04:05 INTERVIEW
GPA: Tell us, how did you get involved with payroll? Jen Cozier: Well, I see hard stuff as opportunity, and payroll has a level of complexity to it that intimidates some people. When I was in high school, I was not the swiftest on the track, but I still wanted to participate in the track meet, and no one else had signed up to run the hurdles, which is perceived as one of the trickier running events. So, while I had never done that before, I decided to go for it, and I ended up having a lot of success. This has become a theme of my life: that the harder or the more complicated it is, the more I’m interested in it, because I think I can be up to the challenge. My first experience with payroll came through ADP, while I was in Chicago. I started in
implementation, which was a very good way to learn about all things payroll. My role quickly expanded to include servicing and then customer training. I progressed into doing internal training and became a sales solution consultant—you know, one of those people who does the demos and the business analysis. Then I moved into product management. While I started in payroll, as the company branched out, I worked in HR, talent, recruiting, and benefits. GPA: What came next? . Jen Cozier: I moved to a group that started out providing for payroll an all-in-one unified approach. Everybody was on the same version, which at the time was pretty revolutionary. After some time with them, and reflecting now, I became a little bit burnt out on payroll at the time. I consulted a career coach and ended up with another firm that did accounting back- office software. While you could say some of it was related to payroll, the day-to-day was completely different. Those were big learning years because I had to really rely on being a good product manager and those
This has become a theme of my life: that the harder or the more complicated it is, the more I’m interested in it, because I think I can be up to the challenge.
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GLOBAL PAYROLL MAGAZINE ISSUE 25
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