Have you ever had to face a roadblock that you really had to just grab yourself and be like, okay, we can do this? &gt;&gt; As a woman in technology, when I go into the room, I'm never really told mm, she's probably gonna be really technical and really smart about the things she's gonna do. I get second guessed, I've been told by many managers, even, you will never be successful in technology. You should do diversity inclusion, you should do HR you should do Hispanic things. It's not people that know my work, it's just the way that I look that doesn't necessarily fit the mold or the role model. By knowing what the issue is within our community, I can then say, am I being part of the problem, we're part of the solution? And how can I become part of the solution not just for myself but for other people. So, I've learned to connect with different people, so that we come up off as a team, so if I see somebody else having the same experience I said, hey listen, I really liked your idea. And next time I'm gonna speak up on that idea and say, hey, Rachael did this and said it three times already, let's listen to her. So I do that, that kind of partnering. &gt;&gt; Yeah, that's great. &gt;&gt; Yeah. If you look at it in the gamut of things, I think that there is a lack of confidence in a lot of people. And when you don't look like everybody else, you have more of a deficiency in terms of that confidence level. That energy feeds you and you start behaving like you matter less or you start making decisions like well, I got this job, it only pays $20 an hour, but I should take it, because you don't really know your own value and your own worth. I'm really extremely passionate about making sure that we have a higher level of confidence and know what we're really good at, in bringing like your whole self to work. With all of your experiences in all your background and you're able to relate to a lot more people and I think that's extremely important. 

If you haven’t figured out what your passion is yet, make a point to try a lot of different things to see if any of them really spark your interest. Take note of the things you spend your free time doing and which things you gravitate towards when you’re stressed to try and figure out what you could be happy doing as a career.

As a child, I witnessed the immense stress that my mother had due to her finances. She would even struggle to buy food. I decided to become a career woman and really manage my finances in order to avoid that same stress.

I came to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic when I was 12 and didn't take classes in English until I was a junior in high school. I was very uncomfortable with English as a second language and ultimately steered away from majors heavy in it.

I was bullied in school because I didn't look like everyone else. I was an immigrant, overweight, and didn't fit in. I became depressed and wouldn't even go to the lunch room. I eventually decided that I needed to just push through and move forward.

My family are immigrants and I'm the first to go to college. They didn't understand dorms or going away to college, so I had to stay close to home. They also couldn't advise me when I struggled because they didn't know what it was like.

I have faced a lot of doubt and criticism as a female in the technology field. A lot of people assume that women can't be successful in technology. I worked hard to prove them wrong and try my best to help other women facing that discrimination too.

I manage a team of 1 (myself) in process improvement initiatives to either save money or time. I use technology to create new models, functions, and tools that more teams can continue to use in the future to improve our processes. My day-to-day responsibilities include utilizing technology and speaking to people.

Vice President of Global Technology, Engineering & Operations

You will never be successful in technology. You should do diversity inclusion or HR instead.

Confidence

Negativity

Support & Encouragement

Confidence In The Workplace

What did your mom think of it, of your career? Once you're like, hey mom, I'm gonna go do mining. &gt;&gt; [LAUGH] Yeah, that's what every daughter [LAUGH] dreams of. Even up until today, she's still gets nervous. But she knows her child, my parents know that I'm the adventurous type and I'm very risk-driven in some way, which is not always the best. But yeah, just at this point they're just like, we'll pray for you and good luck. &gt;&gt; [LAUGH] &gt;&gt; That's where they're at in life right now with me. She definitely was surprised for sure, regarding me going into mining. Because it's a predominantly male industry as well. The impostor syndrome is something that women in STEMs struggle with a lot. And just women in fields that are predominantly male, the imposter syndrome like, I don't deserve to be here. Someone else is smarter than me. Someone else knows this more than me, and someone's better in some ways than me. So, don't let the imposter syndrome affect you in any way saying that, no, I don't deserve this in any way. But say, I belong here, and I'm gonna make the most out of it. Someone needs me here. Own your spot. Own where ever you are and keep growing. Keep learning and just be confident in where ever you are and ask lots of questions. Continually stay humble in every way possible. 

Go into every experience ready and eager to learn from others. Ask questions of everyone who works around you—even those who don't work directly in the same field. If you want to be a mining engineer, try to pursue your education and gain the experience you need without going into debt. Try your best to find affordable options to break into the field.

I started on the civil engineering path but didn't enjoy it, so I switched to mining engineering. Because I transferred into mining late, I took on internships to gain more experience quickly.

My background is in mining engineering but I got this opportunity to work as an environmental engineer. I doubted my ability to do it but took on the opportunity anyway to grow into a more well-rounded professional.

I've learned to be fearless when no one looks like me. I know who I am and am proud of my skin. It's rewarding to persevere and be the first to accomplish your goals against the odds. Stick to your morals and values and always maintain integrity.

As a woman in a male-dominated industry, I've learned to be persistent and not let anyone take away my voice. If an opportunity doesn't already exist for me, I'm determined to create it myself.

Every day is different. A day could entail ensuring that a petroleum contaminated spill on ground is cleaned, reported, and in compliance with environmental regulations. It could also include hours of creating quarterly or annual reports for mine areas to be in compliance with state water pollution control permits. Some days are occupied with interacting with operations and maintenance personnel through individual engagements or training at safety meetings to be environmentally-responsible.

Environmental Engineer

You lack direction and are doing too many things at the same time.

Doubt

Dealing With The Noise And Imposter Syndrome

As a woman who has been through engineering what are the kind of issues that you face and how have you overcome them? And how does it feel to like be that woman in charge but also like kind of have that feeling of like isolation, like how did you deal with that? &gt;&gt; It's not always just being a woman in a very male dominated field. Everyone right, has a place where they're the minority or they're the outcast and it's yeah something that's always evolving. Sometimes I'll be sitting in a meeting with 40 people and I realize I'm the only woman and it's like. I have as I've gotten older, cared less and less about that and I think have the confidence and have had the success to just be able to be like, whatever, like, that's not a thing anymore. Like, I'm not worried about this thing. But it was super hard when I was in school though, like it's a big challenge to be noticed as an outcast, right? Like, it's obvious. It's not one of those things where it's like, no one cares, I was like well people have to care, right? There's inherent bias. And it's super difficult. You have to work super hard and you just yeah have to kind of create that own confidence to be successful. It takes a lot of self assurance I think and it takes where possible other people to help you who are gong through some of the same challenges to kind of build that foundation. And then once you have that self assurance that this is okay. I feel like it's a little bit easier, but it's really hard to get that. It's like a much easier thing to say than to do. &gt;&gt; You mentioned like, okay, sometimes you'll go into the meeting and you're the only woman there. But in terms of diversity of thought, when do you know to speak out? When are you like, okay, maybe I'm the only person that's seeing this. &gt;&gt; Always speak out. Always speak out. Yeah, I think one of the things that I've learned is it's always good to speak up, but it is always good to not seem victimized when you are speaking up. It's one of those things where you have to be really careful about how you phrase stuff and you don't want to ever sound like you're accusing people. Even if it's right, even if it's not I feel uncomfortable with this thing or something like that. I tend to fix people's pronouns a lot when they assume that engineers are men. Like, we really need to hire this new engineering manager or something. And then they'll refer to this person, this unhired person as he. I'm like nope, not necessarily a he. I just want you to know that right, so those kinds of things but even if it's just like hey, I think that you guys are going in the wrong direction on this idea. It's not like that's a terrible idea, right? It's like hey, I think that maybe you should think about this way or is there some information that I don't have here that you guys are basing this off of? Always speak up, but try not to make it accusatory. People work with you a lot better that way. 

Intern at a lot of different places. It's really important to try to figure out what parts of a job or field you like and what parts you don't like. You can only really do that by trying it and gaining that hands-on experience.

I work in a male-dominated field and was often the only female in my classes. It would get hard because I'd feel like an outcast and was conscious of the biases. I worked hard to gain confidence and self-assurance and don't let it bother me anymore.

I take care of the overall design, layout, and expansion of the factory. That involves working with manufacturing engineers who manage the design of production lines to figure out the most optimal way to layout those lines for production. As a senior industrial engineer, I'm in more of a management role. A lot of my time is devoted to leading my team by breaking down barriers and empowering them to do their jobs successfully. I also spend some time working with spreadsheets and writing code.

Senior Industrial Engineer

Why did you move away from home to go work in a trailer in the middle of the desert? That's crazy!

Hard Work

Being A Woman In The Engineering Field

There's a thing called imposter syndrome, where we all feel that no matter how much of an expert we actually are in something, that we're not good enough. And part of that is because we're just simply human unless you're a narcissist, or a psychopath, or sociopath. You're going to feel that, it's human to feel that. And I think women feel more acutely because we're told that will be vain if we feel confident in ourselves. So we have to overcome that to get more confidence. And even the women that are confident on the outside, we still feel it, and I think we feel it more. Because like we have to present ourselves as super confident and then we go home and we're like, my god I feel so vain. I feel so awful, because all day like people we're looking at me and now people are looking at me. So the best advice I was given for that was ignore it, whether they're looking at you because they like you or they're looking at you because they hate you. Just ignore it and look inside yourself. And if you know that you're doing okay, if you know that you're doing what's right for you, then that's all you can do. 

If you think you're interested in pursuing technology, science, and design, I recommend you start reading science fiction to try and figure out which lane interests you most so that you can start your pursuit.

I dreamed of being an astronaut and was told I could be anything I wanted. But I found out I had physical limitations that excluded me. It was a terrible blow and the depression that followed required help from a psychologist to get back on course.

While following my path, I found myself in getting deeper and deeper into debt. I was too stubborn to ask for help from anyone, which made me feel isolated and alone. I had to become extremely resourceful to pull out of it but I managed to do it!

At one point on our careers, my husband and I realized we weren't happy working in our offices in a big city anymore. So, we left to help co-found a startup and were able to work remotely while living on a sailboat and an RV.

Strategic Innovation Officer

Dealing With Imposter Syndrome As A Woman

To any young woman that is considering a job in information security, but is unsure if she'll be able to succeed in this field because it is primarily dominated by men. I would just challenge you to not let that hold you back. Because there are a lot of other fields that are dominated by men, and you will have to face this problem in other areas of expertise. So don't let other people scare you from pursuing something that you're interested in because you feel like you won't fit in. 

2016 NSF
Worked at SunTrust when interviewed

Check out schools that offer information security programs. Explore the classes they offer and try to decide if they seem like classes you'd be interested in. Not all programs are the same—some could be heavy in coding while others are heavy in business. It's important to try to evaluate if you want to pursue more on the technical side or the business side and then look into the schools with programs that align with your interests and values.

I came from a broken home in a struggling community that didn't really see its members go to college and succeed. It instilled a fear of failure in me, but I always used that as motivation to succeed.

I work in a field that is dominated by men. Society also portrays women in this field as awkward and undesirable, but I have first-hand knowledge that that is a myth. I strive to prove people wrong.

I didn't have the financial ability to afford college after high school. I ended up joining the military, which not only gave me a paycheck, but it also gave me the time to figure out what I wanted to do in life.

After becoming disabled in the military, I was honorably discharged and had to transition back into regular life. The transition took some time and could get difficult as I essentially learned how to be me again.

I suffer from a few disabilities and was honorably discharged from the military. One that still affects my current work life is migraines. I sometimes have to struggle through meetings with one. Fortunately, my work teams have all been accommodating.

Senior Cybersecurity Assurance Analyst

Information security is for men and all of the women who work in the field are nerdy and awkward.

Societal Pressures

Being A Woman In A Male-Dominated Field

What did you tell yourself when people would like to tell you that you can't do it, or something like how would you deal with that so you didn't believe them so that you kept going and trying to achieve it? &gt;&gt; I mean, I think one of my superpowers is kind of seeing something that I wanna make happen and holding on to it even when it feels big and pretty hard to make happen. And there's something about that that I think is really motivating for me. The way my brain is wired, I'm kind of like, you're telling me I can't do it? I'm doing it, that is just how I respond to that kind of feedback- &gt;&gt; It's like kinda wanna prove them wrong. &gt;&gt; Exactly, exactly, I remember I'm not like a super athlete. And a friend of mine asked me if I would do this bike ride in Massachusetts. It's like a two-day bike ride, it goes about 180 miles. It's a huge physical challenge for me, it's called the Pan-Mass Challenge. And so this friend of mine asked me to do it, and I was like thinking about it. I talked to my husband and I was like, I think I'm gonna do the Pan-Mass Challenge this August. And he was like, this August? You could tell he was thinking like there's no way you can get in shape to do the Pan-Mass Challenge by August. And I was like, yes, this August, I'm doing the Pan-Mass Challenge. &gt;&gt; [LAUGH] &gt;&gt; So it's just something like that triggers for me like I'm actually, yeah, I'm gonna do it. 

Put effort into building your interpersonal, critical thinking, and communication skills while in college. You'll need those skills to navigate the world successfully. As far as majors go, my law degree has given me a lot of opportunities and extra knowledge, but it's not necessary to go to law school to make positive change in the world.

It was a huge expectation in my family that I would go to college and use my education to do something to make the world better. It was never just an option or even a conversation in my family.

I wanted to be a doctor but was discouraged by the difficulty of O-chem. I was taking history at the same time and loved it, so I took that path instead. It worked out because I gained valuable critical thinking skills that have helped a lot.

After law school, I worked at a big law firm but hated it. I felt like I was always on the wrong side of every issue I was working on. When I moved onto a smaller consulting firm, I saw that there are other ways to create change outside of law.

I'm the principal of an organization that works with companies to change their talent practices to be more inclusive of young people who might not have finished college or have gone through other hardships in life. We work to make sure companies aren't overlooking people who could be great employees but don't fit the company's traditional employee profile.

Principal

Responding To Negative Feedback With Confidence

Every move I've made, I've always leveraged mentors and coaches. And you get formally assigned mentors and coaches in our environment, but you build relationships outside of that. So I leveraged both, and it was different people probably for every move to a certain extent. And they can't make a decision for you, and that's not what you want them to do. But to help you think through why you're might make that decision, what are the pros or the cons, what are you trying to accomplish. And then there is a little bit of gut and saying, I might not know exactly what the future holds if I go down this path, but I'm interested enough to figure it out. And I'm confident enough to know that if it doesn't work, it's not the end of the world, right? You can make a change and you don't have all of the answers right now and you don't have to unlike where your career is gonna go and what you're gonna be and what you're gonna do. This is not what I would have ever envisioned when I started with the firm, so you just don't know what's gonna come up and what you're gonna end up enjoying in my first move. I thought it back in my mind, I'd go back to client service. I knew that would be an option for me if I needed to pull that trigger. And so understanding and being comfortable with the fact that none of the decisions you made have to be lifelong decisions, it might be. It might be what you decide to do for the remainder of your career, but they don't have to be that. 

Network and get to know people at all levels in this field.

Working in corporate America and balancing my family responsibilities can get hard, but communication is key. I make an effort to really explain to my daughters if I can't be there and try to commit myself fully to them when I am able to be present.

I'm at the head of PwC's hiring across the U.S. and Mexico, from intern to director. That's about 15,000 people per year! I lead a team of about 400 people doing on-the-ground recruitment. I work closely with U.S. firm leadership, faculty relationship partners, market leaders, and recruitment teams to design and execute our recruitment strategy. I build sustainable competitive advantage in attracting top talent through recruiting programs, social and digital media, and brand-setting activities.

U.S. Recruitment Leader

Work should be your main priority if you want to be successful.

Choices

Talk To Mentors And Trust Your Gut

Every milestone, take a step back and live in that moment. No matter how big or how small it maybe, but every win is still a win. So when you reach a new milestone, take it in and recognize that means that you are better than you were. Like you have something to offer, you are a value. You are there for a reason, they hired you for a reason so you have something to offer. And just standing in there confidence and realizing like you bring something to the table just like everyone else does. As long as you're working hard for it, continue to do your research to stay on top of things, like I know. You can find yourself in so many different industries. I've worked with not just the banking and capital markets industry, but I've worked with our wealth and asset management industry and our insurance industry. I was only able to work in those different industries because I continue to learn, I continue to grow. I continue to be a sponge. Whatever learning opportunities came up in the firm, I was jumping on it to learn something new. So from there I had something to offer, to bring to the table. And I continue to make myself an invaluable asset. And so once you do that, just stand in that confidence and know that all the preparations that you've done and everything that you've done to get here, it's gonna pay off and as long as you prepare for it you will be okay. 

Network, network, network! Talk to as many people as possible in the field to get an idea of whether or not this is really something you want to do for a living. Also, by networking, you may meet someone who can help you get into a company you are interested in working for.

I grew up in foster care and moved from house to house since age four. It was challenging but I was determined to work towards my goals and not become another statistic.

Growing up in foster care, money was always an issue. One reason I chose to pursue accounting is because it will always lead to stable jobs no matter how bad the economy is. I practice financial discipline so I’m never struggling financially again.

It's easy to fall into the mindset that I'm going to fail because of my past and the nature of my industry, but I work hard to maintain positive self talk. I also go to therapy to help me deal with my past in a healthy way.

A typical day for me means meeting with my clients for updates on how the projects are going and evaluating if there is anything we could do better. I work with my team to figure out how to meet clients' needs. Some days, I'll take a call internally to learn something new at work.

FSO Financial and Accounting Advisory Services Senior

You're not good enough and you should give up on your dreams.

Confidence

Confidence In The Workplace

Confidence In The Workplace

Iris Otano

255 videos on Confidence: