Her Story
About Ameila
I've been in the automotive industry for 6 years, working as a Sales Executive at Jaguar Land Rover dealership. I actually hold three titles: I'm an Encore Specialist, which means I'm the tech person who goes over all the cars and everything; I'm a Sales Executive; and I'm an SV Specialist for their special vehicles program, where cars are completely customized through England with things like customized wheels and embroidery on seats with names and nameplates. The refrigerators mostly come standard on them. Before getting into automotive, I spent 10 years in banking, but I decided to leave because it wasn't customer-based anymore - it was more transactional. I took a year off, and then my mom happened to get her car serviced and called me about a job opening. I told her I wasn't selling cars because I thought car salespeople were all cheesy, but they called me in about a technology specialist position where I would teach people how to use their cars. I thought 'that's a real job?' and it was kind of cool. I started that way, literally going to people's houses and teaching them how to use their cars. Then COVID came around, and they gave me an opportunity to sell. I probably kicked and screamed for 6 months saying I didn't want to sell cars, but then I realized I had the advantage because I knew more than the guys I worked with. My main area of expertise is customer experience - the whole experience of how you treat somebody, how you follow up with them. Just because a lot of times now everything's on the computer and people are not face-to-face anymore, so if they're gonna get out of their house, make it worth it.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Ameila
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to the support of family and just knowing I'm achieving something, along with hard work. Having that family support system has been really important to me, and it keeps me motivated knowing that I'm accomplishing things and working hard at what I do.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I've ever received is that you never stop learning and to be able to take criticism. I was always the youngest one around, so I'd have a lot of older people tell me about the job, and I would always listen. But now, the newer generation thinks they know everything, and I'm just like, you don't - you're here to learn more. It's important to stay open to learning and to accept constructive feedback, because that's how you grow in your career.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
My advice to young women entering the automotive industry is don't be afraid to be yourself, even though it's a male-driven industry. Don't let them talk down to you - just because you're a female, don't let them tell you you can't do it. I've seen other girls in the industry face this. You have to deal with customers who underestimate you, like I would have customers be like, can you get me a sales guy? Or they would call on the phone or come in and ask, are you the secretary? And I'm like, no, I know how to sell too. It's kind of this ego thing, I guess. But you have to break the mold and show them that you are one of the better people to speak with to make this investment.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenge in my field right now is that it fluctuates - it's not a guarantee because you're in a commission-based job. That was my whole thing before, why I didn't want to get in, because I saw it was commission only and I was like, how do people survive like that? We were part of a big boom after COVID where everything was overpriced and everyone was paying and they didn't care, and that was insane. And then it went right back to normal, and now you're just like, oh, this is reality. So the challenge is just to keep working at it, even when you don't want to do this anymore. You have to keep working at it and push through the fluctuations.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The values most important to me in my work and personal life are being me, having integrity, and just giving my all in everything. Integrity is such a wide umbrella for me - it means being honest and knowing when you don't know how to do something and asking, rather than lying about it and saying yeah, I know how to do that. I believe in not lying about what you can do, but instead being upfront and saying I don't know how to do it, so you can learn how to do it well and not have to ask again.
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