The Mom Ramp: Beth Blecherman Jumps Back on the Working Mom Highway

Posted by Charlene Prince Birkeland

Beth Blecherman is the “chief technology officer” for the popular Silicon Valley Moms Blog and the publisher of a hot new tech blog for moms, TechMamas. In her pre-kid days, she worked in corporate finance, systems development and then systems auditing for a company that was purchased by Roche Pharmaceuticals. She later worked for Deloitte & Touche and when she was pregnant with her first baby, Beth was the senior manager of computer process integrity. After her son was born, she worked part time for the company.  But it was her second pregnancy with twin boys –- and two months of bed rest following the delivery –- when she decided the Partner track at Deloitte needed to take a back seat. She retired.

“Even though I knew it was the right decision, it was still difficult,” she said.

Beth recently decided to jump back in the working mom world. She’s moving towards the on ramp, starting with the brave new world of blogging. Beth is a fellow blogger and friend, and every time we see each other, I always come away with new ideas about working motherhood, parenting, and truth-be-told, the best celebrity gossip (sorry, Beth, your secret is out!).

Going back to work is as tough as deciding to leave your job to become a stay at home mom. I asked Beth a few questions about this new life adventure, her new tech blog, TechMamas, and how she's doing with work/life balance.

JobMom (JM): Why did you decide to get back into the working mama game?

Beth Blecherman (BB): After spending years building a career, I found it hard to become a full time mom. I realized that spending time with my kids was the most valuable part of my day, but that I was not good at doing it all day. Having time to myself made me a better parent. I decided that for me to get the right balance in my life I needed to go back to work. I talk about this in my blog post called, "I Surrender." (Ed. note: A must read for all moms.)

JM: Did you hit any roadblocks?

BB: The first roadblock in going back to work was timing; managing three young boys was too complicated for childcare so I waited until my twins went to preschool. The next roadblock was changing careers. My last job at Deloitte was in project management, which required a big time commitment and involved rigid time deadlines. So after years of building a career, I had to find a new career that had flexible work arrangements. I only wanted to work while my kids were at school or at night. I started to wonder if that type of work existed.

I kept current on technology news after I retired and found the concept of blogs very interesting.  I was lucky to work with Jill Asher, Pamela Hornik, and Tekla Nee to establish the Silicon Valley Moms Blog. Once I started blogging, I became completely hooked. We then joined the BlogHer network, which served as my new “work” network. I am still working to make blogging a career -- the path is not as clear as in technology consulting.

JM:  How have you career ambitions changed since having kids? Or have they changed?

BB:I am a complete geek. I loved working, reading and just being involved in the technology field. I was passionate about my career and wanted to climb the proverbial “ladder” at Deloitte. Having kids helped give me the perspective to redirect my career to enjoy family life...something I realized I was also passionate about. The “redirect” was to find a career that would work around my kids schedule. So I kept one foot in technology thanks to the information available on the web and started searching for the right opportunity.

JM: How are you managing work/life balance with three boys?

BB: Other then my limited time for exercise and the pile of clean clothes that never gets folded, I am doing fine with work/life balance. My twins are now four so they are in preschool five days a week, and my older son is in elementary school. I have a free time early in the day. I try to blog in the morning, which is my most productive time of day. Spending the afternoon with my boys provides a good work/life balance.

Another important part of my work/life balance is having a supportive husband who puts the kids to bed some nights when “mommy is doing her blogging.” And my kid’s grandmom helps out weekly, as well as covering for me when I want to sneak off to conferences like Web 2.0 expo or BlogHer. But there are many nights that I blog well after 11pm, so I am still working on the perfect balance.

JM: Talk about your tech blog,Techmamas -- why did you start it?

BB: After months of reading technology blogs daily I realized one conversation that was not taking place was specifically about parenting and technology. In a time where kids know more about technology then their parents, I felt a need to get that daily conversation going – so I started Techmamas. Parents should not only understand technology to see what their kids are doing, but to make process improvements in their own lives. Teens and college students are not the only ones using social networking, working moms can even benefit from social networking sites like LinkedIn, Maya’s Mom or for sports fans, Ballhype.

Blogging is all about relevance, which means daily updates. I could not keep up this type of schedule if I did not find the topics interesting. I guess you could say it is work and a hobby at the same time.

JM:  Okay, TechMama, I'll admit I'm a geek too. Based on your geekiness, what five tech gadgets should every working mama have???

BB:

• A Crockpot: I thought I would throw in a surprise for my first tech gadget recommendation. Every working mom I speak to struggles with getting dinner on the table for her family. Crockpots are great because you can throw in the ingredients in the morning and come home to a hot meal. I like this crockpot from All Clad because you can brown the meat in the crockpot insert.

• Wireless Router for the Home: All working mamas need to have wireless in every room so they can check a quick email while the kids are playing.

• Online Family Calendaring System: Keeping track of the family schedule can be challenging. Having a online system will allow the whole family to update their own activities. Cozi.com is a good example because it syncs with outlook and has a section for grocery lists.
   

• Smartphone: Every working mom can benefit from having access to email on the go. Talk about multi-tasking, how about cleaning out your email inbox while standing in line at the grocery store? I am very pleased with my BlackBerry but have friends that enjoy using a Treo smartphone.  Add a Bluetooth headset to the smartphone for hands free talking. Smartphones also have applications like Google Maps to help moms on the move.

• Bag Layering: Working moms go from work to school pick-up, to the park and so on… I have found that a bag layering system is the best way to stay flexible for a working mom’s day. The first layer is a small bag that can fit in either a briefcase, laptop case, diaper bag and tote bag for the park. I found a small Coach bag from the Hamptons collection that fits my Blackberry, wallet, keys, business card case and some personal effects. This fits nicely in the second layer: my laptop case or my tote bag. My Mother’s Day gift guide has links to some great bags. 
   

• A Bonus...External Hard Drives: Now that families are going digital it is even more important to back up digital media.

Thanks to Beth for sharing her story. And you should definitely go check out her tech tips at TechMamas.

Comments

[Erin]

After I went back to work (before I quit the job to do Ballhype) I bought a crockpot. There is an art to it though, because the first few meals I made were either over- or undercooked. And I'm normally a decent cook. You definitely need crockpot-specific recipes. WRT moms on Ballhype, I'm finally noticing more women on the site (it's hard to know sometimes since avatars and usernames can be made up), which is great.

[Beth B.]

Erin -
Great point about the Crockpot. I found that the straightforward recipes were the best (i.e. cubes of meat, veggies, and some sauce). And if I cooked it for 8 hours while I was at work - as long as it was in sauce - it tasted fine even if overcooked. Or maybe my family was just so happy to have a hot meal it did not matter!

Great to know that there are more women on Ballhype. I defintely know many female friends that are serious sports fans.