Wolverine Trading Inclusion & Diversity

Describe your experience as a woman in engineering. What are some of the challenges you’ve faced and how have you overcome them?
When I was in college, I was often the only woman in my project group, and I had to fight more than I would have liked to work on more than just the surface-level tasks like improving the aesthetic of the UI or creating the PowerPoint. What eventually worked best for me when facing assumptions that I wouldn’t want to work on the core of the project was to speak up and request a larger part. Then, if I was countered with something along the lines of, “You would be better at that job than us,” I would ask why they thought that and push them to vocalize exactly why they held that opinion. 

Since joining Wolverine right out of college, I’ve only ever felt welcomed as a valued member of the team. The positive environment that Wolverine fosters has made me feel that my contributions truly make an impact and has helped me expand my technical knowledge.

What are your professional goals and how has your current company enabled you to pursue them? What career growth resources/opportunities are available?
Since the start of my time at this company, Wolverine has made it easy to pursue my professional goals of enjoying and being challenged by the work that I do, seeing the impact of my changes and being a valued member of a team. I have a say in the work that I take on and contribute to a variety of the different areas that my team is responsible for, so I’m constantly learning something new. I’m also involved in the full lifecycle for new features through the planning, implementation, testing, deployment and monitoring instead of just being a single point on the assembly line. Wolverine also promotes a smooth transition process for interns and new hires with the mentorship program. For the entirety of my internship and the first six months of my time as a full-time employee, another woman at the company was assigned as my mentor. We would get lunch once a month, and it was nice to hear about the path that someone else had taken from their first day to their current position and to have a point of contact with someone outside of my own team.

What advice do you have for women in engineering or other technical roles regarding how to identify a company and team that will support their growth and development?
One thing that has supported me in my current role has been the opportunities to form relationships with other women in the firm through the mentorship program, my team and our Women’s ERG (WOW). Talking with women who have been at Wolverine for several years and have chosen to stay with their teams because they enjoy their work and are achieving their professional goals was reassuring when I first joined. For women entering a technical role, I would encourage them to find opportunities to network with other women within their company. When working in a field where most of the employees are men, it’s especially helpful as someone just joining the company to hear about another woman’s perspective and experience.