Kristine Delgado - Roadtrip Nation

Milestones

My road in life took a while to figure out.

First I did not know what I wanted to major in, but I knew I liked math.

Then I heard engineering needed more girls, it was a challenging major, and you could get a good job.

Then I got good grades so I could get an engineering internship and see what engineers do.

Then I went to a lot of career fairs and found a job in technical project management at AT&T.

Keep following my journey

Education

High School

Bachelor
Mechanical Engineering
University of California-Los Angeles

Career

Technical Project Manager

I improve the coverage and capacity of AT&T's mobility network.

Career Roadmap

My work combines:

Technology

Numbers

Working Independently

Day to Day

I manage projects by hosting conference calls to discuss roadblocks with other team members. I use Excel to make graphs and charts that tell a story about whether we progressing fast enough to meet our final goal. I make presentations for upper management so they know how well each team is performing and so they can help if a team is struggling.

Skills & Qualities Beyond School

Self discipline is very important if you are an individual contributor. When you are not working in a big team, it's up to you to set timelines for yourself to get each part of the project done. If you are not used to talking on the phone it is good to practice. I almost never called anyone so leading a call with 40 other people on the line was intimidating at first. There are often many projects and deadlines that you're working on at once, so it's also important to stay organized.

Advice for Getting Started

Here's the first step for high school students

Take as many math, physics, and chemistry AP classes as you can. You will cover a lot of the same material your freshman year of college and it helps if it is not your first time seeing it.

Recommended Education

My career is related to what I studied. I'd recommend the path I took:

Bachelor
Mechanical Engineering

Hurdles

The Noise I Shed

From Myself:

"Being one of the three girls in a class of 50 guys, sometimes I would feel intimidated and think "All of the guys here are smarter than me. I don't belong here.""

Challenges I Overcame

Financial

Engineers Don't Look Like Me