Currently, women make up only about 30 percent of the information and communication technologies (ICT) field in Europe – an industry with about 7 million people (World Economic Forum, 2018). With similar trends across the globe, including the United States where women hold a little over 25 percent of information technology positions (NCWIT, 2018), females currently in the field are jumping into action to positively impact the future of the workforce.
Jabil Joules throughout the globe have taken this as an opportunity to connect and educate others in their communities to help diversify the workforce, and in Kharkiv, Ukraine, one of Jabil Kuatro’s employees is doing just that. Olha Omelianenko, software developer and design engineer, was invited to present at “Women in IT” organized by Hillel, a local technological college. The event featured a panel of women in Ukraine’s ICT community, from development directors to software engineers, who provided inspiring experiences and ideas on how the industry could benefit from more female representation.
Olha shares with the Joules community her thoughts on why it’s important to educate and mentor the next generation of female ICT employees:
How did you start your career?
Olha: Actually, it wasn’t a difficult decision for me because my whole family works in the technology field, so it was a very natural career path. However, not everyone has that source of inspiration. That’s why if someone has even the slightest interest in ICT, I am a proponent of just going for it. For all those women who don’t have that familial connection to the field, I say: don’t be afraid to start. Leave any negativity and stereotypes behind. It isn’t an easy thing, but when you are inspired, you can do a lot with that passion.
What lessons did you learn along the way?
Olha: I read a lot – books, guides, case studies – but I didn’t make a habit of practicing the things I was learning. That was my main mistake, and I still continue to remind myself of that. Practice, practice, practice.
How can women be successful in the field?
Olha: In my opinion, to stay ‘on top of things’ and pursue a successful career in technology, women should take a few things into consideration: One, reflect on the feedback given and when you’re not given any, seek it out. Communicate with your team, mentors and managers. It’s vital for anyone’s career to receive advice and knowledge from others.
That goes into the second point – never stop learning. Knowledge is power, and when you know how the world works – or at least your industry – you’ll be better off and better able to innovate.
You mention mentors, do you have one?
Olha: Yes, my mentor is the team-lead and principal engineer at Jabil Kuatro, Andrii Iakovenko, who always takes the time to offer advice and is committed to helping me develop in my career. He exemplifies how a fair leader acts and provides feedback to help me grow the professional skills I’ll need to be a manager someday.
What advice do you have for students and potential employees?
Olha: Once you’ve set your goals and researched what it takes, set that aside temporarily and begin practicing. Like I mentioned before, that was my biggest mistake – not applying my knowledge to hands-on projects. For students: try to write code for university projects or freelance projects. Creating your own original projects is also a good opportunity to practice your skills. Anything is better than doing nothing.
What advice do you have for Joules around the world?
Olha: Say yes to big and small opportunities, no matter what level employee you are, because it’s a way to promote yourself and work toward the top. It’s okay to face a challenge that is above your abilities because this experience is an opportunity to be inspired to innovate.
Original interview with Daria Bastanzhyieva, communications specialist, Jabil Kuatro.
Last Updated: July 18, 2018 by Jabil Joules Leave a Comment
Jabil and the Girl Scouts of West Central Florida POWER IT UP
Jabil St. Petersburg sponsored the Girl Scouts of West Central Florida’s “POWER IT UP Powered by Jabil,” a week-long summer camp aimed to educate and empower girls 9 – 13 years old to explore careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The event was sponsored by Jabil’s corporate Jabil Cares team, who worked closely with Jabil Vice President of Technology, April Butterfield and her team of design engineers to craft the STEM program curriculum. “April’s team was instrumental in formulating the creative content and presenting to the girls, but I also think the inspiration went both ways,” said Senior Vice President Beth Walters.
During the week, 30 girls learned about a variety of STEM-related subjects, including: solar energy engineering, supply chain, digital technology and more. Jabil employees visited the girls Monday through Thursday at the Girl Scouts Leadership Center, bringing new technologies and creating fun hands-on projects to test their STEM knowledge.
On Friday, Jabil St. Petersburg welcomed the girls to the campus to tour the different facilities and departments. Employees from the manufacturing facility and from the engineering, supply chain and communications departments demonstrated how STEM is applied to a variety of jobs at Jabil.
Ty’ana, a 13-year old Girl Scout who attended the STEM camp and who also excels in math said, “I always thought about a career in STEM especially coding. And after this camp, I think I want to work at Jabil because I saw things I can do with the coding, like 3D printers and holograms and cool stuff like that!”
Another Girl Scout, age 12, learned there are no boundaries when it comes to future technologies. “I like being creative and at the camp, I learned how cool a lot of STEM things are because there aren’t rules to what you can make!”
The employees had fun, too, with many of those who volunteered saying how they learned a lot from the experience: “This was good practice for me to be able to explain technical items in simple terms, which is important when it comes to speaking to a customer who may not know the mechanics of the product,” said Elise Sebak, operations intern.
“This was a great opportunity to educate the next generation on what professions are available and how they can get into them,” said Natasha Holton, site quality manager, who helped guide the Girl Scouts through the St. Petersburg manufacturing facility.
It couldn’t get more rewarding than to hear from Abigail, 12-year old Girl Scout, “I always wanted to be a teacher, but now I think I might want to work here with the cool technology and work with people in other countries.”
The employees who volunteered throughout the week felt as empowered as the Girl Scouts from the experience. “Days like this are inspirational when we get to spend time with kids, to see their interest and have hope for the future. It just cheers you up and reinvigorates you to tackle those problems that have been getting in your way with your projects,” said Michael Coots, design engineer.
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Last Updated: July 11, 2018 by Jabil Joules Leave a Comment
Jabil Kuatro’s Olha Omelianenko Inspires Local College Students
Currently, women make up only about 30 percent of the information and communication technologies (ICT) field in Europe – an industry with about 7 million people (World Economic Forum, 2018). With similar trends across the globe, including the United States where women hold a little over 25 percent of information technology positions (NCWIT, 2018), females currently in the field are jumping into action to positively impact the future of the workforce.
Jabil Joules throughout the globe have taken this as an opportunity to connect and educate others in their communities to help diversify the workforce, and in Kharkiv, Ukraine, one of Jabil Kuatro’s employees is doing just that. Olha Omelianenko, software developer and design engineer, was invited to present at “Women in IT” organized by Hillel, a local technological college. The event featured a panel of women in Ukraine’s ICT community, from development directors to software engineers, who provided inspiring experiences and ideas on how the industry could benefit from more female representation.
Olha shares with the Joules community her thoughts on why it’s important to educate and mentor the next generation of female ICT employees:
How did you start your career?
Olha: Actually, it wasn’t a difficult decision for me because my whole family works in the technology field, so it was a very natural career path. However, not everyone has that source of inspiration. That’s why if someone has even the slightest interest in ICT, I am a proponent of just going for it. For all those women who don’t have that familial connection to the field, I say: don’t be afraid to start. Leave any negativity and stereotypes behind. It isn’t an easy thing, but when you are inspired, you can do a lot with that passion.
What lessons did you learn along the way?
Olha: I read a lot – books, guides, case studies – but I didn’t make a habit of practicing the things I was learning. That was my main mistake, and I still continue to remind myself of that. Practice, practice, practice.
How can women be successful in the field?
Olha: In my opinion, to stay ‘on top of things’ and pursue a successful career in technology, women should take a few things into consideration: One, reflect on the feedback given and when you’re not given any, seek it out. Communicate with your team, mentors and managers. It’s vital for anyone’s career to receive advice and knowledge from others.
That goes into the second point – never stop learning. Knowledge is power, and when you know how the world works – or at least your industry – you’ll be better off and better able to innovate.
You mention mentors, do you have one?
Olha: Yes, my mentor is the team-lead and principal engineer at Jabil Kuatro, Andrii Iakovenko, who always takes the time to offer advice and is committed to helping me develop in my career. He exemplifies how a fair leader acts and provides feedback to help me grow the professional skills I’ll need to be a manager someday.
What advice do you have for students and potential employees?
Olha: Once you’ve set your goals and researched what it takes, set that aside temporarily and begin practicing. Like I mentioned before, that was my biggest mistake – not applying my knowledge to hands-on projects. For students: try to write code for university projects or freelance projects. Creating your own original projects is also a good opportunity to practice your skills. Anything is better than doing nothing.
What advice do you have for Joules around the world?
Olha: Say yes to big and small opportunities, no matter what level employee you are, because it’s a way to promote yourself and work toward the top. It’s okay to face a challenge that is above your abilities because this experience is an opportunity to be inspired to innovate.
Original interview with Daria Bastanzhyieva, communications specialist, Jabil Kuatro.
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Posted: June 27, 2018 by Jabil Joules 1 Comment
Inspiring Others: Ying’s Journey to Director of Business Management
Ying continued to build Jabil’s successful automotive incubation business, adding two more customer accounts to her portfolio and becoming Senior Business Unit Manager just ten years after she joined Jabil. Through her guidance and leadership, Ying brought a total of six new customers to Jabil Huangpu.
Recently promoted to Director of Business Management at Jabil Huangpu, Ying reflects on her journey and attributes her success to the hard work and motivation that she saw from her mentors and leaders.
Mentors
“I do have mentors – and not only one but a few because it’s important to learn from multiple and diverse viewpoints,” she said. Ying characterizes her mentors as inspiring leaders, who care about their employees and motivate them to come up with new, innovative ideas. These are people who have created a collaborative, open workplace for their whole team to succeed together, and it’s the type of leader she strives to be at the Huangpu facility.
Passion for Business
Ying received her Bachelors and Masters degrees in Business Strategy and is currently pursuing her Masters of Business Administration from the China Europe International Business School. In order to educate others, she believes it’s important that she, too, continues learning.
Along with an educational interest in business, Ying also attributes her choice in following a career in business to the examples set by senior leaders and executives at Jabil. She felt a connection to their styles of leadership and wanted to contribute to the inspirational work environment.
“I would attend meetings and listen to leaders like Alessandro Parimbelli and Mike Loparco talk about servant-leadership – a style that promotes sharing the ‘power’ with others, putting others’ needs first and helping employees develop – and realized that I wanted to support a team like that; it’s an empowering way to success,” she shares.
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Last Updated: June 20, 2018 by Jabil Joules Leave a Comment
Leading Diversity and Inclusion Through Talent Acquisition
Author: Peggy Ho, Senior Director of Global Talent Acquisition
Peggy Ho joined Jabil’s Nypro China group as the Senior Human Resources Director in July 2012 and has since been transitioned into Jabil’s Green Point organization, first assuming the Human Resources compliance functions. Then, in 2015, Peggy began leading talent acquisition and reports to Jessica Shyu, vice president of human resources for Jabil Green Point.
Having a tenured career in the human resources field has greatly prepared me for my current role in Jabil’s Green Point division. I’ve leveraged my previous experiences at multinational companies like Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and Bayer to help drive diversity and inclusion in the global talent acquisition department. Throughout my career, I found myself reading articles and reports on diversity and inclusion to learn best practices for ensuring employees’ voices are heard in a corporation.
Diversity and inclusion helps optimize the capability of our workforce by bringing together different perspectives. It also exemplifies Jabil’s culture of understanding, globalization and inclusion, in which people can build a rewarding career. I fully believe it’s important to create an environment where all people are encouraged to draw upon their unique experiences, perspectives and backgrounds to advance the company’s business goals, and I feel honored because in my position at Jabil, I can do just that.
My team is currently in the middle of a campaign to educate leaders to be consciously aware of diversity and inclusion. We held training workshops for hiring managers within Jabil’s Green Point division to create awareness and embed the importance of diversity and inclusion in their thought processes.
The workshops, which include a series of lectures, discussions, case studies and practice sessions, focus on teaching behavioral interviewing skills to help managers uncover unique experiences from the potential new hire. By learning how to ask the right questions, managers can learn how to discover what new skills or viewpoints each candidate can bring to the team.
Based on the responses of pre- and post-training surveys, there was a 68% increased awareness around diversity and inclusion among the hiring managers. My team is extremely proud of the outcomes so far. It’s great to see leaders who are dedicated to establishing an environment for all employees to feel free to use their unique inputs to drive the company toward success.
In order to build an organization with truly diverse talents, it’s important for talent acquisition teams to continue to work closely with leaders to make sure this is a continuous process. When senior leaders model diversity on their own teams and in their own work, it sets the tone for the rest of the company and helps guide everyone down an inclusive path. It’s not a one-off initiative but is something that needs to be carefully reviewed and maintained throughout the life of a company. And my team and I, along with fellow Jabil Joules around the world, are committed to making that happen.
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Last Updated: June 13, 2018 by Jabil Joules 1 Comment
Huangpu Joules Catch Attention of Toastmasters International
Last month, Mohammed Murad, past president of Toastmasters International, visited Jabil Huangpu to lead a workshop on leadership skills aimed to help employees of all levels. Out of the 40 Toastmasters clubs in the Huangpu region, Murad chose to visit the Jabil site because of the club’s commitment to empowering women. Huangpu’s Jabil Joules organization, which consists of 25% male members, is dedicated to diversity, education and equipping members for leadership positions.
Aligning its efforts with a similar organization, Jabil Huangpu’s Joules program also acts as the site’s Toastmasters club. Toastmasters International is a world leader in communication and leadership development, with more than 16,000 clubs in 141 countries. Like the Joules focus areas of Educate and Connect, the Toastmasters organization empowers members to grow in their careers and pursue leadership positions. Also like Joules, the organization is all about progress.
“When Toastmasters started in the United States in 1924, only men were allowed in the organization,” said Mohammed Murad. In a relatively short period of time, the organization has made huge strides in equal opportunity: “The number of women joining the organization progressed to be what it is today, with equal representation of both men and women,” Murad said proudly.
As he continued his workshop with the Joules in Huangpu, Murad discussed ways a company could empower women. “I think there are two things that can happen – one, educate men that women are equally capable, and two, equip the women with the tools and training required for them to taken on leadership positions,” Murad said, describing how the Joules mission of Educate is an important one in the pursuit of leadership.
“The whole world thrives on diversity…”
While a company can help to empower women, there is also a business value to having diverse employees working at the company. “There are a whole lot of ideas and skills that women can bring to a company,” Murad added. He shares how inherently male-characteristics like discipline and competitiveness need to be balanced by more female-associated characteristics like empathy and care for others. “It’s important to emphasize there has to be care, there has to be empathy, and to only look at the numbers or results is not enough.”
He expanded this thought of gender diversity in the workplace by emphasizing the crucial need to match the inclusivity of the world. “The whole world thrives on diversity; we all have connections to other countries. We’re all diverse on the inside, so if we can’t cope with it on the outside, then we’re not fulfilling what we were born to do,” Murad said.
As he faced the crowd of more than 100 hundred Huangpu employees from the shop floor up to management, he emphasized how creativity and teamwork go hand-in-hand in the work environment; success isn’t possible without diversity on a team.
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