Q: What led you to this career?
I’ve always had a passion for helping people. I got my college degree in education, so I could teach kids and help them grow. Over time, my desire to help people broadened. When I was hired at CSC Corptax, it was to teach clients about our products and services. Over time, my role has evolved—in addition to training, I now work as the Community Manager for our online support site called CSC Connections. That opened the door to helping clients in a whole new way. I now have the opportunity to assist with a wide range of subjects by managing the support site. I got into this career to help people, and I’m still doing exactly that.
Q: Is the Corptax Community Manager role new?
Yes, it’s fairly new. We completely revamped our support site and launched it in August of 2020. That’s when we introduced our Communities. All of our Communities are clearly focused on the tax industry. We provide content, have conversations, answer questions, and share resources. There’s another Corptax employee who is a Community Manager with me—Megan Diak, who I call ‘my partner in crime’. We work closely together and help maintain the Communities.
Q: Can you share a little more about the new Connections website?
CSC Connections has become a hub for our clients. The new customer portal includes educational offerings, a knowledge base, and the ability to open and access support cases. It also offers Communities for clients to engage with each other, ask questions, and learn more about Corptax products.
Q: How did this Communities endeavor come about?
We had been planning to add Communities to our customer portal. But with COVID‑19, everybody was suddenly remote—nobody could meet in person to share knowledge or ask questions or get training. Everything moved online, so we said, “Okay, now is the time. Let’s do this.”
In March, 2020, my director reached out and said, “We’re going to launch these communities. Are you interested in participating?” I immediately said yes because I like to jump at opportunities and continually learn new things. My initial role was helping to plan the rollout—I work with clients all the time on getting started with our products, so I took that knowledge and thought, “Okay, when they need help, what information would be beneficial?” From there, my director said, “All right—you’ve helped design the project, do you want to learn how to create it?” I jumped in, worked with the vendor in building the support site, and on top of that, became adept at building, growing, and maintaining a Community.
Q: What has customer response been?
We’ve seen a good amount of participation! Launching these Communities created a space for clients to come ask questions of their peers. Peer-to-peer knowledge-sharing is incredibly valuable and helps our Corptax community stay connected. And the site continues to do really well in 2021.
Q: What are some challenges, opportunities, or evolving trends that you see developing in the next five years regarding the Corptax Communities?
I see the Communities growing as the tax world constantly evolves. Our online Communities are essential right now, and I feel that’s going to continue. We’ve opened the door for our clients to communicate with each other this way. I believe that will keep growing, and we’re going to continue to find new ways to get clients involved and help them.
Q: What do you enjoy most about your job?
There are two things. The first would be the people, and the second would be the opportunities. When it comes to people, I get to work with such a wide range of coworkers. That’s given me a great opportunity to build relationships outside of the 5-person team I started on. A lot of really cool people work here, and it’s a great family dynamic. Everyone is really close.
In addition to that, in my role as Community Manager, I now have the opportunity to talk to clients more than ever. It’s really fun to experience all the personalities and make friends and acquaintances.
As far as opportunities go, I’ve never worked for a company that has given me so many opportunities to work outside of a typical role. I was hired on as an Implementation Specialist, but my role has expanded to work on the CSC Connections support site and with our reporting team, too. These amazing opportunities allow me to step out of a typical role and develop multiple new skills that help my career grow.
Q: What’s one thing that really surprised you about working at Corptax?
The work-life balance. You feel motivated to come in every day and get your work done, but if there’s something going on at home with your family, everybody’s fully understanding. Also, we all go above and beyond to help each other out. Like when kids have fundraisers, everybody bands together to support them. Seeing that dynamic and getting the support from your company peers has been a great surprise. This is the first company I’ve ever worked for that’s been this close.
Q: What lessons has your work life taught you?
I’d say the biggest lesson is that hard work pays off in a multitude of ways. I’ve found that when you give your all to something, you’re going to see it come back in various forms. You will see how your hard work makes things simpler for others, and makes it easier for them to succeed. Really, no matter how big or small your task, give it your all, because you don’t know how it’s going to impact others.
Q: What do you enjoy doing during your downtime?
I’m passionate about music and enjoy it in so many ways. I absolutely love to swing dance to my favorite country music. I also play the piano and guitar, and I sing—often with my kiddos.
