Our Mission in Action: Jeanne Schmidt

Our guiding force at Sparq is our mission: to create high-quality technology jobs in Middle America cities where talent is often overlooked. Our Mission in Action showcases Sparq colleagues who represent how this mission impacts individuals and the communities in which we operate.

Jeanne Schmidt has had an impressive career in tech. For many years, she worked at PeopleSoft in Silicon Valley, where she watched the company grow from only a few hundred people to over 10,000 employees. She learned a lot during her tenure at PeopleSoft, and really enjoyed the culture, but after Oracle’s acquisition of the company, certain things changed. The culture she had come to love was no longer in place, and frequent meetings at Oracle’s headquarters meant a much lengthier commute. As the mother of two young daughters, Jeanne wanted to make a change to support a better work/life balance for her family.

Heading east

With the high cost of living in the Bay Area, Jeanne and her husband decided to start looking for jobs in more affordable areas, preferably on the east coast to be closer to her family. After her husband got a job in Augusta, Georgia, Jeanne enjoyed being a stay-at-home mom for a few years while her children were still young. Eventually, she wanted to return to work, and spent a couple of years at other organizations, before getting a call from a recruiter at Sparq in 2013.

Challenging but rewarding

Working at Sparq presented an opportunity for Jeanne that otherwise might not have existed in Augusta: the ability to work for “an impressive list of clients” while living much closer to family, and with a higher quality of life. Jeanne says, “Since I started at Sparq, I’ve been able to watch the company grow and maintain its fun, positive culture. I’ve been impressed with the type of project work we do and the list of clients we have. This is challenging, rewarding work that has allowed me to grow in my career and mentor others.”