Maura (Ballerstein) Proctor: Software Test Engineer at Paychex, Rochester, NY

Maura (Ballerstein) Proctor, Class of 2004

BA in History from SUNY Geneseo and MS in Library and Information Science from Syracuse University

Since graduating in 2004 I have been employed at Paychex, a large payroll company based out of Rochester.  I have held several different roles in my time with the company, most recently as a product analyst, and am currently transitioning to our IT department to work as a software test engineer. When I first started with the company I struggled to see the connections between the work I did in college and my work at Paychex.  However, as I advanced through the company I began to see the connections and now attribute many of the promotions I’ve earned to skills I mastered while pursuing my history degree.

Skills deeply embedded in the history major: research, analysis, and writing are critical in the business world.   My experience at Geneseo gave me the back ground to be able to clearly communicate and defend a position based on thorough research, something not all of my peers are able to do.  My clear, concise style and my aptitude for research made me an excellent candidate for the analyst position, a role requiring frequent communication with upper management not only in my department but in many other departments as well.  The exposure I gained through work I completed on several high profile projects while in this role opened up the chance for me to make the transition over to our Information Technology Department despite my lack of a traditional technical background. 

My advice to anyone contemplating the history major or finishing up their degree would be not to get overly caught up in job descriptions (you won’t find that many specifically calling for a history degree) instead, focus on desired skills.  Job specific duties can often be easily trained.  Soft skills, like solid communication skills (both written and verbal) and the ability to analyze data and use it to tell a story or defend a position, are much harder to teach ,are very much in demand and can set you apart from the rest of the applicant pool.