Dariela Morrobel Villar

As a senior at Barnard College majoring in American studies, Dariela Morrobel Villar had an open mind about what she wanted to do after college. Watching the rise of TikTok and seeing content related to careers in tech, she started to learn more about project management, which appealed to her because of its non-specialized nature and the ability to be involved in different areas of tech. She also realized that her organizational skills, ability to communicate, and adaptability were key factors in securing a job in the corporate world–even if she had to catch up on some of the corporate jargon! 

In her role as an IT Project Manager, Dariela wanted to stay current in the work she leads. While most project managers are content to stay on the “people and process” side of the fence, Dariela chose to dive straight into the more technical aspects of the products she helps develop and upskill by completing the NPower Path2Tech Fullstack Engineering Bootcamp. According to Dariela: “I knew I didn’t want to be a developer. What I wanted is  to understand the intricacies of the work that product developers are doing, so that when I have meetings, when I’m essentially managing these projects, I know what it is that they’re talking about, right? And I think that just from hearing some of the feedback that developers or engineers typically have for project managers or product managers, it’s typically that we don’t know what we’re doing as far as like the work that’s happening, because knowing this work isn’t a requirement for us. So that’s why I did it.”

Looking down the road, Dariela is weighing a few possible directions: Senior Project Manager, Senior Program Manager, maybe even a PMO leadership role. To keep her edge in the field, she plans to enroll in a series of AI courses, confident that hands-on knowledge in emerging tech will only make her communication super-power stronger.