By the virtue of its very nature STEM invokes curiosity and forces you to take a more objective approach towards making decisions. Being a woman in STEM, you are able to strike that balance between your left and right brains much to your advantage at work. You are able to question the status quo and celebrate small achievements helping your team be engaged and motivated to do better. In my teams, I’ve focused on developing a culture of learning where you try to fail fast and cheap. Nobody is perfect but we can strive to be!
- Tanu Aggarwal (MSE-IOE '12)

 

One of the biggest realizations I had was that even though I was strong in my knowledge base, I was always giving in to the people around me. I would apologize for second-guessing facts when I knew they were wrong, or allow other people to speak on my behalf when it was my project being asked about. The biggest change I had to make was to ensure that I learned to keep my positive energy, and not to diminish that just to build someone up. It sounds cliche and simple, but really the only thing I changed was language, saying “thanks for understanding” instead of “sorry” and really requesting someone to give further background or more details when I thought something didn’t feel right, rather than waiting and following up later on. I’ve found that these two small changes have really increased my reputation as a leader and increased the respect that my teammates were giving me.

How have mentors influenced your career?

Mentors have helped to challenge me and give me the confidence to move into positions that would have otherwise seemed unachievable. The best advice that I have received from a mentor was this - If I feel pretty comfortable and confident moving into a new position, I probably waited too long to make the move.
- Samantha Jarema (EGL BSE/MSE IOE '07)

Mentors have been a big part of my career. Given the variety of industries I worked in, my mentors have always been my sounding board to help me decipher how the opportunity at hand will fit into my career progression. They’ve helped me to not only decide what to do but also rule out the things I do not want to do. Some of them are Tauber veterans who would always go an extra mile in providing you the right information, resources and motivation.
- Tanu Aggarwal (MSE-IOE '12)

My first role at Amazon I had a female manager who was on maternity leave. She came back to the office after my 3 month anniversary and it was the coolest thing I’d ever seen. She hit the ground running and seemed to pick up right where she left off. People respected her and she always had an air of being calm and knowing what was going on. Over the few years she managed me, I had a few moments where I thought that I was just not cut out for the fast-paced tech world, and she encouraged me to do research, find a new project, or make one of my own to work on. With her help, I created an entirely new role for myself in the team, and was happier than ever. I have since moved to a new role but I still go back and ask for her advice whenever I have to make a hard career decision because I think she truly had my best interests at heart. I still admire her ability to be a manager and realize sometimes all someone really needs is support to find how they shine; I aspire to be the person she was for me to someone else one day.
- Lauren Fitzpatrick (EGL BSE/MSE IOE '16)

Risibility is one’s “readiness to laugh." The best piece of advice I’ve ever gotten [from a mentor] is to never forget the ability to laugh. This skill is especially valuable when working in high paced environments where emotions are running high and situations can and do get tense. I find this to be a very powerful quality as it enables me to get a lighter perspective on the situation and power through challenges without getting bogged down by things that are not going my way, and work on them until they are.
- Tasha Mangaldas (MSE-Materials Science '16)

How do you think men can best support women in the engineering industry?

I think a big one is not making decisions for us because of what they "think" we want... for example, being passed over for a role requiring a lot of travel because [they think] the women might have a family/want to be at home... and giving the women in their group a voice/seat at the table. It isn’t just engineering either, consulting is a terrible offender as well! I think this, and not having to constantly prove yourself because you're a woman in a male-dominated profession are the main things I hope improve for women.
- Divya Parambi (MBA & MSE-Manufacturing '11)

I think that we can all support diverse groups of people in the workplace by encouraging everyone to speak and participate in conversations, and then actively listening and reacting when they do speak. I also think that we could all do a better job of self-reflecting on our personal internal biases and check ourselves on a daily basis. It is often our internal biases that stop us from listening and shut people down.
I hope that future generations of women are able to say what they are thinking without having to worry about “having the wrong tone” or “sounding too aggressive.” I do see this improving, but I do not think that we are where we need to be in all STEM positions. I will also be happy when women are judged on what they wear the same way that men are judged, which is almost not at all!
- Samantha Jarema (EGL BSE/MSE IOE '07)

[Men] do not need to. Both men and women are independent beings and should be able to perform based on their respective abilities. They should support each other as any colleague should.
I am a strong believer in meritocracy. That means people who deserve to succeed should succeed irrespective of what gender they belong to. Yes, women have been traditionally outnumbered by men in most industries but progressive organizations have been making a conscious effort to include diversity in their workforce. STEM women representation in the industry has been better than ever before because of the skills they bring to the table. Utopia will be when we do not have to talk about a world of women specifically.
- Tanu Aggarwal (MSE-IOE '12)