Elaine Wilder
Interview Posted By: Ashley Smith
1. Can you tell us a little about your background? i.e. Where you grew up, what education do you have, a summary of your resume, did you always want to do what you are doing now, when did you start to become interested in STEM, what internships/ volunteering
2. What exactly IS your job? What do you do on a day to day basis?
3. How does STEM relate to your job?How do you use the information you learned from your degree in your job?
4. Have you faced any discrimination/ challenges being a woman in a stem field? If so, how did you deal with it? Do you have any advice for up and coming women in STEM?
5. What is the best and worst part of your job? What do you look forward to in your job on a day to day basis? What do you wish you could change?
6. How do you balance your work and personal life? Any secrets or advice you’d like to share?
7. What do you define success as?
8. What is one personality trait that you think is universally important for a successful career?
9. Who was a mentor to you throughout your career? (can be more than one!) What did they teach you? How did they impact your life?
10. What do you think is the best advice you've ever received ? What advice would you give your younger self if you had the chance? What’s one piece of advice you can pass on to us?
- I grew up in a small town in Maine. I lived in Norridgewock, a farming community, until I was 10 years old and then moved to a slightly larger town, Madison, ME where I lived the next 40 years.
- I graduated high school as my Class President and got my Associates Degree in Business Management from Casco Bay College in 1979. 16 years later I got my Bachelor’s Degree in Professional Studies from Thomas College in Waterville, ME. I attended night and summer school while working to get that degree.
- It’s pretty unusual that I have had only 2 jobs my entire adult career. I worked all through high school and college and started working in 1984 for Warnaco as a clerk. I worked there for 11 years, losing my job in a massive staff reduction by the parent company. The job loss was devastating and I rebounded by going back to college to finish my degree. My second job was at a small software company in Skowhegan, ME. That company, OHR, was acquired by PureSafety in Franklin, TN and PureSafety was acquired by UL all in 2011. I went for working for a company of 75 people to working for a company of 9500 people in 11 months. I love the jobs I have had working in a busy office setting.
- I became interested in STEM back in 2012 when I attended my first Robotics Competition in St. Louis. I am a mentor on Team 180 in Florida and on Team 4306 in Franklin, TN. I am also the Employee Recruitment and Engagement Officer for UL in our relationship with FIRST. We send 2 employees to every competition in the United States and Mexico.
2. What exactly IS your job? What do you do on a day to day basis?
- My title is Senior Project Specialist. I do purchasing and licensing for our IT department. We are a software company and we host client data in our data centers. This means lots of servers, storage, software and maintenance for me to track and purchase. I work in a male dominated field. There are 20 employees in my department and only 2 women.
- On a day to day basis I am responsible for all purchases from our $3.5M budget. I am also heavily involved in our local Corporate Social Responsibility activities. Last week we built a house with Habitat for Humanity, Saturday we volunteered at a Girls on the Run 5K and right now I’m scheduling appointments for our Quarterly blood drive.
3. How does STEM relate to your job?How do you use the information you learned from your degree in your job?
- My job is very Math based. Everything I do from prepare the Budget template to purchasing support for a server involves math. In high school I liked Algebra and Geometry OK, but I LOVED accounting. I spent my junior and senior years doing studying accounting year round (yes, that includes my summers!). As much as I loved accounting, I did not want to be an accountant. I just wanted to work with numbers in whatever career I found.
- My associates degree was in business management so I used all of what I learned in a busy office setting. When I went back for my bachelor’s degree I wanted to learn more about computers. I started working on computers when they were first available in offices and LOVED it. Computers and Math were my dream job. My bachelor’s degree, in Professional Studies, combined my love for business with my love for computers. Having an interest in computers makes working in an IT department much easier.
4. Have you faced any discrimination/ challenges being a woman in a stem field? If so, how did you deal with it? Do you have any advice for up and coming women in STEM?
- I faced many discrimination challenges early in my career because I was a woman. The Glass Ceiling was real. Men had management positions and women were secretaries and clerks. Fortunately I had a female boss and she was an amazing friend and mentor to me. She showed me where my strengths were and helped me to continue to push for more in my career. My second job, at OHR, was for a wonderful company that recognized that women are great managers, engineers, computer software developers, designers, etc. Our owner was a brilliant man who recognized potential in everyone. I was blessed to work there for 15 years before the acquisitions by PureSafety and UL. I recognize that discrimination exists, but feel fortunate that I do not suffer it at UL.
- My advice for up and coming women in STEM is to be confident, be strong, know your strengths, know your weakness, and do something that makes you happy. If you do something every day that makes you happy then it doesn’t feel like a job.
5. What is the best and worst part of your job? What do you look forward to in your job on a day to day basis? What do you wish you could change?
- The best part of my job is the people and the worst part is the commute (traffic).
- Every day I look forward to making the world a safer place.
- If I could change anything it would be unhappy employees. Why come to work every day at a job that doesn’t make you happy?
6. How do you balance your work and personal life? Any secrets or advice you’d like to share?
- You only have one life. Work? Personal? Family? My colleagues know my family and my family know my colleagues.
- I am fortunate to be at a point in my career where my children and grown and raising their own families. My time is my own now.
7. What do you define success as?
- Being happy every day. Paying the bills. Enjoying life.
8. What is one personality trait that you think is universally important for a successful career?
- Conversation skills – you must be able to communicate successfully with the world around you to be successful in your career.
9. Who was a mentor to you throughout your career? (can be more than one!) What did they teach you? How did they impact your life?
- I have had 3 bosses in my career who meant the world to me. Joan Orr at Warnaco and Ken Martin and Ben Scott at OHR/UL WHS.
- Each one was encouraging, guiding, and cared about me and my career. Each one offered suggestions for my career path and helped me shape my goals.
- Having a great boss is another part of being happy at work every day.
10. What do you think is the best advice you've ever received ? What advice would you give your younger self if you had the chance? What’s one piece of advice you can pass on to us?
- Learn when you send a text, an e-mail and when to have a face-to-face conversation. It’s easy to hide in an e-mail, harder to have the face-to-face. Sometimes you just have to ‘Grow Up, Move On and Be An Adult’
- I would have told myself to slow down and take a breath; not everything needs to be done today.
- Don’t settle, be aggressive, ask for what you want.