Wesley was close to achieving all she could as a clinical lab scientist, so she decided it was time for a change. Fortunately for her, a career change, an opportunity to work with a family member and a better chance for career advancement all happened at the same time.
What does being a clinical lab scientist at a hospital have to do with lawn and garden? Well, nothing really.
At least, Wesley didn’t think so when she began her professional career. Through her husband Justin, she has been an extended member of the SMG family for a while.
Justin began working as a sales manager at Scotts nearly a decade ago, and he has shared his stories about his job and the company with Wesley. In turn, she has shared her stories about being a histocompatibility and immunogenetics technologist. It’s a long job title that means she performed lab work in order to determine the compatibility of organ transplants.
While her job was rewarding, Wesley knew she could only advance her career so far. At most, she could run the laboratory, but there wasn’t much farther that she could go. She discovered that she was interested in the data-related aspects of her role, though, and she enjoyed it so much that she decided to pursue a career shift into a role that was completely data focused. To help with that change, Wesley went back to school and took courses at Georgia Tech.
Patience leads to progress
Wesley wasn’t initially looking for a job at Scotts, but she knew it would be a great opportunity if the right position opened. She had watched Justin grow his career from sales manager to business development manager in six years, and she knew that we were a data-driven company.
Of course, Justin knew that Wesley’s knowledge and determination would be a perfect fit for our culture. Even before she finished her coursework, he started looking for the right role and telling people at the company about her. He shared her resume and asked coworkers to keep her in mind if something came up. Finally, a position opened up on the data team…. And Wesley was interested.
With her diverse background of skills, Wesley landed a role as a Senior Analyst Data Engineer on the sales strategy and execution team.
Hallway conversations
Justin and Wesley were already used to working 10 feet from each other in their offices at home. Now there are even more conversations throughout the day.
“My coworkers have asked if I was going to be ok with working with my wife in such close proximity,” Justin says. “And my response is that I’m going to talk about work anyways, so at least we can both talk about the same thing now. It’s been nice being able to talk about the business in a deeper way and from different sides of it.”
Wesley also visited the Marysville campus in Ohio recently. “Everyone is so welcoming and nice,” she says. “It’s great to be a part of this.”
