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Cassandra Taylor, Project Manager with Retail Business Services – the services company of Ahold Delhaize USA – said she found her calling almost on accident. A North Carolina native, she was several years into a HR career when she got a call from a recruiter, asking if she would interview for a Project Management position.

“At that moment, I had never heard of project management – I didn’t know what it was. And because of that I was kind of looking at the phone like, is this a prank call?” Cassandra recalled with a laugh. “But she asked me to trust her, and to try going in for an interview. And, well, I didn’t have anything to lose.”

She went in for the interview and ended up accepting the job offer as a project manager the next day. For Cassandra, it was like coming home.

 “It was fantastic. I almost didn’t feel like I was going to work,” she said. “It was just a fabulous experience. I felt like I showed up to work to do what I was good at – it was the best feeling.”

Cassandra joined Retail Business Services in 2018 and said she has not looked back since.

“Sometimes I call it my rags to riches story,” she said.

But it can still be tricky navigating a male-dominated field.

“There were many times I was the only woman in the room,” she said. “I feel so thankful for the culture at Retail Business Services because my teammates have always embraced me and shared with me as much knowledge as I wanted to receive. It’s a great place to grow.”

For women just entering IT and project management, Cassandra said it is important to learn to be a self-advocate and to follow you dreams.

“Go for it, the sky’s the limit,” she said.

In the future, Cassandra said she would love to see a world where women do not have to feel pulled between their homelife and work-life.

“As women we don’t always get to do what we want to do, but we always do what we have to do,” she said. “I would love to change that statement, and have women feel like we can do a little bit more of the things we want to do.”