These are just a few professional roles that Heidi Knoblauch has played in her career so far.
Currently, she continues to own the Plumb Oyster Bar in Troy and recently started as a new part-time entrepreneur/new business manager at Innovate 518 at the University of Albany. This summer, she lost in the asset management job of a local real estate developer and worked there briefly after leaving Pioneer Bank. Later, she started to hold this position.
Oh, she has a doctorate. Historically, Yale University founded a technology start-up company Receipts HQ to manage restaurant receipts; and served on the Economic Development Committee.
Her diverse experience prompted the Women@Work leadership team to invite her to chair our executive committee in 2020, when Anne Saile announced that she was ready to take over the position in 10 years. We are glad Heidi accepted.
Heidi lives in Rensselaer County with her wife, a lawyer, and their two dogs. She is well-known in the business community. Since she first introduced our network as a female, she has often participated in Women@Work events. The breakfast keynote speaker in 2019. However, we think it is time for our members to have a chance to get to know her better.
In a recent extensive conversation, she weighed many topics. (This dialogue has been edited for clarity and space.)
Find the right person. Recently, I quickly left a position. I was there and knew almost immediately that in the first week, this was not the right place for me. When I was about to leave, I didn't know how it would feel-I was very nervous about it. I accept it almost like many people do. I think this is my own moral failure, either because I didn’t realize that the company was not what I thought it was, or because I didn’t decide to stay there to change the problems I saw. In the end, I thought it was inappropriate and left. ...I would say that 80% to 90% of people (I have already told) said,'Oh, you know what, I met it once at work.
The lesson of vulnerability. Vulnerability is important because you can help others tell what they have experienced in life. So I have been trying to figure out how to use this moment (leaving the above job) to express my feelings in words so that when other people encounter this situation in the future or look back on it, in their own lives, they feel a certain Connect or be able to reconcile what happened to them.
Friends and mentors. (Yes) The benefits of having such a calmly thinking friend. When I knew that I was leaving (developer work), I called Rob Nichols, Pioneer's chief credit officer, and he took me to Pioneer. (I told him) I made the wrong choice. He said,'Heidi, any time you start your career, it is risky. You want you to make the right decision. Sometimes you will make the wrong decision. (He suggested that she call back people who discussed other positions with her to let them know that she is still in the job market. She did it, and this is how she got into Uabany.)
The harshness of academia. Doctor...I won't trade this experience for the world, because it really taught me how to not only think, but how to present information in a convincing way. The history part definitely taught me how to tell stories and how to conduct real and rigorous research. The academic world gives you time to think critically. ...But for restaurants, I don’t know anything about the catering industry. So I can use all the research skills, all these (capabilities) to quickly learn information and turn it into knowledge, and apply it to the restaurant. Now, when I see that companies are struggling (which helps me), I want to figure out how to evaluate the health of their business. I can do this not only because of my PhD, but also because of the way I use (that kind of skill) in the restaurant. In addition, people now call me a doctor, so this is beneficial. (However, when she returned to the Capital Region after teaching at Bard College and decided that a tenure position was not suitable for her, she found it difficult to find a job, so she opened a restaurant.)
Economic development challenges. For a long time, we have many things that people call clusters, such as the gaming industry and semiconductors. We now have offshore wind power companies. I think that now we have these nodes. This is the easiest achievement that people want to build. Support their company. I believe that economic development often supports major drivers, such as GlobalFoundries, but does not support companies that are developing products to support larger industries. It's almost like everyone is very excited about a new invention, but not particularly excited about developing things that support it.
cooperate. In the capital area, we are really very, very bad in terms of team building. Therefore, usually people with extensive operational or management experience think,'Oh, I want to start a company. I am not sure what I should do. Well, I think my biggest thing is to provide financial advice. So I want to open a consulting company. Well, if you go to a university—whether it’s the University of Albany or RPI University, or the University of Siena, or anywhere else—and say, “Hey, I have a lot of operational experience in management, here you are Is there a company ready to expand? Can I help scale up and work for cash and equity? ...I think that the process of doing this is just a better indicator, because you never want to start a company, everyone repeats it. You want to have a company of people with different skills.
Restaurant work, supporting role. If I choose my favorite location in the Plumb Oyster Bar, it would definitely be washing dishes, because you can really enter an area, you can clean up your plate pits, and make everyone happy. So, if it’s a critical juncture, I might be able to hold any position in Plumb Oyster Bar. But if I have my choice, it is washing dishes. do the washing up. Yeah, of course. ...I think I prefer to be behind the house rather than in front of the house. I think this is actually my personality. Just like when I was in high school, I was a person who did lighting and music for drama. I have never been the one acting on stage. I do think I like supporting roles. (Now, this restaurant has a general manager, and Heidi considers herself a supporting role, handling payroll, hiring and firing, bookkeeping and accounting.)
Why are women@work? For me, Women@Work has always been a supportive community...because the skills needed to make these major (career) changes were not acquired in a vacuum. It’s not like I can read a book on how to leave work and do it with confidence, right? I remember it was like Jennifer MacPhee (former Bank of America) or Georgia Kelly (Merrill Lynch's) Georgia Kelly pulled me aside or gave a speech at breakfast and said, "You know, you can do big things." Women@Work came to me Said it is very important. It's like the voice in your head speaks very well to you. It really gave me a place where people can not only provide advice, but (where) I can imagine my experience through their experience.
Susan Mehalick brings more than 30 years of journalism experience into her dual role at Times Union, where she has been working since 2005. She is the executive editor of Women@Work, a network of women in business and workplaces that publishes magazines. As an editor at City Desk, she works closely with reporters covering education, healthcare, new Americans, and local communities and their governments. You can contact her at smehalick@timesunion.com.