talk tech.
Brian Poppe (00:01)
Welcome everyone to another episode of Tech Talk, a podcast sponsored by Mutual Omaha, where we talk about all things technology. I'm Brian Poppe, senior vice president of income and wealth planning, former chief data officer and former head of technology modernization. I'm joined today by a brand new cohost, Courtney Van Hoosen. Courtney, how are you?
Courtney Van Hoosen (00:22)
I am doing great, Brian, really excited to be here today. I've watched all the episodes that y'all have done for previous Tech Talk podcasts. So I'm really excited to dive in and get a chance to meet more of our guests that we'll have on in the rest of these episodes.
Brian Poppe (00:38)
Yeah, well, we're super excited to have you here. Why don't you give the viewers and listeners a bit about your background?
Courtney Van Hoosen (00:45)
Yeah, so I'm Courtney Van Hoosen. I am a business systems consultant here at Mutual of Omaha, and I work on our IT talent team. I've been here for about the last three years, and every day is a little bit different, which I really love. I love the variety. In my role, I also am our solution lead for our team and an organizational change manager. So a lot of what I get to do is strategy and collaborating on the different programs that we have since our team is really focused on learning, growth, professional development opportunities for our IT associates here at Mutual of Omaha. It was definitely a little bit of a different swing for me. My background is mostly in international education, nonprofits, but I did a little bit of front-end web development, so made the hop over into IT, and I have not regretted looking back since. So excited to be here today.
Brian Poppe (01:36)
Boy, like I said, we're excited to have you here and looking forward for you to bring that particular lens that you have to our conversations. So we're also joined today by a guest, Dori Stanfield. Dori, how are you?
Dori Stanfield (01:50)
I'm doing well, how are you?
Brian Poppe (01:52)
I'm doing great. So, Dori, why don't you tell us about your career path into IT and what it means to be a, we'll call it, developer-adjacent position here at Mutual of Omaha.
Dori Stanfield (02:13)
Yeah. So I started out on the business side. I was in policy owner services. My background is in benefit administration. And after doing that for so many years, I wanted something different. And that's one of the great things about working here at Mutual of Omaha is there's a variety of areas and a variety of experiences that you can have working at the company. And a couple of friends of mine has suggested going for this role that is a business analyst in IT. And I thought, I cannot do that. That is not my background. I did not picture myself ever working in IT. And then that was confirmed when I met with one of my first mentors here at Mutual of Omaha, Signe Bonnet, and then she said, hey, I think you would be good at a business analyst. And I thought, okay, so I guess we're going for the business analyst and applied for the role and got the role and was able to do various roles within IT after that. So it just grew and gave me several opportunities to work within IT.
Courtney Van Hoosen (03:18)
Well, I love that introduction, Dori, and kind of your full circle moment here at Mutual of Omaha. You started talking about your role. I'm wondering, could you tell us what is a skill that you use all the time in your job that no one would expect?
Dori Stanfield (03:42)
Yeah, I would say that was definitely relationship building. That was not something I thought I would use a lot in IT. But when I started as a business analyst, I was that middle person between the business and IT to make sure that everyone was playing nicely in the sandbox and everyone was understanding what each other needed, such as the business needed, of course, technology in order to serve our customers better. And I also needed to be the voice of IT to set realistic expectations. And so in order to do that, you have to gain people's trust. You have to be able to get along with different personalities. and figure out what they need and so that comes in very handy in this role. In my current role as a product owner, I'm working with our stakeholders or our customers to help prioritize work so that they can get their work done and serve our customers. So relationship building is definitely something I didn't expect to use as much as I did when I was in sales working in the business side.
Brian Poppe (04:42)
Yeah, I suppose as somebody who's working at IT, you don't probably spend a lot of time thinking about relationship building. But I do kind of like the idea of you as like a recess monitor, like where you're trying to make sure that the kids are all playing together in the sandbox.
Dori Stanfield (04:55)
Right? Yes.
Brian Poppe (04:57)
There's a subset of folks at Mutual of Omaha that have a term attached to them. And it's a positive one, boomerang, is one of those terms. That's somebody who leaves, starts at Mutual of Omaha, leaves and then comes back. So why don't you tell us about what drew you to Mutual originally and then what brought you back on that boomerang return?
Dori Stanfield (05:22)
I am a member of the Boomerang Club here at Mutual of Omaha. And so when I first came to Mutual of Omaha, that was back in the late 90s. It all started with me working at Idelman Telemarketing. So back in the early 90s.
Telemarketing companies were everywhere. I don't know how many people remember telemarketing companies, but there used to be a lot of commercials trying to get you to get a credit card or sell you a jello mold or something like that. And there would be an 800 number that you would call and those would go into telemarketing. We'd get your information and try to sell you something. And so I was exposed to insurance first through Idelman and telemarketing and then found a job at Mutual of Omaha in customer service, taking inbound calls for employer insurance plans, benefit administration, did that for several years, and then made the move to IT. And I was able to be, I've been able to be in several roles in IT, which is just mind blowing. It's just been a great experience. So I left briefly. I left briefly and I think when most people leave, they're trying to get more growth or get more experience and then possibly even come back to Mutual. You'll hear that story a lot. They leave, get some more growth or education and then come back. And when you leave such a healthy culture, you don't realize what you have when you're there until you go somewhere else and it doesn't exist.
And I learned that pretty quickly when I left briefly. Coming back to Mutual was a no-brainer. I had developed great relationships here. I have a fantastic network here at Mutual of Omaha. They welcomed me back with open arms. You tend to look at your compensation as like the number one benefit, but there's so much more that goes into it. You know, have your insurance coverage, you have your tuition reimbursement, you have your retirement as you get older, that becomes more and more important to you. But then there's also wellness and they have health services here and they have a very strong...
culture program, Mutually Connected here, where they are constantly trying to get those methodologies and those practices of positive intent and valuing different perspectives and all those different things here at Mutual of Omaha. And I don't think a lot of companies have a specific program for their associates to go through. social impact is a huge one for me.
Again, you just don't realize what you have until you don't have it and how much your company is in the community until you're with a company that is not in the community that much. So yeah, definitely a moment for me to be very glad to be back here at Mutual of Omaha.
Courtney Van Hoosen (08:27)
Yeah, and I know we are so happy to have you here, Dori. You're always great when I reach out and ask you questions. And you talked about our culture. You talked about some of our different programs. You mentioned social impact. I know you are a leader. You continue to be a leader on various pieces that we have for outreach, both here within our Mutual of Omaha network and outside in the local community too. So I'm curious if you could share.
What about that work, your connection with social impact and getting involved in the community speaks to you and why does it matter to you so much?
Dori Stanfield (09:03)
Yeah, I'm excited. So my first was Omaha Performing Arts and got on that board and I am a dancer. So I took ballet and jazz and tap starting at age four and all the way up through my early twenties. so any kind of performing arts entertainment has been a part of me. So to be on the Omaha Performing Arts Presenter Circle has just been fantastic. We get to volunteer in the lounge there and then I get to go and see the shows for free. So just to be out in the community. Regarding a passion of mine has just been a fantastic experience and to learn more of what goes on behind the scenes and how education in music and fine arts really helps a community grow and helps our youth grow. So it's been a fantastic experience. I'm also on the Methodist Hospital Foundation Board, which is a complete honor to be on that board because I went through a pretty severe illness back in 2010 and I received my care.
at Methodist Hospital, so when I got the opportunity to be on that board, again, like no hesitation to be on that board. I support everything about Methodist Hospital. And I was talking about how we, in one of our latest meetings, the impact of different regulation can impact people who get services through our community through Medicaid or some other kind of government assistance and how that could change in the future and how the need for philanthropy is really going to grow. the first thing I thought of was we have to get the word out. We have to educate more people. I don't think people have a true picture of how hospitals are funded or what they do in the community. It's not just about hospital stays. And so I'm working with Social Impact to try to get something put together in order to educate more people about the importance of philanthropy. So it's just a great honor.
Courtney Van Hoosen (11:25)
And you initially got connected to one or both of those boards via social impact, our social impact team, is that right?
Dori Stanfield (11:32)
Yeah, it was so definitely Omaha Performing Arts and then one of the leader over social impact connected me with another person who was actually on the Methodist Hospital Foundation Board. And then that person was like, hey, I think you'd be great on the Methodist Hospital Foundation Board. And I was like, sign me up, no question about it. And so that's how I got on there. So yeah, both connected through Mutual of Omaha. And they support both. So to have that backing from your employer is just like the frosting on the cake is fantastic.
Brian Poppe (11:49)
Well, we appreciate your efforts in the Omaha community for sure. Longtime listeners would know that I am a DJ in my background. for a fun question, Dori, what would be your personal theme song?
Dori Stanfield (12:22)
You know, this is not my first thought towards this because I'm a huge Kill Bill fan and there's a song in there. I think Battle Without Honor or Humanity. And it's usually when the bad guys are walking in slow motion, which is my ultimate dream, is to be filmed walking in slow motion with this song playing in the background. So that would be my song of choice.
Brian Poppe (12:28)
Dori's gonna mess something up, I think. Yeah, yeah. Well, I don't know, you said it's like the Bad Guys song, so...
Dori Stanfield (12:32)
In a good way.
Brian Poppe (12:35)
Well, I don't know, you said it's like the Bad Guys song, so...
Courtney Van Hoosen (12:54)
Yeah.
Dori Stanfield (12:57)
No, I did, I did.
Courtney Van Hoosen (12:50)
I could see you being filmed in slow motion because it's Dori to the rescue. You're going to help answer people's questions. I feel like you do that a lot. You've done that for me and I'm sure for other people as well. I love it Dori. Our last question for you today is to kind of wrap things up. I'm wondering if you could share what's one thing that you have learned about careers in technology that you wish more people knew, especially maybe for those that are interested in or in those developer adjacent roles or non-traditional tech.
Dori Stanfield (13:14)
Yeah, you don't have to be a programmer. You don't have to have a major or a master's in computer science because there's so many different roles where other skill sets are very valuable in this industry. I've been told by several different mentors that it's really about being able to ask the right questions. Whenever I'm doubting, am I adding value, am I an asset to the team, I don't know this stuff, there's so much to learn, I'm always brought back to the foundation of it's all about asking the right questions and knowing enough to ask the right questions meetings, I'm not the only one who has that question. And it also helps to be better communicators with the business side. And I know I talk about that a lot, but it's very important because, you know, we have our IT jargon and the business actually has their jargon as well. So to be able to bring that together and help people understand each other, it's a very strong skill set to have- a very valuable skill set to have. So don't doubt just because you don't know how to program a computer that you can't add value because you definitely can.
Brian Poppe (14:31)
Well, that's good advice. And boy, to tie it back earlier, we're all about humans, right, at the very end of this thing. We use technology as a tool. If you can remember that there are people on the other side of that, that's how you end up getting to be wildly successful. So Dori, thanks for joining us today.
Dori Stanfield (15:10)
Thank you. Thank you for having me. This is so great. Thank you so much.
Courtney Van Hoosen (14:52)
Yes. Thanks for letting us ask you these questions and excited for our next episode. Join us next time on the Tech Talk Podcast. Thanks everyone.