Gender Dynamics, Mentorship, and Innovation w/ Christine Lee and Mara Pillott

Challenging existing norms and community are the keys to navigating the ever-evolving realm of industrial automation

Join us along with Mara Pillott and Christine Lee in addressing the changing landscape of remote work, the intricate gender dynamics, and the urgent demand for inventive solutions to the engineering skill gap in the industrial automation sector.

Through humor and reflections, Christine Lee and Mara Pillott from Inductive Automation shine a light on the vital role of mentorship, role models, inclusive cultures, and strong training programs, exploring transformative paths into automation engineering.


Huge thank you to Inductive Automation for sponsoring this episode!

 

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Co-Hosts are Alicia Gilpin Director of Engineering at Process and Controls Engineering LLC, Nikki Gonzales Director of Business Development at Weintek USA, and Courtney Fernandez Robot Master at FAST One Solutions.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Yay, all right, welcome to a special episode of
Automation Ladies in which weare recording in a rare lull.
I guess for us AutomationLadies over here, we're taking a
little bit of a break,recovering from OT Skatecon, our
first community event.
But how timely, then, that wemade room for this conversation
right now.
Then.

(00:25):
That we made room for thisconversation right now, um,
because ali and I, around thistime last year, uh had what we
called our first um automationladies leadership team off-site,
which actually just happened tobe because we met up in folsom,
california, uh, at to attendicc inductive automation,
ignition community conference,which inspired us in a lot of

(00:46):
ways to want to do some sort ofevent of our own that had a
community feeling to it.
We really loved ICC.
It's the first place where wemet one of our guests today,
christine Lee.
She introduced us when we did atalk about the sort of origin
story of Automation Ladies, sowe are joined by Christine's

(01:07):
colleague, mara today as well.
So we just look forward tohaving a fun conversation,
learning a little bit more abouttheir backgrounds, what they've
got going on, what's coming up,and then Allie is here as well
today.
So, Allie, you want to say hi,hi?

Speaker 2 (01:22):
everyone Love Ignition.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
We love to hear that you want to say hi, hi, everyone
, love ignition.
Shout out to inductiveautomation for sponsoring both
automation ladies and ot skatercon.
Um, we had given I had giventhis invite out to christine lee
well before they sponsored theshow.
Um, but I just, yeah, give agreat shout out to our
sponsorship and marketingcoordinator now, emily, and from
the Susan Wilson from theinductive automation side for
kind of helping us corral thetime and the place and getting
these ladies on for us.

(01:56):
So thank you so much forjoining us.
It is August now, a couple ofweeks, about three weeks before
ICC.
This episode is actually notgoing to air until later this
year during, uh, season five.
So I just like to make thelisteners aware in case there's
like time, things we discuss.
That will be weird, but yeah,we're in the middle of like
trade show season, things are,things are busy.

(02:16):
So I really appreciate you guysjoining us.
Thank you so much.
Welcome, christine and Mara.
Thank you, thanks for helpingAbsolutely, and I'm really glad
you guys suggested coming ontogether because it's fun that
we get to have a conversationnot just with one person.
But, as we discussed a littlebit before we started recording
you guys have, you know, haddifferent tenures.
Mara's been at InductiveAutomation a lot longer.

(02:38):
Christine just joined.
What was it last year or twoyears ago now?

Speaker 4 (02:42):
Yeah, last year.
Mara is actually my directmanager oh, very cool.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
So we also have a manager relationship to explore
here, so that's pretty cool.
And then ali and I I, yeah,let's not get into our
relationship.
I don't know, I'm woefullyunderperforming with all kinds
of counseling.
So, mara, I'll start with youand our first question Can you

(03:13):
just introduce yourself a littlebit to our listeners?
And really the main thing thatwe kind of want to dig into, to
start our journey of curiosityabout you, is to learn how the
heck did you get into industrialautomation and tell us as much
as you are willing about yourjourney to get to where you are
today.

Speaker 3 (03:31):
So my name is Mara Pillai.
I am thrilled to be here andI'm thrilled to see all of you.
So I showed I got intoautomation in 2010.
I didn't even know what a PLCwas.
I had no idea this kind ofthing existed.
I was simply looking for a job.
I had a background in computerscience.
I've been doing some you knowfront-end, you know user

(03:54):
interfaces with databases but Ididn't have a lot.
I didn't have really anymanufacturing experience.
I saw this job ad.
I downloaded the Ignitionsoftware before I went to the
interview and I thought, wow,this is really cool, you can.
This job ad.
I downloaded the ignitionsoftware before I went to the
interview and I thought, wow,this is really cool, you can.
You can see all these things ina factory and I had watched
this show called how it's madeand and.
I just had no idea that peoplehave.

(04:16):
Yeah, of course we do, yeah.
So I went to this interview andyou know, back then it was
small, it was just theintegration piece of what is
today Index of Automation.
I was interviewed by Wendy LynnHeckman, who is one of the
co-founders, and we justimmediately clicked and I was

(04:39):
wearing like a suit, like youdid, and she said well, you know
, you're going to need to wearsome jeans and like boots and
you're going to be going tofactories.
And so she thought, man, isthis person too girly, like I,
really like her?
Does she understand where she'sgoing?
And I did.
I was thrilled.
So I mean, really, that's how Igot here.
I just started learningignition and they told me the

(05:01):
first thing I was going to dowas go out to this winery and I
was going to be working in aconstruction trailer with with
some guys and this was the worldright.
They were controls engineers andPLC engineers and and
electrical engineers, and theywere almost all guys and what I
and I got along with them, greatwe're.
We're still friends to this day.
I'm not going to mention names,but somebody knows who he is,

(05:29):
and what I found out later wasyou know, my boss went and told
the guys that you know a girlwas going to be working in the
trailer with them and they weregoing to have to clean up their
language and their jokes alittle bit.
And one of them said does thismean we can't fart in the
trailer anymore?
And to this day I bring it upwhenever I see that engineer of
how you say you saved all thoseguys from those farts.

Speaker 1 (05:51):
I probably did.
Um, now my question is, thoughdid you say yes, no, you have to
start stop farting in thetrailer.
Or did you say well, girls,fart too.
Why can't I fart in the trailer?
And?

Speaker 2 (06:03):
no, no, farting, no, no farting, everybody's fart
band we are not having this here, um, but I'll.

Speaker 3 (06:15):
I'll run into him at icc this year and I will
embarrass him again with thatstory, um that's pretty awesome.

Speaker 2 (06:21):
You're like you're not gonna fat fart ban me, are
you?
Yes, yes.
You're like, yeah, I'm gonna doit about me.
That actually reminds me in1995, uh, my college that I went
to started letting women in and, uh, the the water usage like
tripled because the men startedtaking showers of course they

(06:43):
did because there's chicks intheir classes.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
Now they're like I guess I should not smell like
this, like the savage that I am,I'm just imagining whoever was
looking at that usage data andlike what intent they inferred
from that before they realizedthat it's a social thing, like,
if you think of it from like abuilding management perspective
or an energy efficiency, are welosing all this water?

Speaker 3 (07:09):
I'll get that into our water treatment.
Demo number of women onpremises.

Speaker 1 (07:14):
It's related.
Oh, that's hilarious.
I will say I mean it.
Just, the industry is what itis and I think we're all getting
better, and that's part of whatwe're trying to do at
automationation, ladies, is justopen the door or like open the
window, I don't know.
Show more people through thewindow.
That automation, industrialautomation, exists, like you
said.

Speaker 2 (07:33):
you didn't even know that it was really that's pretty
creepy that we're lookingthrough windows.

Speaker 4 (07:39):
Once we got there.

Speaker 1 (07:40):
I love it, nikki, but like at ICC, it was at a
college campus and like this islast year that we attended ICC,
elevate and I was, I remember,like thinking, wow, there's so
many more men's restrooms, likewhere are the women's restrooms?
And then I realized it'sbecause you've like rebranded

(08:00):
the many of the women'srestrooms as men's, because why
would you have like a huge lineat the men's and then all these
empty women's restroomseverywhere?
Yeah, but I think restrooms andshowers are are one way to like
that.
Really it's, it's an objectiveindicator, right?

Speaker 3 (08:19):
change too.
I used to have the women'srestroom all to myself, and
that's not true anymore.

Speaker 1 (08:25):
Yeah, one of the one of the possible benefits that's
disappearing as we bring morewomen into the industry is is
the wide open restrooms.

Speaker 3 (08:33):
Yeah, but I love it.
I love how the face of thisindustry has changed.
I mean, I I just really can'tsay that I worked with any any
guys that I didn't like.
Like I said, some of them arelifelong friends.
I just felt like it would benice to have a woman around once
in a while, and we always hadwomen in leadership and

(08:54):
sometimes I worked with womenwho ran businesses, but not
necessarily in the engineeringside right and all of a sudden
they look around and there's allthese women that are, that are
here, and even on my team wehave we have three women women
on my team, we have myself, wehave Christine and we have Anna.

(09:14):
He used to work in our, in ourdev, and that's.
That's great.
I don't feel so alone anymore.

Speaker 1 (09:20):
It is nice and I didn't know what I was missing
Because I, just like you, hadnever, I never had a problem
working with men, or mostly men,or being one of the only women
in the room.
Yeah, it has its, you know fewdownsides and things like that.
But, um, I was kind of used tothat, I think.
And again, taking the moretechnical path, you're kind of
used to that from school even.
It didn't bother me.

(09:41):
But then I met Allie and I waslike, oh, it actually is really
nice.
Yeah, little girls, that a youcan relate to about that, but
then b are also into you know,the automation stuff.
So, christine, I'll let you gonext.
Then you want to tell us, uh,yeah, how did you get into this
and, I guess, what time frame?
Um, was that for you?

Speaker 4 (10:02):
So I have a similar trajectory with Mara as well.
So I also stumbled into theautomation industry on accident,
a stroke of luck.
So I switched from biologymajor pre-med to computer
science going into my junioryear.
So I was just like packed inall the classes and by senior

(10:25):
year I was like I need aninternship or a job lined up.
So panic, panic, panic, panic.
Applied anything that I couldfind in LinkedIn and I found an
internship for automationengineer.
I was like I have no idea whatthis is Like.
Are you talking about?
Like automation, like codeautomating, like automation,

(10:51):
like code automating.
So applied and I've got aninterview and I was eventually
hired and, like mara said whatthe heck is a plc?
Like what what's with all these?
Like yeah, what's a skate up?
I mean it was to the pointbecause I was pure programming
at the point.
It was to the point where it'slike do can you help me with a
wire pole?
Like cable poles?
And like do you want me to likephysically pull a cable?

(11:14):
But anyway, so stumble intothat realm.
And one of the first things thatI had to do as an intern was go
on inductive university andlearn about ignition, and I
graduated in 2020, so peak COVIDand peak lockdown.
So I started my career in thisindustry fully remote lifted.

(11:50):
I got to go on site with mysteel-tipped boots, my hard hat,
my flashy flashy high-vis vest.
My first job site was a bourbondistillery and I learned a lot
on site and I really got thetaste of you know, like being a
systems integrator, what thatentails, both off-site and
on-site, and I really just fellin love with automation as a

(12:13):
whole.
But I really really fell inlove with the HMI SCADA aspect
Because I will say I'm a visualperson, so being able to design
what the operators will interacton a daily basis, keeping
people in mind and notnecessarily only data, was
really fascinating to me.

Speaker 2 (12:35):
Were you good at like presentations when you were
little?
Why?
Because usually like HMI peoplelike they want, like, they're
just like presenters, like atheart, so like you used to make
like boards when you were a kidand like PowerPoint
presentations.
And you're just like obsessedabout the font and like the
colors and the border and thepictures and the ratios.

Speaker 4 (13:01):
I've been like a presentation person but I've
always been um really into likecrafts and arts.
I think it was another way forme to like tap into that
creative side of me beyond likeprogramming, where it's like
screens you gotta make thispresentable, um, and actually um
, nice, nice to look at and notburn your eyes.

(13:24):
But I also had a stroke of luckwith landing a job at IA and as
an application engineer and Ijust thoroughly love my job and
I just tapping into that.
Women in leadership and alsojust like mentorship roles at my
systems integrator role, justlike mentorship roles, um, at my

(13:48):
systems integrator role, therewas a phenomenal um engineer who
was a woman.
I looked up to her and I stilldo.
Her name is Vicky.
Um, hi, vicky, if you'relistening to this, but she was
incredible and it was reallygood to like get into this
industry that I was like I don'tknow anything, I really don't
um and have that.
I was like I don't knowanything, I really don't Um and
have that confidence of like oh,here's someone who's really

(14:12):
tried and tested and true andjust very seasoned veteran who
is so incredible in her um, herwork and she's thriving on site
and she's well respected and, um, it felt like a good
environment for me because Iknow they're like just having
that figure was just enough forme.

(14:34):
And also, um joining ia.
I mean mara's my uh manager.
She was my manager from day one.
There's another female figurethat I like looked up to and I
still look up to um.
She's my like go-to if I haveany questions, oh my god, yeah,
if I have any questions, andeven just that like um, you know

(14:58):
that reassurance, that like ifI am not having a good day or if
I'm not sure of myself, like Icould I have someone to turn to.
And I think just even lookingaround me in IA in general, it's
like there's that female figureor like just a good source of

(15:19):
like mentorship everywhere.

Speaker 1 (15:21):
Yeah, I'd say you in a way lucked out into early in
your career, falling intocompanies that have cultures
that like intentionally trainpeople and try to hire diverse
people.
I know, um, yeah, one of thethings that initially made us

(15:41):
excited when we met people fromGray your previous you know
systems integration, hope it'sokay to say we're great friends
as well.
And Sam James from GraySolutions made the song the
music for Automation Ladies.
By the way, in case you didn'tknow, what a wonderful person.
He is.

(16:01):
He is a wonderful person and hecame up to us at Automate and
he just, you know, he explainedas well that, like he's worked
at places in the industry thatdon't feel culturally like a
place that he wants to supportand that he really, you know,
see that sees that change in theindustry.
And so I find that I kind ofend up latching on to people
that that give me that feelingthat that's what they're

(16:21):
interested in.
I find that I kind of end uplatching onto people that that
give me that feeling, um, thatthat's what they're interested
in.
That's the type of like theywant to foster this community
and make it more accessible tothe next generation.
Um, whatever that is.
But, like, definitely not everycompany in the industry gives
me those vibes, um, and manypeople end up working for some
of the ones that are, you know,I guess, maybe less intentional

(16:44):
about that and what I found inearly in my career.
I started with a company calledKeyence.
They train new people out ofcollege, so you don't have to
have the experience.
But many of the other vendorsin the industry they don't
really have a training program,so they just expect to hire
people that already have theindustry experience, which can
make it harder to be morediverse, because then you're
limited to the talent pool thathas, like, already come up in

(17:07):
the industry, versus openingyourself up and being willing to
train newer engineers.
It is an investment, certainly,but I think that's also kind of
what you have to look at.
If you really want to, you know, diversify your teams and make
it more open, then you kind ofwhat you have to look at.
If you really want to, you know, diversify your teams and make
it more open, then you kind ofhave to be willing to take on
some training as well aspectsand bringing people either from

(17:30):
that are earlier on in theircareer or just even from, like,
let's say, adjacent industrieslike software engineering.
That's, I think, is a hugeopportunity for our industry
today, because so many of thebig tech companies are laying
off and stuff like that and wereally need more people in our
industry is how do we attractmore people from the pure
software?
And it looks like we are doinga decent job I just saw

(17:53):
contributed to the LinkedIn posttoday.
Somebody in my network was likehey, I have a friend that's a
front-end developer that'sinterested in learning all about
this PLC and HMI.
I want you to get intoindustrial automation.
You know what resources do youhave for someone, so I guess
that would be a question.
Do you guys have some tips forour fellow computer science

(18:14):
graduates or engineers thatmaybe have been in more
traditional software engineeringroles that don't, you know,
deal with any kind of controls?
What would you say to hype themup, to get them to come check
out controls, engineering or orthe related disciplines, right,
skate or or whatever?

Speaker 4 (18:34):
Oh gosh.
So my, I think I kind ofempathize with that whole ordeal
because I was coming in fromlike a pure programming
perspective, also without anyjust industrial or just career
experience period.
Um, what really helped me wassomeone taking a chance on me,

(18:56):
um which, like I said, stroke ofluck.
Um, I will always be gratefulfor that person.
His name is Alex and he reallytrusted in me to just grow in
the role.
And I wasn't the only one thathe trusted.
Also another fellow engineerfrom my old job, greg, his

(19:20):
name's Brad.
He was also a pure computerscience person.
He was actually kind of likethe quote-unquote guinea pig.
That sounds really bad, butit's really not.
But yeah, he was the firstperson that Alex really trusted
to be like okay, he's just apure programmer.
Um, I believe he was doing alsofront end of things before

(19:41):
landing a job as an automationengineer that I said okay, let's
see how it works.
Um, taking a purely softwareengineer and just seeing how
they grow into an automationcontrols engineer and, honestly,
brad is one of the um, one ofthe best engineers that I know

(20:01):
so like did a really good job,awesome um, and I'd like to
think that I'm at least a decentengineer too, um, in this field
, but you're pretty goodChristine thank you, but it
really helps to have you knowlike people really take a chance

(20:21):
on you.
But also take a chance onyourself to have that confidence
to be like I don't know this, Ireally don't.
But I want to learn and I'mgoing to keep learning and if
it's hard I will ask questions.
I don't want like there's nosuch thing as a stupid question.
So definitely taking a chanceon yourself to really watch

(20:43):
yourself grow in a very new role.
I mean, whenever I had, Istarted off like having a pretty
bad imposter syndrome and I'llbe honest, like it's still not.
I don't think I will be likecompletely over an imposter
syndrome, because there's alwayssomething to learn, there's

(21:04):
always something new, um, butdefinitely trusting in myself to
learn and to be confident in mywork and um also being open to
any criticisms or any help, thatif someone's like hey, it looks
like I can help you with x, yand z, can I help you?

(21:26):
Or even just reaching out andsay I'm not sure if I know this
100% or understand this 100%,can you help me?
So yeah, that was a really longwinded answer, um no, I wonder.

Speaker 2 (21:39):
I wonder, I wonder if gen z, because I think are
you're, are you gen z?
Yes, yeah.
So I wonder if Gen Z, because Ithink are you Gen Z, yes.
So I wonder if Gen Z is justlike I love.
Like you just said, you're likeI don't know what I'm doing, I
don't know how to do this, Idon't know this and like I don't
know.
That even millennials ever werejust like super open about that
and like as much as we were atleast understanding that people

(22:02):
like don't know everything,no-transcript, just that, being

(22:30):
able to just be like I don'tknow anything, and I felt like I
knew that I didn't knowanything, but it wasn't
something I could even talkabout, and I didn't feel
comfortable being like, hey,going to my you know people
around me and being like I don'tknow what I'm doing.
And now we can do that.
And I feel like that's justgoing to help us so much because
we can just be freaking honestthat we don't know what's going

(22:52):
on.
Because that's the fastest wayto the actual answer is to say
it now and then be like and thepeople that do know they're like
okay, well, well, at leastyou're not lying to me.
They're like okay, well, atleast you're not lying to me or
you're not being boastful orwhatever, because that's
actually what stopped a lot ofpeople's progress is oh, I know
what I'm doing, and then youdon't know what you're doing,
and then you just go hide orresearch and you're like, just

(23:15):
tell them, you suck and you'regoing to be fine, they're going
to help you.
Oh my God, Like if you couldjust let your freaking uh pride
go, you will skyrocket to thedamn moon yeah, I feel like I'm
gonna get a little tangent hereand then we'll bring this back
tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (23:33):
But you know, a lot of things are changing in our
world and ai is one of those bigthings that's here and we're
all wondering how it's gonna toaffect us.
I feel like at this point, thesame thing just or you could
call it Google, like basicinformation is available
everywhere.
There's tutorials and all kindsof things.
Now, what is going to separatesomeone is their, like their

(23:54):
context around the information,right, their experience with a
certain thing.
Like, I can look up a basic howto on YouTube.
Now I don't need to pay aperson for a basic.
What I need is the context asto which video to use, when or
what to do if it doesn't work,those sorts of things.
And I think and I don't know ifthis is a shift like I know, in
our business, I'm starting tosee it more and more my company

(24:16):
and Ali's company that weactually want people to just
play to their strengths and wewant to be more honest about
when they struggle and so that awe can actually construct
higher performing teams wherewe're not forcing someone to act
on a weakness consistently andthen we pair up people with
strengths and weaknesses to helpeach other Right, and we move
forward a lot quicker that waythan everyone pretending that

(24:37):
they're at a 10 or at an eightand all of the things, and I
know everything.
Yeah, and I feel like when I wasgraduating from business school
and this was not that long ago,but like 15 years ago I was
very much told, like make surethat you have all of these
things on your resume, even ifthey weren't even true about me,
like detail oriented and youknow these things that were just

(24:59):
like this is what you need tohave, and you also must wear
pantyhose and no pants.
Like I literally was told whenI graduated that I couldn't go
to a job interview withoutwearing a skirt suit and
pantyhose.
I had to borrow money from myfamily to go buy a skirt suit at
Ann Taylor, because they don'tsell them in like regular stores
.
This is in our damn lifetime.

Speaker 3 (25:20):
Yeah, I, like I said I went to my interview at
inductive automation in a suit,right, and it was a suit.
And as soon as you saidpantyhose, it just brought back
my mother, like no, that is notappropriate.
You have to have the properundergarments, christine has.
Have you ever owned a pair ofpantyhose?

(25:41):
I mean, this is no, no hell no.

Speaker 1 (25:47):
I remember my dad too .
He had this executive assistantwho turned into like he had a
small business and she, ofcourse, ended up like running
the damn thing.
But she ended up working for mydad because she was like I
interviewed and she, she like,one job she didn't get because
she wore pants.
And again, this was like when Iwas in high school.
So I was just like, oh I, I, Imust wear the skirt, but how?

(26:13):
It has nothing to do with yourability to carry out the job,
just maybe making youuncomfortable.
But yeah, I would like to hearfrom your perspective
uncomfortable, but I would liketo hear from your perspective
what has changed, I think forthe better, if you want to
comment, since you started andobviously now you interview
people, is there anything that,from your perspective, like you

(26:38):
used to expect and now you'relike I shouldn't expect that
from people what sort of changeshave you seen?

Speaker 3 (26:41):
I mean, I'm fairly new to management and I was
really and I was lucky becausethe previous manager of our of
our team is now the manager ofour division and I do get
mentorship from him.
Thank you, kent Melville.
Shout out and I'd like mycredit later.
But I think as we've grown as acompany too I mean my whole

(27:03):
history here is is we were sosmall when I started an
inductive automation so I got tosee that and I got to see the
industry change and I got to seethe technology grow and I think
also how we treat people grow.
When I started we didn't havethese resources right, so we

(27:23):
took someone like me and we sentthem off to a winery and we
didn't see them for months andwe kind of laughed like, oh,
sink or swim, right, you'lleither make it or you won't.
And we don't treat new hireslike that now, and that is so
much for the better.
We send them to inductiveuniversity if they're if they
haven't already, you know, gonethrough gone through that

(27:44):
process.
Mostly we're looking for thatexperience.
But it's hard to find peoplewith that experience.
So I think a big thing we lookfor is is the ability to learn
your, your team player skills?
Can you communicate?
Will you tell us you don't.
You don't know something rightBecause it's going to change all
the time?
You don't, you don't knowsomething right Because it's

(28:05):
going to change all the time.
I don't need you to knoweverything when you get here.
I need you to to be part of ateam, to be willing to
contribute.
You know you can't.
I see people like that from timeto time, that they they believe
they know everything, sothey're never going to learn
something Right.
And we don't have that on ourteam because we can't.
So we're constantly having topick things up and we and we do

(28:30):
have more mentorship now, andit's also important to us when
we hire somebody that theyunderstand a little bit of the
history of our company.
You know not just the softwareand the products that we make,
but you know kind of how weinteract with the market, how,
how we like to be pretty open.
You know, like inductiveuniversity is free.
Why?
Because we want people to learnit right.

(28:51):
We don't.
We want more people to knowabout it.
Um, and I, and I love that, Ilove watching all of this change
and the the whole thing is just.
It just feels so much moredynamic and modern than it felt,
you know, back in the day when,when it was just like you've
got your skater system andyou've got like one server in
your factory and like maybe youhave a few thousand tags and now

(29:17):
it's this oh, you can haveservers all over the world and
you've got the internet ofthings and we're going to start
looking at AI.
I mean, there's a huge shift.

Speaker 1 (29:27):
Definitely, I think, an area that a curious person
willing to learn will not getbored.

Speaker 3 (29:32):
Yeah, that's why I'm still here.
I never get bored.

Speaker 2 (29:37):
Yeah, I want to add that you know, I love that there
are companies like inductionyou, you know Inductive
Automation that are big enoughbecause, like I have a small
company, and like big enoughthat they can properly mentor
their people so they don't 100%throw them at sink or swim.
But I do believe, like thatthere's some balance there that

(30:01):
is the perfect balance, thatthere's some balance there that
is the perfect balance.
And like, so, like I feel thatlike me and you, mara, like we
were thrown into sink or swim,like abusively possibly, and
like and like I I don't know Isaid yes when every other
technician said absolutely not.
And so I think that I did a lotof things in my job where I was

(30:21):
just it was abusive, I think,because I was like that, I did a
lot of things in my job where Iwas just it was abusive.
I think, um to, because I waslike I'm going to, I'm going to
try it for myself and like so Iwant to meet somewhere halfway,
cause, like I don't want mypeople to eat it, like that, I
don't want to leave them likethat, a hundred percent to their
own, like, even though Ibelieve in them, I absolutely
believe in them, but I'm like Ican help you and mentorship is

(30:44):
extremely important part of that, and so it's like how much do
we let them sink?
Because I do believe, I doswear, that like part of who I
am and what I've been able to dois related to when I was
drowning and what I was able todo to get out of it, and so I
don't want to take it a hundredpercent away, but like that was

(31:07):
too much and that's unnecessary,and like almost like it costs
companies money, like there'sgotta be like a middle ground
where it's like we will stillpay for you to mess up, but like
you shouldn't be a hundredpercent.
Like no support, no, anything,totally on yourself, and that's
what a lot of us like, that'show we, a lot of us were made Um

(31:28):
, and they just said and likethe fact that we're still here
is like our own grit and our ownlike just passion, cause
everyone else is just like thisis abusive, I'm leaving and they
did, and actually that's partof why women are actually mostly
gone, even though there'sactually more graduates, um,
ladies in our fields, like STEMfields, then the ones that

(31:49):
actually stay in the industry,like they're not the same
numbers, and there's a reason,and it's because they're like I
don't have to fight this.
Why?
Why?
Why, if you're not quite thishard, sure?
Um, yeah, and like I felt likeI needed to prove myself and I
feel like a lot of women didthat same thing.
We're like we're gonna proveourselves and we did, and it's
just like at this point I'm likeI don't feel like there's

(32:11):
anything to prove.
Like can we go back to doingthis in a healthy way?
Um, because that wasn't healthy, and like I don't even feel
like that was even worth proving.
Like there's nothing to prove.
Women can do all of your weirdfield jobs, the end next.

Speaker 3 (32:27):
There's nothing to argue like yeah, yeah, can we
just move past this?
No, it is a balance, right,because I I did too.
Like, yeah, I learned from just, I'm just gonna stick it out if
some you know controlsengineers yelling no and shoving
at my screen and telling methat's horrible, no sleep, yeah
Right, no sleep.

Speaker 2 (32:45):
I'm going to do it.
No validation.

Speaker 3 (32:51):
You're told you're the worst engineer they've ever
seen.
Yeah, Luckily I didn't have itthat bad, but yeah, there were
some abusive customers out therethough, for sure.

Speaker 2 (32:58):
Definitely, customers will abuse you.
They actually expect to pay.
They feel like they're payingto abuse you.
They actually expect to pay.
Great, they, they feel likethey're paying to abuse you.
Yeah, I did, but you don't getpaid for the actual abuse itself
.
You just get paid by thecompany.
But you don't get like theabuse tax.
Yeah, and your company gets allthe tax for the abuse.
They're like oh, we love youguys.

(33:18):
I just get to super, be mean toall of your workers.

Speaker 3 (33:22):
Yeah, that was out there and I I don't know how
much of that still goes on right, cause I'm I'm a little more
insulated now.
I'm inside here and we're doinginternal projects and I I get
to give my team a differentexperience and I certainly hope
that's changing out there.
I'm just I'm not out there.
But yeah, I hear you, therewere customers out there that

(33:45):
were just, they were just intoxic environments.
Their their own employeesweren't getting treated well
either.

Speaker 1 (33:52):
Yeah, and I do try to shine a light on that, just
like, don't you know, we don'thave to paint the entire
industry with a broad brush.
There are changes that theentire industry with a broad
brush, there are changes thatthe entire industry needs.
But then there's companies thatare more ahead or better than
others and, like I, it pains mewhen I see a woman in particular
but anybody leave the industrybecause of a bad employer, when

(34:15):
really they just needed a.
If they were really passionateabout the work, they just needed
a better company to work for.
But in in the industry, forsure, I actually found I kind of
left the industry and I endedup in a different role and I
missed it.
I missed the automation, Imissed the physical machinery, I
missed pneumatics and motorsand you know, when I was in more

(34:36):
like software and data andsupply chain.
So to me there was somethingabout the industry that called
me back, but then I had a reallylike at that point.
There was something about theindustry that called me back,
but then I had a really like atthat point.
I was old enough and I had donesome other things and I had
learned a bit more about myselfand my self-worth and that just
because even if I was in saleslike I didn't have to just smile
and nod at everything and takethe insults or whatever, and I

(34:59):
haven't had any of thoseproblems since.
I came back kind of like withthat attitude.
But I also chose a company towork for, specifically now,
where I looked at the cultureand I was like I want to make
sure that it's actually a placeI want to work and I know the
industry can be hard and thework out there is tough.
But it's way tougher if youdon't have a team at home quote
unquote at your company or inyour.

(35:20):
You know your leadership thatthen you can lean on.
I think it's a lot easier todeal with the crappy customers
when you can go lean on someonelike your mentor or somebody at
your own organization.
But if you have a crappycustomer and then a crappy
manager, um, that's where Ithink it's not worth it.
Don't stick it out Like findanother employer in the space,
because there are plenty ofcompanies that don't want to see
you drown like that or thinkthat it's okay.

(35:43):
But I, like Ali, I learned a lotof with you know, in my being
thrown into the fire kind ofsituations.
So I'm also like always it'shard to say like, oh the you
know, we should just eliminateall of the problems we had for
the younger generation so thatthey don't have to deal with any
of it.
But then at the same time it'slike, well, what do they don't

(36:04):
have to deal with any of it?
Um, but then at the same timeit's like, well, what do they?
How are they gonna learn someof that then?
But it's like, how do youstrike the balance?
I think that's a tough onereally.
You gotta because you have tolet people eventually like sink
or swim or try to be out thereand not be completely coddled
and supported with everythinglearn from your mistakes I mean,
if I look back at some of thefirst projects.

Speaker 3 (36:24):
I hope they're gone.
I hope somebody deleted themforever, because I know I made
terrible mistakes and I didn'tknow.
But you have to learn from thatyeah, there's no way.

Speaker 2 (36:34):
There's no way to make a real engineer without um,
I call it eating shitsandwiches, but really just
means like you're, you don'tknow what to do and you're
actually, like you know, freakedout, and then you just make a
decision and then you just areaccountable for your decision
and you go to your managementand you're like this is what I
decided to do in this case, andwhat do you think?

(36:57):
And and but be accountable forit?
Sure.

Speaker 3 (37:01):
And maybe that's some of the things that we could
mentor.
You know, I know sometimes youknow when we were working with
customers we had to get thingsdone very quickly on a timeline
and you know you want to be ableto try every solution to get
the most optimal solution andsometimes you don't have that
luxury and you just have to picksomething.
And that's definitely somethingas a manager I've run into is

(37:23):
encouraging my people to say,like I understand you want to
explore everything, but youmight just have to pick
something and go with it Right,and we might just not know and
be able to explore every lastcorner.
And I like that.
I can explain some of thosethings Right, and sometimes they
know more technical things thanI do because they just went out
and learned something, Right,yeah, but I I kind of know the

(37:45):
framework and the, thebackgrounds and and the kind of
overall like how do we keep thisthing on course better than
they do?

Speaker 1 (37:54):
And that's why I think we make such a great, such
a better combo as, like, if welook at like these generational
differences, because there are alot more of them now
technologically than, let's say,we had between generations in
the past.
But that like and Allie canmaybe speak to this a little bit
better, but the way that shestructures a lot of the work at
her company is there are subjectmatter experts that have a lot
more experience and then they'repaired with the younger

(38:17):
engineers to be a resource andthe younger engineers have
resources and think of thingsthat you know.
Somebody that has been out inthe field for you know 15, 20
years maybe wouldn't.
So it goes both ways, like youcan learn both ways.
And my CEO, roman, brings up agood point.
Sometimes he had a project atApple where his engineers were

(38:37):
telling him that they should dosomething that they were like no
, that's impossible, you can'tdo it, and they totally proved
him wrong.
Like it was possible but thetechnology wasn't around back
when he was doing it that wouldhave made it possible.
So sometimes you have to, yeah,that combo of like working
together and I think that justspeaks to like diversity on
teams in general.
You have a lot more I don'tknow chance of innovation and

(38:58):
success when you have different,those different perspectives,
like filling in the gap.
Allie, do you want to talk anymore about that whole like
mentoring and SME stuff?
I'm sorry to have brought up anexample from your business.

Speaker 2 (39:10):
No, I mean everything that I do.
It comes from like survivalslash, circumstance right.
Like I don't have.
I'm bootstrapped, I don't havehundreds of thousands of dollars
to pay, you know, $150,000salaries to, and 401k and

(39:31):
insurance to, like the cream ofthe crop, engineers.
I had to go be like, well, howam I going to do this?
I'm good, right, I'm good,right, I'm good, but what can I
afford to even help me?
And how do I move from me beingthe only one that can do
anything?
Um to that.
And like, I realized that, likeI am a subject matter expert,

(39:52):
but I could hire, on a contractbasis, other other subject
matter experts so that I didn'thave to do that stuff all the
time, so that I could refocus,because I am decent at sales,
I'm an engineer myself and Ishied away super hard.
I didn't want anything to dowith sales or marketing.

(40:14):
And then I ended up being goodat it and I'm like, well, now
what?
So now I want to leverage, Iwant to bring my company work,
and I can't do that if I'm doingthe subject, you know, if I'm
the subject matter expert.
And so that was a way to likedecouple some of the things that
I am good at and just like, letthem just do that so I can
bring in veterans and they givethem a better rate, like if they

(40:38):
do the engineering themselves.
That's not SME.
Sme is someone who isoverseeing.
It's an engineering managerthat's overseeing the work of
another engineer and thoseengineers are doing the work.
But I have built into the waythat I quote, you know, the work
that there's an engineering SMEthat's going to review that and

(41:00):
that obviously the hours, thehours are ratio.
There's a ratio right, like youdon't need if there's 10
engineering hours, you don'tneed 10 SME hours.
It's like there's 10, you maybeyou need two to five SME hours
to review that if the engineerspent 10.
So I just try to figure out,like how do I get?

(41:20):
And then at the same time I cangive you know a regular
engineering work to some ofthese subject matter experts.
But I can.
You know I can only build somuch and so I think I want to
find a way to train the nextgeneration.
And what?
The first place I ever saw it, Iworked in aerosol machinery for

(41:43):
a second and the guy who let metake over what he was doing
because he's like I'm nottraveling?
I refuse.
He was giving mechanical likethey're not even controls people
.
He was giving mechanicaltechnicians um team viewer and a
laptop and showing them how toconnect that laptop to the plc.

(42:03):
And he was getting his owntechnicians who were traveling
anyway because they were puttingthe machine together to let him
in and do the io checkout andthe functional checkout with the
technician, when the controlsengineer's not even there.
And he was doing thissuccessfully and I was like, oh
shit, um, there's something herethat he's doing, that there's

(42:29):
and there's so many veteran uhcontrols people that are ready
to just like not travel everagain.
But they would totally sit intheir living room and be like,
yes, johnny, now do this likeyou know, or whoever jamal, I
don't care like tell thetechnician what to do, um, or
and or get like a team viewer,be like, okay, let's get on

(42:51):
whatsapp or face app or whateverthe hell you guys call it the,
the shit from apple.
And be like facetimeTime yeah,let's get on FaceTime.
And you show me the problemthat you're seeing.
And then you explain that to meand I'm looking at the PLC
already.
So I'm in the PLC, you tell mewhat you physically see and they
can, I swear to God, they canclose these projects out.

(43:12):
And so that is the future.
I think, and I think that youknow, there's going to be a lot
more people that don't want totravel and they're not going to
travel because I'm not going tomake them.
And I think that there's goingto be a lot more people that are
young and they're ready totravel because it's the first
part of their life and they'reready to, you know, give the
first 10 years or whatever,before they settle down to these

(43:33):
.
You know companies, and I thinkthat there's a, there's a
pairing here.
That's just natural.
And if you can figure out howto not make everyone angry, like
and the customer like you,there's a goldmine to be had and
we are trying our luck at thatcreative like that, because I

(44:00):
hear this a lot.

Speaker 3 (44:00):
Right, we are.
We are losing these controls,engineers, and we need more and
we are going to have to getcreative.
And as soon as you said that, Ithought of the panic, right
that somebody, oh, but I can'thave my.
You can't control things ifyou're outside the network, but
you do have somebody in placeright there, physically.
Right, you're doing this youknow?

Speaker 2 (44:18):
yeah, you can unplug them.

Speaker 3 (44:19):
Yes, yeah, the panic.

Speaker 2 (44:21):
They're just not a programmer.

Speaker 3 (44:23):
Yeah, we're going to have to have some creative
solutions to get through this,because we are losing these
people and I I hope that that wedo see more automation and more
trades in schools, becausewe're losing everybody.
We're losing the electriciansin these plants and you know the

(44:43):
guys that can get the pumpsworking again.
You know as well as the control.

Speaker 2 (44:46):
All the high bidders like that's the only ones who
get.
What they want is if you paytop dollar.
Everybody else, littlecompanies, are screwed.

Speaker 3 (44:54):
Yeah, yeah.
And if we could just get that,you know, along with this
industrial automation in schools.
I mean, I can't solveeverything At least we are
trying to get our software intoschools and teach people that
this career exists, Right?
I mean, I did things like oh, Ineed to move these student

(45:20):
records from here to here, andyou know this curriculum, you
know planning screen needs to beup for this teacher, for a
school district.
It's not that different, right?
I need to make sure that yourbusiness process moves smoothly
through this, and somebody witha software background, with some
kind of understanding ofprocesses, can do that, maybe

(45:41):
without having that knowledge.
So if we could just make peoplemore aware that this is here
and make people more aware thatmaybe you should learn to
program a plc or, you know, getinto this factory automation I.
I would love to see that changein our educational system.

Speaker 1 (46:01):
So would we, and it's actually interesting that you
mentioned so we talked a littlebit earlier.
You guys are making a push toget your software into schools.
At what level?
Just college level, communitycollege level, or what level do
you think is appropriate tostart getting at least these
ideas in front of kids?

Speaker 3 (46:23):
I think elementary school is appropriate.
Right, I know you do work witha company that makes some kits
for kids.
I think any level isappropriate.
I would like to see it in highschool yeah, I would, why not?
High schoolers can learn aboutelectrical boards and, honestly,

(46:44):
I think kids can learn a lotearlier than that.

Speaker 1 (46:47):
I think, and it's an interesting, I guess, maybe
observation.
I grew up in Iceland inelementary school and I moved to
the U S in middle school andone of the things that I thought
was like a stark difference washow little kids are trusted
with here in terms of like theyexpect you not to be able to

(47:08):
handle anything or do anything.
And part of that is maybe likeour society here is very
litigious, um, whatever reason.
But I remember I learned I used, I took wood shop in fourth
grade, got to use like a largesaw and all kinds of tools that
here, like when I was in middleschool, they were like, oh no,

(47:31):
you have to wait until highschool to even touch that, and
I'm like I don't why I did thatwhen I was like eight.
Um, wow, and you know sewingright, a lot of these things,
cooking, we took cooking classes, you know, with a real stove,
and I felt like I came here andI was kind of treated like, oh
no, you can't possibly do any ofthese things, they're not safe,
they're not for you.

(47:52):
And I think we've kind of keptall these industrial things
hidden from kids because somehowthey're not appropriate and not
safe, um, which is, you know,obviously you don't want to put
industrial electronics orwhatever into like kids' hands
and just say, like, go for it,um, but the idea is, if you
teach them how to do itresponsibly or get them started

(48:13):
somehow, then you know there'sno reason why they can't learn
it.
Just it requires a lot moreoversight.
Right, and if you give a kid apower tool or whatever, um, but
I think we will fullyunderestimate how much kids are
capable of.
And that may be a function ofthe kind of, you know, school
system which was devised a verylong time ago, which made it to

(48:36):
where we didn't have a level oflike fidelity or technology to
be able to assess individualskills.
So it was like what fits theaverage, what fits the whole,
who can?
What is something that everyonecan do, and now you know we're
in 2024, we have the ability touse software and all kinds of
other things to personalizethings more or gauge somebody's

(48:59):
aptitude for something.
We were actually justdiscussing this in relation to
our business as well, but likeskill matrices for engineers, so
that we know who knows what andwho can be trained up on what.
Same thing with doing likepersonality tests, because, oh
lo and behold, not everybody'sthe same and if you know how to
communicate with them better,then you can actually get.

(49:19):
Not everybody's the same and ifyou know how to communicate
with them better, then you canactually get further ahead,
things like that.
But yeah, kids PLC Kids wasinspired and that's Allie's
nonprofit.
The website is not currentlyworking.
It's just low on our prioritylist to get the website up and
running.
It's kidsplckidsorg is whereyou'll find it when it's up and
running.
But it was like a.

(49:41):
I think elena day is um, she wasnine years old when ali sent
her a plc and her dad is amaster electrician and he, you
know, knows some of this stuff.
So obviously she had to have,you know, adult supervision and
someone that was able to helpher.
But she programmed up up aAllen Bradley PLC with connected
components workbench and madeit, you know, shoot a

(50:02):
pneumatically powered rocket inher room and it was like the
cool, one of the coolest thingsI've ever seen.
And that's why Allie startedkids PLC kits, because she was
like, you know what, if the kidshave the willingness and
aptitude and they have a willingadult instructor, this is
entirely possible, and itdoesn't have to be some sort of

(50:22):
you know, arduino kit for babies.
You know it's a great to startwith all those kind of STEM toys
, right, the kids have access toso much of that nowadays.
It's crazy.
But really like, yeah, evenPLCs, like if kids can learn,
you know, to code in Python orwhatever, I think there's
nothing but exposure stoppingthem from learning.
Even if you call it antiquatedright, like learn ladder logic

(50:45):
or whatever, it's not that hard,it's just not.
There's nobody out there sayingthat, hey, this is cool to
learn.

Speaker 3 (50:50):
Well, it could bring that to life, right?
You know I was fascinated withcomputers from an early age and
I, you know, learn how to write,you know pick a number between
one and 10 games, right, and Iremember some of my friends just
could not see why that would beinteresting.
But if you can shoot a rocketoff using you know, make some
like physical thing happen, howmuch more engaging is that?

(51:13):
Right, and that that wassomething that attracted me to
this industry was.
I'm not just kind of writingprograms and putting things
together that just kind of movedata around.
People can actually see aprocess happening or affect how
fast or slow that process ismoving, and that is just so

(51:34):
fascinating.
So sure, yeah, why couldn'tkids have something that you
know is relatively simple butbut could really do something?

Speaker 1 (51:43):
yeah, and that's really what we'd love to see is
is more of the, the stuff thatyou actually will see in your
career, but to see that earlierin school, not, you know,
whatever you can when.
I don't want to, I'm not goingto crap on chromebooks, um,
because that's what they use inschools now, and I hear a a lot
of that like, oh well, kids cannever learn real engineering
because all they have is aChromebook, which is a valid

(52:05):
point, but, like, of course, notevery school district can
afford an engineering computerfor every student.
But I was actually just I'mdoing an interview at IMTS in a
couple of weeks, uh, with thefolks at ptc and there's, uh,
cad modeling, so they have a cadmodeling software.
Now that is cloud native, um,and it is used in industry, but

(52:27):
it is also you can run it in abrowser on a chromebook.
So I think it's really justit's our own constraints, like,
stopping us from getting thisinto the hands of kids.
But that was really interestingand I'm looking forward to that
discussion because, like, whatmade them go?
Okay, let's build somethingcloud native from the start for
an audience, for a customer thatwants to use it in the cloud

(52:50):
From an inductive automationstandpoint.
You guys have been doing thisfor a while.
A lot has changed in computingsince you started.
Yes, what have you seen changein terms of, like, customer
preferences or even your roadmapwise at Inductive, as the
hardware considerations changeand as the customers are
becoming what more open topotentially cloud, do you guys

(53:11):
just kind of give all theoptions or is there a particular
kind of method of delivery thatyou really suggest to your
customers based on, like theon-prem versus other options?

Speaker 3 (53:22):
We really try to make it all available, right,
because there are customers thatare never going to allow data
off-prem that is never going tohappen Whereas there's other
customers that it's going togive them so much right To allow
this to be in the cloud.
So we really do try to providethose options.
You know, one of the biggestthings I've seen change is the

(53:44):
distributed architectures.
You know you don't have thatone gateway connected to your.
You know PLCs in this one site,right?
So even if you're not allowingaccess into your PLC data, you
can still aggregate thissomewhere, right?
So that could be your cloudsolution.
You can build thesearchitectures together.

(54:04):
So we're seeing a lot moreinterest in that, for sure, I
think.

Speaker 1 (54:09):
Distributed- architecture is also something
we have to look at more closelyas we grapple with the
cybersecurity implications ofall of this, because we just
can't say, okay, we'll just air,gap it now and it'll be fine.
It's like no, we actually haveto have this OT network and it
probably will get hacked at somepoint in time.
So how do we mitigate the risk?

(54:30):
How do we have OT specificcybersecurity, incident response
plans and redundancy and allkinds of things like that?
So that in and of itself islike a whole new versioning
industry, really.
Not that it's brand new, butit's just becoming so more
applicable to everyone that ifyou're also like in this
industry and security andcybersecurity like strikes a

(54:53):
little bell with you, that is ahuge growing opportunity in, you
know, operational OTcybersecurity.
I don't think that you'll everbe wanting for a job if that's
somewhere that you decide tojump into at this point.
And functional safety even isanother one.
That Linda Freeman fromRockwell congratulations, linda,

(55:14):
if you're listening on yourretirement, by the way, another
fantastic female role model inthe industry.
If you guys don't know her,she's a TUV certified functional
safety engineer and she wasalso saying that there's just a
huge lack of those in theindustry.
So again, there's a lot of likespecializations and areas to

(55:34):
industrial automation that youcan, you know, focus on, whether
it's because it interests youor if you are one of those
people that really thinks aboutjob security and your earning
potential and all those kinds ofthings.
Not all of the positions inindustrial automation, I would
say, pay better than otherindustries necessarily, so you
kind of have to really like whatyou do, but there's tons of

(55:56):
opportunities to maximize yourearning potential in this
industry.
Um, it just takes a little bitof looking at, like, maybe, what
areas are hot, you know whatlocations, what industries, um,
so I guess we're we're actuallycoming up on close to an hour
here.
Uh, and I know Christineunfortunately did your.
You said your power went out.

(56:17):
Um, let's just be real here.
Christine had to drop off theepisode for a little while and
Allie is currently dropped offfor who knows what reason
connectivity or otherwise.
But that's one of the funthings about having multiple
people in a conversation theconversation can move forward.

Speaker 3 (56:33):
Being remote too.
We're like all across thecountry on this team and that's
another huge change in thisindustry, I mean for the entire
world.
Really.
We didn't hire people in otherstates, right, and we struggled.
How are we going to get peopleto come to Folsom, california,
if they're saying, well, housingcosts are less expensive where

(56:55):
I am?
I have small children and myparents are a huge part of my,
my childcare and and my you know, my husband has a job here.
We're not, we're not both goingto leave, and we built this
remote team and it really feelsso seamless.
I just, I have Slack, I haveGoogle me, I I feel like like I

(57:19):
know Christine, even though I'veonly met her in person twice,
and I feel that way about myentire team, and here she is
getting knocked out by a storm.
And if I go outside right now,t-skatercon, where my power was
out for a week which stopped menot completely from working, but

(57:45):
mostly um.

Speaker 1 (57:47):
But at the same time, like so were physical workers
in my area where the power wasdown, like my brother-in-law
works in a warehouse and a lotof their stuff wasn't working
because there was no power.
So remote teams they've got youknow their pros and cons, but I
think they are the way of thefuture, or hybrid, right,
partially remote.
I know that's also one of theways that Allie has been able to
grow her team.

(58:07):
Some things, some positions,have to be local or at least
hybrid, but others it kind ofdoesn't matter where you are and
we just that was the case forme.
I've actually moved with thisjob.
We've had a couple of oursenior people move and that's
the nice part about it if theyhave to move to other life
circumstances, they don't haveto change their job.
So I think that really helps.

(58:28):
Yes, yeah, and I had a littlecoffee chat.
I also am on slack and I have acolleague in Poland and she
unexpectedly had to go pick upher son when we had a meeting
scheduled.
So she just pinged me.
She says, hey, I'm going to bewalking, if that's not a problem
, like come see my Polishneighborhood during our chat,
and I love that, you know.
It was really nice.
I got a little window into herworld and her world as a mom and

(58:51):
you know I feel like I know herjust as well, if not better,
than many of the people thatI've worked with in person for
years.
So I fully advocate for the.
You know, when you can for thejobs that you can, why not
cultivate like remote teams?
And I would say you know thebusiness that you guys are in
lends itself to that very well.

(59:11):
I've talked to quite a fewinductive automation like
developers or people that workat systems integrators, and the
fact that they work with youknow they can do a lot of the
prep work ahead of time.
They may go on site, you know,to go implement things, but
that's not the majority of whatthey do and they find that they
get to do less travel workingthis way than like with the

(59:31):
legacy systems that they used tosupport.
Is there anything?
I guess this is your.
I'll.
Now that we're up on about anhour, I'll give you guys both
the opportunity to plug whateveryou want about inductive
automation or ignition at thispoint, including learn ignition,
because you can get more remotejobs in the industry this way.
That's my plug for you guys,yeah.

Speaker 3 (59:51):
I mean, check us out on LinkedIn, Check out our
website.
We have case studies, you know.
You said what might attractpeople.
I think seeing those casestudies gives you a real view
into what we could do in theindustry.
And if you are at all curious,go to Inductive University.
Start learning our software.

Speaker 1 (01:00:09):
Yeah, it is free.
So, honestly, if you'reinterested in this industry and
you're not taking advantage ofat least getting started on the
Inductive University, then maybethat's a sign to you that this
industry isn't for you, becauseit does require a bit of a
self-starter type of attitudeand those resources are readily
available and free.
So that'll be one of my numberone things, that if anybody says

(01:00:31):
, hey, how do I?
I'm interested in this industry, how do I get started?
It's a no-brainer to point thatone out, christine.
Anything from your side, it's ano-brainer to point that one
out.

Speaker 4 (01:00:41):
Christine, anything from your side, my brain's kind
of like halted from working fromthat storm If power kept
flickering.
I mean like welcome to Florida,I guess.

Speaker 1 (01:00:50):
Is it crazy out right now, or did it calm down Well?

Speaker 4 (01:00:53):
I mean it's pouring, but that's the case every every
afternoon.
Honestly, love that we'regetting rain, though we needed
this.
I say that every day, but whatcan I plug?
Yeah, definitely echoing thesentiment that you guys have
shared.
If you are just even remotelyinterested in this field, like

(01:01:16):
even people who are, like Idon't have any programming
experience, like what, like I'mnot a programmer, blah blah I've
had people who are succeedingin this um field, um designing
hmis and like working with justskater in general, um, who were
artists.

(01:01:37):
So, um, they were graphicartists and they flourished
because they know, I mean, theyare visual people and just
having an open mind of like, oh,I'm not a technical person,
it's okay.
I mean, if you're interested,go ahead and, you know, check
inductive university out, checkother things out.

(01:01:58):
Um, the great thing about thisindustry is that you're not
pigeonholed to, you know, likeone specific thing of technology
.
There's so much to learn,there's so much to explore.
I'm learning a lot every day,um, there's a lot for me to
learn too.
So I mean, if you are curious,um, tap into that curiosity and,

(01:02:19):
like you said, it does requirea little bit of self-starter
attitude, um, if you areexploring this, this on your own
.
If you are employed and likeyour employer is saying like
check this out, maybe you should, you're getting, yeah, you
probably.
But but also like tap into theindustry.
People too Like I love it whenpeople reach out to me.

(01:02:43):
Or just like stop me at ICC andask me questions about ignition
, or just okay, cause I wasabout to ask that's kind of.

Speaker 1 (01:02:49):
our last question is you can tell us what you have
coming up that we should lookforward to, if anything, and
where can people follow you orreach out to you if they want to
, either for business or, inyour case, I would say, even
like if they are interested,coming from the computer science
field into this industry, or ifthey're a woman in that area,

(01:03:10):
or any of the things that yousaid during the episode today
piqued their interest.
Most of our guests are prettyopen to connecting with other
people in the community, sowhere can people find you?
Where should they follow you?

Speaker 3 (01:03:22):
linkedin.
Yeah, yeah, and we will be atsome local career fairs here in
the area shortly, um, but that'scalifornia specific yeah,
linkedin for me.

Speaker 4 (01:03:32):
Um, I can be a little slow at responding because
there are some messages thatcome in that I'm like I yeah who
are you?

Speaker 1 (01:03:41):
yeah, don't like asking for her to be your career
coach also.
I'm overworking her.
I have to tell people, um, ifyou do want, you know, that kind
of valuable networkingexperience, particularly on
LinkedIn, if you have not met aperson before, you haven't added
value to them in some waybefore.
Like, did your power just goout again, or your lights, I

(01:04:04):
lost it again, but my wi-fi isokay, wow, um, yeah, so I guess.
Well, we're about to head offhere.
So if you do drop off, uh, staysafe.
Um, I hope your power is notout for a week, like it was for
me last time my power went outit'll be fine.
I'll just drink rainwater andsurvive off of gators but yes,

(01:04:26):
people like have a little commonsense when you ask strangers
for help as well.
All of us are really, reallywilling to mentor and help
people, but we're also allworking way too much, we're all
resource constrained and we wantto help you, but help yourself
to let us help you.
Right?
Don't come with a big ask rightoff the bat.

(01:04:47):
Try to be helpful, try toestablish some sort of
relationship.
Yeah, so we get this a lot inthe DMs and I don't want to
discourage, I want to encouragepeople to reach out.
But also, you know, hey say,say hey.
I listened to you on theautomation ladies episode,
christine.
I loved what you said about youknow, xyz, I'd love to connect.
That would probably get aresponse faster than something

(01:05:09):
like tell me how to get into theindustry um give me a job or
that.

Speaker 4 (01:05:14):
I can't, I don't have the power, but I am a natural
born yapper.
If you can get me to yap, Iwill yap All right.

Speaker 1 (01:05:22):
So it probably doesn't take too many
interactions of trying to addsome value to Christine and then
give her a stage.
So, ladies, with all of thetechnical difficulties that
we've had today, in addition tothe power outage and Wi-Fi
outage, and now Allie's out, Ithink we did a fantastic job

(01:05:46):
given our constraints.
So I really appreciate you guysjoining us.
Thank you so much and I hope tosee you at ICC again in person
next year.
I know it's sold out this year,but if you guys haven't, if
somebody's listening and you'recurious about ICC, they do sell
virtual tickets and you can joinremotely for a pretty
reasonable price, I would say.

(01:06:06):
You get to stream all thesessions and then ICC content, I
believe, is provided free abouta year or a half a year after
the conference, so people canalso check out recordings, like
from last year's conference, Ithink, at this point, without
having paid that fee.
So there's lots and lots ofdifferent ways to get involved.

Speaker 3 (01:06:26):
And lots of good information at no cost.

Speaker 1 (01:06:30):
Yes, all right, thank you, ladies.
Have a wonderful day.
Bye.