Meet Miriam Wallack, Gloat’s Product Training Specialist #WomenatWork

This year, we are honored to celebrate Women’s History Month with a series of interviews from the many voices at Gloat.

Gloat is driven by a diverse array of women at every level of the organization; today, we sat down with Miriam Wallack, who holds the unique position of Product Training Specialist.

Here’s what she had to say!

Hi Miriam! Could you tell us what you do here at Gloat?

Hi!

As the company’s Product Training Specialist, I introduce new Customer Success employees to the Gloat product so they can be fluent in the platform functionality. I also focus on documenting the product, including creating release notes, maintaining the Help Center, and producing test scripts for our product.

To me, Women’s History Month means recognizing the strength, bravery, and hardships women faced, how much women have overcome, and how much farther we have to go.

What does Women’s History Month mean to you?

I never knew about Women’s History Month until I moved to Israel. I saw on social media that all of these women were posting flowers that they received. That day, my Israeli husband came home with flowers for me and I had no idea why. It was for women’s day – how cool is that?! It’s important to recognize the contribution that women played in history, especially when history itself always reflects a narrative. I have always gravitated towards women in history, both those who rose above the expectations set for women at the time, like Amelia Earhart, Sojourner Truth, and Sacagawea, and women who simply lived in times when so many restrictions were put on them, such as my grandmothers. To me, Women’s History Month means recognizing the strength, bravery, and hardships women faced, how much women have overcome, and how much farther we have to go.

Name a woman who inspires you, and tell us why!

I am inspired by Taylor Swift since she has always played a significant role as a strong woman in my life. Since her first album was released when I was ten, I’ve been following her grow up into womanhood – from experiencing crushes, love, heartbreak, and leaving home – her experiences were there for me to reflect on when I had similar experiences.

Taylor Swift allows herself to be angry and sad and happy – shamelessly. She’s shown me that all my emotions are valid and okay to express. Through her lyrics, she’s taught me how to be insightful, and through her many genres, she’s taught me the magic of letting go of any ‘box’ I’m supposed to be in and just do what feels good.

Are there any assumptions about women that you would like to change? Why?

I feel assumptions the harshest when I am with older folks – many times their assumptions of how I go about my life are so far from how I actually live. They just assume that I go home and cook dinner for me and my husband, and do the shopping and such – sometimes I do, and sometimes he does, and sometimes we just order out!

What do you believe will be the biggest challenge for the generation of women behind you?

Social media – I am so lucky I experienced my teenage years before Instagram and TikTok. It’s impossible to not compare yourself to others when it feels that everyone who’s putting themselves out there is perfect.

For allies, how can they better support women through these changing times? What is the impact that allyship can have on women’s advancement?

Allies are those who understand the challenges that women face daily. With this understanding set, I believe that there can be an instant impact of advancing women.

What advice would you give to a younger version of yourself at the start of your career?

Working hard and being a hard working are different — I was always so conscious of how my colleagues saw me. I got to work before everyone, took shorter lunch breaks, and stayed the latest in the office just to prove my worth of being hired at the company. In reality, I didn’t need to do all of that to prove that I’m a hard worker, my work itself proved that. I wish I had known that earlier.

Diversity in the workplace isn’t just a mission of our product, it’s a mission within our company. We recently released our Why We Work study and found that almost twice as many women (43%) as men (24%) feel their company doesn’t utilize their full potential.

The study involved 1,000 U.S. employees and provided us with deep insights into motivations in the workplace. We learned a great deal about growth and change, the visibility of our skill sets, access, and also the gender diversity gap. At the bottom line, women need more room for advancement in the workplace.

We’re excited to continue to learn from the women at Gloat and share these lessons with our community.

Stay tuned for our next interview from our Women at Work series on the Gloat Blog!