Girlstart’s Women in STEM weekly series highlights various women who are making a difference in STEM. Be inspired as these incredible women describe how they became interested in their field, provide insight into a day in the life, and share learnings from their experiences.

Holly Huynh

Director of Digital, Marketing Operations, Analytics @ Mitratech

Meet Holly Huynh, a past Girlstart volunteer and an inspiring woman in STEM! Read about her career journey below!

Briefly describe your career/field.

I came out of college (1st generation college graduate) thinking that I wanted to pursue law, so I interned at the Texas State capitol while working as a legal assistant at a law firm. I eventually moved on to manage a law office, but after going through the admission process and working closely with attorneys, ultimately decided I wanted to focus more on business. I happened to get a job at a tech franchise as a support manager that eventually led me to take over their marketing department, building out my own team and programs. I later moved into a small digital marketing agency start up to focus more on paid advertising and analytics that allowed me to specialize and grow into a senior leadership role. I was later recruited over to Gartner, a large enterprise research company, to lead their paid advertising team which was beginning to struggle. I ended up rebuilding that team and program from the ground up, setting many new company records, and winning their business impact award. During this time, I identified that the biggest obstacles we faced on the marketing side was operational and involved our data cleanliness, which led me to pitch and launch a new marketing operations department to work more closely with the business analytics, engineering, and product management organizations. I eventually moved over to the business analytics organization within Gartner to manage a team of analysts there focused on improving processes, data pipelines, reporting, and training. I recently left Gartner to begin my new role with Mitratech, an enterprise legal and compliance software company, heading up their Digital, Marketing Operations, and Analytics departments. I am building out a digital team that will manage our digital web presence and paid media; a marketing ops team that will manage our lead nurturing programs and tech stack; and analytics team that will handle data accuracy, performance reporting, and data storytelling.

What are your favorite things about your career/field?

I love that the industry is constantly changing and there are always opportunities to continue to learn and move around or build something new. One of my favorite things, while also considered a challenge, is that it is a constant struggle and challenge to earn the female representation in my industry. I love that with the support of the right mentors, I can become a thought leader in my field and prove those who doubted or questioned my abilities. In regards to the field specifically, I love the ability to look at a huge set of data and piecing it together to tell a story, then strategizing to understand where the next opportunities are. It’s like a big, fun game where you keep unlocking new levels.

What projects/programs have you worked on?

Paid advertising (search, display, social, video, etc), brand building, operational improvements, and data analytics involving data pipelines and data visualization tools.

Was there a specific person, program, or event in your life that led you to your STEM career?

There are probably 2 key moments that led me to where I am – the partner of the law firm I was managing who told me he was unhappy, and my next boss, the VP of product strategy at the tech franchise that hired me and allowed me to eventually take over the marketing strategy and build out my own team. That’s where I realized my passion for marketing and business strategy. It just grew from there. I still keep in close contact with that former VP to this day and consider her a mentor.

What is your greatest accomplishment?

I am very proud of how far I’ve come in my career as just a successful female in the tech industry, but why I’m most proud is looking back on what I had to overcome to get here. I am a first generation of my family (parents migrated here from Vietnam), did not learn the English language until I started preschool (where I was then placed in ESL for years), being the first in my family to graduate college, and then having the courage to switch careers into an unknown industry.

What sparked your interest and made you want to volunteer with Girlstart?

I got an email with my previous company for a volunteer opportunity with setup and breakdown of an event. Reading more about what the program stood for and how it can help mentor young girls into the field I’m currently in is really what made me want to get more involved.

What is your favorite Girlstart moment (event, time you volunteered, etc.)?

I’ve only volunteered at one event so far, which was just organizing the set up and breakdown of the event, so my moments are limited, but I loved seeing the look of excitement on the young girls faces as they arrived to sign in and got all of their goodies.

What would you like to tell girls who are interested in pursuing a STEM career? What words of encouragement would you share with them?

I would say that the field is challenging, but it’s the challenges and struggles you will come across that are what make your successes even more rewarding. I would also like them to know that it is possible to have a successful career and a balanced family life, as long as you remember to prioritize your mental health, value yourself, and set personal boundaries.

Why is confidence in STEM important for girls?

More than ever now, female representation and diversity are so important. While I’ve been fortunate to be successful now, I have come across many people in my career who, out of ignorance, culture, or just plain bias, made me really struggle and had me reconsidering my career path. If I can help even one girl persevere through a similar situation, I will consider it a success.