From Paralegal to Platform: Finding My Second Act in ServiceNow

If you told me a few years ago that I’d go from drafting legal documents to writing JavaScript, I probably would’ve laughed. My career began in law, where I spent more than fifteen years as a paralegal. I loved the challenge, the structure, and the problem-solving. But deep down, I knew something was missing. I just didn’t know what that “something” was yet.

The Moment Everything Changed

In 2019, I was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Within months, I had brain surgery, followed by radiation and chemotherapy. When I woke up from surgery, I was partially paralyzed on my right side. I couldn’t walk, write, or use my right arm. I spent weeks in inpatient rehab learning how to walk again and retrain my body to do things that used to be second nature.

It was during the height of COVID, when everything felt uncertain. I was trying to heal, relearn basic movements, and help my three kids with remote school, all while keeping life as normal as possible for my family.

It was one of the hardest seasons of my life. There were days when getting out of bed felt like an achievement. But somewhere between the hospital visits and long nights of worry, I made a promise to myself. If I got through this, I would use my second chance to build something new.

A New Beginning in Tech

During recovery, I found myself drawn to technology. In every legal job I’d ever had, I was the “fixer” who organized processes, created templates, and found faster ways to get things done. That curiosity turned into determination when I decided to enroll in a full-time software engineering bootcamp.

It was forty hours a week of classes plus late nights filled with homework and projects. I was going through chemo and helping my kids with e-learning at the same time. It was exhausting and messy, but I was learning to code while rebuilding my life.

After graduating, I started my front-end engineering career at a few startups. I loved bringing ideas to life through code. Then, in December 2022, everything shifted. I joined a startup that was building something bold, a marketing app that would sit on top of ServiceNow.

Discovering ServiceNow

That’s where my ServiceNow journey began. The company’s vision was ambitious: create an entirely new app for marketers that integrated with ServiceNow, built entirely with custom components and assembled in UI Builder. I was hooked immediately. Those first months were intense. I learned Seismic, dove deep into how ServiceNow worked, and quickly became part of a small team pushing creative boundaries. Over time, I grew into a Senior UI Developer, mentoring interns and new hires, presenting in meetings, and helping shape the app’s foundation.

In those two and a half years, I attended Knowledge three times, spoke at two conferences, joined the Indiana SNUG community, and earned my CSA and CAD certifications. That experience didn’t just teach me ServiceNow, it gave me a sense of purpose I hadn’t felt since before my diagnosis.

Then came the layoff. The company went through a round of cuts, and I was one of them. It completely broke me. I had poured so much into that role and suddenly I was lost. Do I go back to front-end engineering outside of ServiceNow, or do I go deeper into the platform I’d grown to love?

For a while, my confidence was gone. But eventually, I realized that the same strength that got me through surgery, radiation and chemo was still there. The ServiceNow community had become such a big part of my life, and I wasn’t ready to walk away from it. So, I went all in.

I stepped into a full ServiceNow Developer role, working in consulting. And in the most full-circle way possible, I found myself helping a law firm with its ITSM needs on the platform. The same world I had once worked in as a paralegal became the foundation for my next chapter in tech. Everything had come together the law, the code, and the resilience I had built along the way.

Balancing Family, Healing, and Growth

Building a new career while raising three kids and recovering from a major illness wasn’t simple. There were moments of doubt, exhaustion, and imposter syndrome. But I had something stronger purpose. My kids watched me rebuild, learn, and start over. My husband supported me through every setback and reminded me how far I had already come.

Over time, I found my place again as a ServiceNow Developer, using everything I had learned from law, front-end development, and life itself. Today, I’m proud to contribute to WomenNow and share stories like this one. Because resilience isn’t only about surviving it’s about choosing to grow when the world tells you to stand still.

Looking Back and Forward

When I look back, I see a woman who refused to give up. A paralegal turned developer. A patient turned fighter. A mom who rebuilt her life from the ground up.

ServiceNow didn’t just give me a career. It gave me a platform for creativity, community, and purpose. And most of all, it gave me the chance to show my kids that even the hardest chapters can lead to something extraordinary.

“I didn’t just survive. I rebuilt. And I found my future in ServiceNow.”