Carrie Jefferies, Administrative Assistant on the Business & Administrative Services Team.

I am another of those non-meshers who work for Pointwise. I know what a mesh is and think they can look pretty cool, but my work is on the other side: invoicing the companies who use Pointwise to make those cool meshes.

Last month my husband, Mike, was featured in This Is How I Mesh so I will try not to repeat what he said. I graduated from Arizona State University with a BS in Accountancy after having changed majors from Psychology to German to Horticulture to Accounting. Let’s just say I have a lot of different interests and wanted to follow them all.  When Pointwise brought us to Texas I felt at home. I believe I fall under the Texan-popular phrase “I wasn’t born in Texas, but I got here as fast as I could!” People talk about how hot it is here, but I have seen summer days in Arizona that got up to 126 degrees F. That is HOT, no matter that it is a dry heat. In Texas it’s nice to experience the change of seasons and the people are so friendly!

I loved being a stay-at-home mom with our four children. When the youngest went to school I started working part-time. A few years later I found myself at Pointwise assisting Rose Mary with bookkeeping and other fun projects. Now I do the invoicing, Accounts Payable, and manage benefits just to name a few of my responsibilities. Pointwise is a great company to work for and it’s full of great people to work with.

• Location: Fort Worth, Texas
• Current position: Administrative Assistant
• Current computer: Dell Vostro w/ Intel i5-2400 CPU @ 3.10 GHz
• One word that best describes how you work: Cheerfully (I chose that before I saw that Michael Mirsky used it a few months ago. I guess we’re a happy company!)

What software or tools do you use every day?

QuickBooks all day every day with occasional peeks at Excel, Word, Outlook, Sage CRM, and the internet. I am not biased toward one browser. They are all pretty equal in my eyes; IE, Firefox, and Google Chrome are all used about equally by me.

What does your workspace look like?

Carrie’s current workspace.

My workspace is located in the downstairs corner of the Bicocchi building. It is formed by an L-shaped desk separating it from the walkway on two sides, the window facing Jennings Street on the 3^rd side and a cool brick wall at my back. A tall book case, a printer, 2 chairs, and a set of filing drawers complete the space. My office is adorned with artwork by my kids and pictures of them. I have two monitors: the Dell 17” is used for Outlook and the Acer 24” widescreen is for everything else. My desk usually has a couple stacks of paper on it for various projects. Remember when we all thought businesses would be paperless soon? Well it hasn’t happened yet.

What are you currently working on?

Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, benefit renewals, end of month tasks and beginning the end of year tasks – it’s that time of the year. Another project I am working on is the creation of the Pointwise Emergency Response Plan with Chris Jobe. It is interesting to spend a lot of time and effort to make something so important and that we hope we never have to use.

What would you say is your specialty at Pointwise?

Wearing lots of hats. It’s what you do when you work for a small company. I like the variety of what I do!

Any tips, tricks, or advice for our users?

1. Don’t ask the administrative staff how to mesh.
2. Keep calm and mesh on.

What project are you most proud of and why?

The Pointwise Wellness Plan (PWP). I researched wellness plans, worked with John Chawner to write our own, and introduced it as our newest benefit. As part of the PWP, we have Wellness lunch and learns a couple times a year and we provide healthy snacks in the break rooms. Employees get to decide how to spend their wellness money. I really enjoy being part of something that makes people better in some way.

Have you recently read any books or articles we should know about?

The Nero Wolfe mysteries by Rex Stout are intriguing and humorous. The audio books are really well done too! The Culprit and the Cure by Steven G. Aldana is my favorite health book.

Do you plan on attending any conferences or workshops this year?

I recently attended a DCAA conference held by GovCon in Colorado. I don’t have plans to attend any the rest of this year.

What do you do when you’re not surrounded by engineers making meshes?

My husband, Mike, is a developer for Pointwise, so I get to have an engineer around most of the time which is great. We have fun working here together. My two high schoolers keep me busy with their activities; right now we are all learning the music to “My Fair Lady” as they practice the songs for their upcoming production around the house. Lots of my extra time is spent at church activities where I teach the 14 and 15 year old youth. Other hobbies of mine are reading, watching movies, attending the theatre, and working on my house – decorating, painting rooms, planting flowers.

What is some of the best advice you’ve received?

A few years ago my 11 year old daughter, who loves to make up inspirational quotes, made me a sign for my office that says, “You are never too old to dream!” It makes me laugh every time I see it.

If you had to pick a place to have dinner, where would you go?

Snappy Salads! They are building one in Fort Worth! Their Grilled Avocado Salad is scrumptious!