Our friendly and effervescent HR Professional Heather Axtell is often the first person a new employee meets when joining our family. With her genuine smile and warm personality, she truly sets the tone for our Allovus welcome wagon. But how did Heather herself come to join our team? Heather says, it was a matter of stepping stones to get to where she is today.
Allovus: What is your background and how did you come to work for Allovus?
Heather: When I first started out, I wanted to be a cop. I worked with a girl who got cat-burgled. She woke up one day with somebody standing next to her bed, stealing her purse. When she came to work the next day, she told me, ‘I’m going to go buy a gun.'” I said, “Hold on a minute. Let’s go together and learn how to do that the right way.” So, we took shooting lessons together for two years. And it was from that experience that I discovered I wanted to be a cop.
Allovus: Did you actually become a police officer?
Heather: No. That idea went away after I saw an accident, and realized I didn’t want to be at crime scenes to witness that kind of stuff. Next, I wanted to go into law, so I went to school to become a certified paralegal. I got the certification to be one, but I soon discovered that paralegals do a ton of work without getting the kind of recognition and pay that lawyers do.
Allovus: Then what?
Heather: Then, I wanted to become a jeweler. I took GIA courses to become a diamond evaluator. Those classes are hard–I’ve only gone about a third of the way through the program. In between, I worked in HR in the mortgage insurance industry, and later in HR for a software development company where I met Liz Ashley (Allovus Operations Director) and Steve Godfrey (Allovus Senior UX Designer). Liz was my direct boss back then. We’d kept in touch over the years. One day she called and asked me out to lunch and told me about Allovus. I was sold!
Allovus: It really has been a stepping stone experience to get to where you are now.
Heather: Yes!
Allovus: When you’re not working at Allovus, what do you like to do?
Heather: I love spending time with my 11-year-old son and my husband. We travel in our 25-ft. trailer that we tow and visit places like Montana and Idaho. Oh, and my son and I also like to paint rocks.
Allovus: Paint rocks?
Heather: I’m not good at it. I’m probably the least creative person working in the most creative company. But it’s fun, and it’s something that my son and I can do together. There’s this thing called #BothellRocks–in fact, most cities have it. So Bellevue is #BellevueRocks, Seattle has #SeattleRocks, etc.
Allovus: What is it?
Heather: Basically, people paint rocks and then leave them in places all around the city. Whoever finds them takes a picture of the rock and posts it to social media with the hashtag #BothellRocks. (Or whatever city they’re in.) They then have the choice of taking the rock and leaving one that they painted or leaving the rock for someone else to find. It’s fun!
If you’d like to join in the rock painting fun, check out your city’s rock painting groups: