Women in Data Centers: Advice for Developing a Career
May 4, 2017
Women can build very successful careers in the data center
arena: That was the message from a panel of women who have
done just that. The panel session, held at Data Center
World, offered tips to help women get ahead in the field.
The good news for women is that organizations now
understand women can be just as effective as men in
technical fields. “It’s no longer a surprise,” said
Ileana
Aquino-Otero, global critical infrastructure engineer,
LinkedIn. She said neither gender nor ethnicity have been
barriers to her. “There’s been generations of people before
me.”
Even if doors to advancement are no longer locked, women
still have to understand the steps that will help them
build their careers. One recommendation was to be willing
to take on new assignments in areas where you don’t have
expertise. “Don’t be afraid of what you don’t know,” said
Cindy Choboian, vice president of business development for
FORTRUST. Choboian herself started out as a broadcast major
in college before getting into global product marketing and
then data centers, so she didn’t have a technical
background to prepare her for the directions her career has
taken. “No one knows everything,” she said, pointing out
that on the job training is common.
Even after you develop expertise in a specific area, “don’t
pigeonhole yourself,” said
Cindy Joos, regional director —
west,
CenturyLink. Joos has an IT related degree, but she
has also experience on the mechanical-electrical side of
data centers. While that wasn’t her background, she brought
leadership skills that the organization needed in the
mechanical-electrical area.
A willingness to speak up is important for moving ahead.
“Don’t be afraid to toot your own horn,” said
Carrie Goetz,
global director of technology,
Paige DataCom Solutions.
Speaking up can also help if your career runs into a
roadblock. “It’s usually one person,” Goetz said. Her
advice was to talk to others in the organization and make
sure they know what you’re achieving.
While career development requires a certain amount of savvy
in dealing with the rest of the organization, it’s
important to look inward as well. “Find out what your
passion is,” Aquino-Otero said. Her passion is
sustainability, but she didn’t know that coming into the
data center field. Only when she had the opportunity to
work on sustainability did she recognize it as her passion.
This Quick Read was submitted by Edward Sullivan, editor of Building Operating Management magazine,
edward.sullivan@tradepress.com.
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