Women in Technology: Christine Clauder

Nexcess’ Field Marketing Manager on the liberty of ideas in tech, how she defines success, and bringing the weirdness.

Of all of the people she’s known, Christine Clauder credits her mother as being essentially the most influential in her profession journey. “She wouldn’t let me have any cool tech growing up,” Clauder says, “so once I grew up and moved out, I invested all my time and energy into learning tech to spite her. Just kidding, sort of.”

Born in Guam and raised in Japan for a bit, Clauder mainly grew up in Houston, Texas, before moving to Kansas City for 20 years. “That’s where I put my roots down,” she says. “So although I moved back to Houston about ten years ago, I still consider myself a Kansas Citian.”

Clauder says her mother’s intensity produced a forceful daughter, as well—if not in the best way her mother hoped. “My mother is a tiny and scary Japanese lady. She attempted to boost me with the Japanese mindset of all the time caring for ‘the person of the home.’ Still, much to her chagrin, she by accident raised me to be a robust independent woman who doesn’t give a sh… anyway, my mom is amazing, but I’m her polar opposite.”

She’d all the time been focused on computers, so when her father gifted her a PC—a Gateway—Clauder began devoting all of her time and energy to learning every little thing she could about computers. “I never stopped,” she says.

Clauder began her profession at an automotive dealership in Kansas City. “At first, I used to be doing cold calls and sales calls while attempting to persuade the dealership that Facebook was the most recent and biggest solution to market to customers—and subsequently getting written up for being on Facebook an excessive amount of,” she says. “Twenty years later, I used to be hired because the I.T. and Marketing Director of a giant dealership in Houston managing their computer systems, website, Facebook, and Twitter accounts, amongst other things.”

But she says she has her dog, #HankTheHellion, to thank for her job at Nexcess. “Long story short, I built a web site about Hank, which got picked up by major news networks, and my previous host couldn’t handle the sudden surge in traffic. My friend, Samantha Mueller, works for Nexcess, so when she heard about my issues, she asked Nexcess to avoid wasting my bacon and migrate my site, which they did in lower than 12 minutes. I used to be offered a job soon after,” she says. “Personally, I feel Nexcess just liked all of the F-bombs on the web site.”

Now, Clauder serves because the Field Marketing Manager at Nexcess. “My job is ever-evolving based on company needs, so it’s difficult to elucidate every little thing I do,” she says. “I’m the fun voice on the Nexcess Twitter. I’m a glorified party planner. I’m a proud member of the Culture Committee, where I don’t know what I actually do. Actually, let’s just say I bring The Weirdness™️ to each team that I even have the glory of joining.”

What she loves most a few tech profession is the liberty of ideas. “I get encouragement after I give you unique thoughts,” she says, “which is just so vastly different from my experience with the non-tech corporations I’ve worked for previously.”

For Clauder, her proudest profession accomplishments boil all the way down to boldness and persistence. “Every thing I’ve learned has been through sheer determination and curiosity; I’m proud I used to be capable of find a distinct segment within the tech world just by being myself.”

Simply being herself is something she goals to bring to her work. “Everybody thinks that I’m ‘the funny one,’ but that’s just my way of attempting to bring happiness into anyone’s world,” she says. “I’m not a chef, can’t grow plants or vegetables, and have zero arts & crafts skills, so I do what I can to bring somewhat little bit of joy into people’s lives. Sometimes meaning a real compliment, sometimes meaning being there to hearken to them, and sometimes it means joking around to lift that person’s spirits. Humor is my love language. Just ask my husband, who stopped being funny about ten years ago.”

Success, for Clauder, looks like her family. “My daughter is a form, intelligent, well-rounded adult and a talented rollerblader with an enormous following on social media,” she says. “My husband is a catch that I can’t throw back. My parents still cherish me despite all my flaws, and I signed papers to accumulate my husband’s parents in our inevitable divorce as well. My family is my success.”

And a superb day in her books looks like staying curled up in bed with a never-ending pot of coffee and reading terrible YA novels or binging 90s TV shows. “If I didn’t live within the steamy, mosquito-laden tropics of Houston, I’d be found on the golf course every weekend, though,” she says.

Clauder is happy in regards to the leadership possibilities for ladies in tech. “I feel the inequality that almost all women have experienced, myself included, have made us stronger, more empathetic, wiser, and more capable,” she says. “Our experiences have primed us to change into amazing leaders, which I’ve personally witnessed inside Nexcess. I’m proud to be a component of such a uniquely inspiring, women-led environment.”

She encourages young women to look to their passions and consider how those might exist throughout the field of tech. “Technology isn’t just data science or taking apart computers,” she says. “Technology connects the world and encompasses every little thing from marketing to coding to customer support and support. Don’t be afraid of the word ‘technology’ simply because of some outdated definition. From emails and text messages to social media, writing papers, and reading news online, you already embrace technology in your on a regular basis life. Conceptualize how your hobbies and interests can merge with tech.”

Her advice for ladies just starting in the sector is to go for it. “If you’ve got one iota of interest within the tech industry, find your area of interest but don’t just follow the job description,” she says. “Find where your talents will profit each yourself and the corporate. Your organization will find value in you whenever you first value yourself. Also, adopt a shelter animal. It probably won’t help, but it surely definitely won’t hurt, and your life shall be enriched.”

You could find Clauder in Houston together with her family and Harley Davidson, where she runs on coffee and crab legs.