Dear Reader,
I sat down with staff member Jenny Tang to talk about her work at M5.
Alex Reineke
So, Jenny, wow, you're a sophomore now, yes, how long have you been working at M5?
Jenny Tang
Actually, it was a whole year last month. It's kind of crazy. LinkedIn sent me a notification. I was like, you're one year at the job.
AR
What's your favorite part about your job?
JT
I'm always learning on the job, and I'm always slightly overwhelmed… but, yeah, I'm always learning stuff that I’m not learning in my classes.
AR
I'm curious now, what's an example?
JT
An example of something like, for example, I'm in the Systems and Signals class ECE213. And I've done a lot of, actually, two projects involving signal processing before this. So before I have all this theoretical foundation I've been applying it. And now I'm learning the theory and the projects I've done before are slowly starting to make a little more sense.
AR
So you seem to enjoy engineering.
JT
I'm so glad I picked this major. I'm so glad! I'm so glad I didn't stay in math.
AR
Oh, my God. Oh, my God, you were supposed to do math?
JT
I came in as a math major. Yes.
AR
That's so scary, Jenny! Well, I'm curious. Why did you switch?
JT
Because I didn't really know what I wanted to do in life until senior year, and then I took physics, C, mechanics and E & M, and I was like, Oh, I really like this, especially E & M. I really liked E & M. And then I took this women in blue collar workshop over summer in China, and they had, like, this electrician class. I took the electrician class, which is like, 10 days, and you just learn everything you need to know to be an electrician, and you make circuits and everything. And then I got certified. So, like, I'm like, Okay, now I got to do electrical engineering. That's so freaking cool.
AR
I feel as though, here there's a very big division, you know, it's interesting, because my family's from Europe, and so there, you know, blue collar jobs are looked down upon as they are in America. And so it's just really refreshing that you took this sort of blue collar certificate, and you're like, this has inspired me to get the white collar job.
JT
Because, it started as, like a feminist movement activity, really, yeah, they wanted to encourage more women to go into blue collar fields. And they want to make, you know, the field be better for women. Basically women electricians in China, they would, you know, not be trusted, because that's the stereotype that they can't really do the job, and so they hold this whole workshop in class. They have, like, electrician, wood work, all these fields. I just happened to pick electrician because I liked E & M. And they started a little company that only hires female electricians.
AR
Wow. Wait, this rocks.
JT
My mom was really supportive too. She found this organization first, and then she sent it to me, and she was like, “Do you want to do this?” I was like “Yeah”
AR
That's so wonderful. Great that you had so much support from your family.
JT
I know my mom is a big feminist too. Like, she's at HR right now, so she tries to hire more women and give more women more chances to join her company, just to do her part in it.
AR
Yeah, go, Moms. My mother is very similar in that regard. I mean, I feel as though that makes life easier when you have supportive parents. I think my mother was the one who encouraged me to go into engineering. My father, too, a little bit, but my mother strongly encouraged both my sister and me to go into STEM. My sister did not go into STEM, but I did so she got one. She got one out of the two.
JT
We need more girls in EE. We need more girls.
AR
Amen… Why is this? Why does engineering have to be masculine? You know what I mean?
JT
Yeah, I mean, you can blame patriarchy for everything. That's patriarchy. Not a fan. But I feel like, I don't feel like it's a very friendly field for women and any minorities. My interviews are just like a bunch of old white dudes interviewing. I guess it starts there.
AR
I mean, there are definitely, like, so many [men]. It's funny, you know, I feel like the women who wind up in engineering are always top of the class. Like, so, so brilliant.
JT
You got to work so much harder, exactly.
AR
How do we start to change that? How do you go from, from where we are, right now, right? How do we make it better for people who can't see themselves in engineering?
JT
I mean, yeah, I think, first of all, I need to be influential enough to have people hear me. And so, when I have enough power over this kind of thing, for example, if I'm like Baird, then I can hire more women. So I feel like working my own way up is the best way to be more influential. But I guess, on the way up, I can also, you know, just do the casual feminist thing that I do every day.
AR
So moving up the ladder is important to you... I'm curious about men in STEM… What can they do? Like, how do they support? How do we support women in STEM? How do we how do we encourage women in STEM?
JT
I don't know how to phrase this, but when I first joined SMV (super Mileage Vehicle Team), it was all guys like to this day, there’re three women in SMV. That was because I pushed so hard to hire one more woman on the team. There were two women last year, and it was just like, I felt very excluded at first, because they [guys] have their own bubble… and they don't usually include you in their conversation. I feel excluded when nobody talks to me. In that regard, this is why I say I want to move up the ladder, because when I'm the telemetry team lead (on SMV), I can decide who I want to hire, right? The two women that were on the team last year all did admin stuff. I can change that.
AR
This is great. I think we should have a part two at some point… Maybe this dialog is the stepping stone to making people aware. Maybe you changed somebody's mind. Do you have any messages, any last words before we go?
JT
Just try everything you want, I guess, like, I didn't think I was gonna go into engineering, and then I tried electrician school. And then I also learned how to weld last weekend. It's super fun!
AR
And then Jenny, maybe, maybe a final thought for the women of engineering.
JT
Women of ECE, keep pushing. Keep pushing.
AR
Yes, we love you (women of ECE). We want to say all of our love to you, Jenny, thank you so much for talking.
JT
Thank you.
