Building Communities and Relationships in Seattle with Sara Bogardus, PhD, EX Engagement Manager

The biggest theme that spans across my personal and professional life is relationships. I love building communities, coordinating social events, and prioritizing time with my friends and family. Professionally, I’ve always chosen positions that allow me to build strong, lasting relationships, from my early days as a clinical psychologist working with Veterans to coordinating clinical trials to the last 15 years as a project manager within a software company. My role at Qualtrics allows me to build strong relationships with strategic customers to ensure their implementations are successful while continuing to build relationships with my teammates.

What attracted you to Qualtrics in the first place?

My prior position, which I was at for 15 years, was at a small, privately-owned technology company. I was attracted to Qualtrics’ growth and the challenge it would bring. I was ready for the change in pace and atmosphere. Also, I had a colleague who had moved to Qualtrics from my prior company. I chatted with her and she highlighted how Qualtrics hires really smart and collaborative people.

What was the turning point where you “had to have the job”?

I knew I had to have the job once I came in for the face-to-face interviews. I could feel the energy and pace of the company. It was really important to me to have a positive experience and the people I interacted with during this time brought that. I walked out of the interviews saying, “These are my people.” I knew that the people I interacted with were team members I could really enjoy working with each day.

What does your day look like?

As an Engagement Manager, I work with top-tier customers to manage their implementations. This allows our technology consultants to focus on the technology implementation, while I get to stay focused on the overall communication and relationship with my customers. I have many meetings with my customers, manage timelines, help create lists of questions and requests for customers, and work to make sure any problems get solved. Essentially, it’s a relationship manager type of role. I get to build long-lasting relationships and help keep projects on track.

What is your favorite part of your role?

There are two main things I really enjoy:

1. I enjoy the relationship side of working with customers and forming professional, as well as personal, bonds with them.

2. It’s the same thing with my team of technology consultants. I get to build connections with each person on my really impressive, strong team.

What surprised you most about working at Qualtrics?

Before working here I was told that Qualtrics only hires really smart, educated people. Even though I knew that beforehand, I’m still overwhelmed by how impressive my coworkers are. I love being surrounded by team-oriented people who are very dedicated. We can also have a lot of fun and laugh together. It was a reputation I expected, but I was still surprised by the degree to which it was true.

Qualtrics is growing, and if you're ready to find your "why" at a place like this, you can explore our open opportunities at any time by visiting our career page. Looking to discover more reasons "Why Qualtrics"? You can find the whole series here.

Want to chat? You can get in touch by checking out Qualtrics Life on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

	Sara is an alumnus of the University of California, San Diego and the University of Washington. She started her career at the Addictions Treatment Center at the Seattle VA Hospital. Sara is obsessed with Orange Theory Fitness! She and her husband go together, and they typically go 5 times per week after work.