When I travel internationally, I always state on the immigration form that my occupation is Engineer, something I learned from my business partner. It is a respected profession worldwide, and often admired by the immigration officer considering my gender. The fact that I attended University of Michigan’s College of Engineering and earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering is somewhat accidental. I was the first in my family to attend college, was good in math and science and it was a discipline that almost guaranteed employment upon graduation, no graduate school immediately necessary. My grandfathers both worked for the Big 3 (GM and Chrysler) and so engineering just made sense. It turns out that I liked the Mechanical Engineering classes during my first year better than any of the other disciplines. So, that was somewhat accidental, as well.
The point is, my entire career, educational and professional, is as much a result of good luck as hard work. Between my 3rd and 4th year of college, I was fortunate to meet a production manager working for Ford, launching the new Romeo Engine Plant. At his suggestion, I applied for and landed an internship and, again, was fortunate enough to work with a process engineer and a toolmaker who both wanted to teach someone who was eager to learn “real engineering,” which isn’t necessarily what is taught in school. That summer, I was exposed to the first powdered metal connecting rods. When Ford ceased their internship program the following year, I again had the good fortune to be recruited by GM Powertrain, specifically the Livonia Engine Plant, where they were launching the Northstar engine designed with, you guessed it, powdered metal connecting rods. It was a different process, mechanical vs. hydraulic, and, again, I was lucky enough to work for a production manager and process engineer who both wanted teach someone who was eager to learn.
Ok, now the short version of the rest of the story…. I worked for GM until 1994 with increasing responsibility in process engineering and vehicle validation. I left because I spent the last year without anyone really mentoring me. I went to work for Allied Signal Safety Restraint Systems where I worked for a manager (Don Luther, God rest his soul) who didn’t necessarily teach and mentor but allowed me the freedom to apply what I knew, sometimes learning from trying new things and failing, and sometimes learning by teaching others, including him. Within 6 months of working for them, they announced their Operational Excellence® initiative and that the company would be launching Six Sigma training. Anyone who wanted to advance needed become a Black Belt. This was December 1994 and you can only imagine the chuckles that announcement generated. I participated in the 2nd wave of Black Belt training. Again, I was lucky enough to be trained by a person who was excited to teach someone who was eager to learn. As it turns out, I fell in love with my instructor (how cliché) and married him in 2002. Before that, I departed Allied Signal during Bossidy’s selling off of the automotive sector and launched my consulting career. At the time, I considered it a bridge.
Well, I’m still on the bridge and it’s been a great journey. I have had the good fortune to teach and learn from some really smart, motivated people in a variety of industries including automotive, aerospace, chemical, consumer products, medical devices, electronics, and capital equipment, to name a few. I have had the opportunity to learn about industrial processes like plastic injection molding, blow molding, extrusion, compounding, metal stamping, heat treating, all types of casting and forging, as well as business processes like marketing, forecasting, data transformation, and finance. The best part is, I continue to encounter people willing to teach someone who is eager to learn and eager to learn from someone who loves to teach!
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