Her Story
About Brandy
I didn't expect myself to get into the aerospace industry, I was just as surprised as anyone. I started to go to grad school for electrical engineering, and a lot of my professors kind of moonlighted teaching and they all worked in the aerospace industry full-time. What I loved about those classes was they gave all of their examples that were actually real-life examples that they had worked. So it was just super interesting to kind of get that forecast, that glimpse into what aerospace and defense was. I just found it fascinating, and I got the bug, and it hasn't left. I work at Northrop Grumman within the defense sector on the next generation of ICBMs, the Minuteman missile. I'm in the SEAT department, Systems Engineering, Integration, and Test, where my focus is weapon system integration, ensuring that all segments and all teams across the entire weapons system are integrating with one another appropriately. I manage a team that's a mixture of systems engineering and electrical engineering, which is perfect for me since my degrees are in electrical engineering and physics.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Brandy
01What do you attribute your success to?
One thing about me is I'm not scared to raise my hand, raise my voice. I make sure that when I speak that it's thoughtful, and I'm confident behind what I'm trying to articulate. So I make sure that when I'm in a room, the presence is known, and that everyone in that room knows that I bring value to the table. When I started in this field as just this lower-level entry engineer, I definitely felt like I was just kind of getting glanced over, people weren't taking me seriously, and I was like, you know what? No, enough of this. I don't like this feeling, it's achy, I didn't do all this work to just get ignored. So I just kind of did a 180 and haven't looked back.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
My biggest advice is to always be your best advocate. No one can advocate for you better than you. And whenever people maybe say, wait your time, or your time will come, no. If you feel that there's an opportunity, or something feels right to you, go for it. The worst you're gonna hear is no, and that's okay. Maybe that wasn't your time, but you gotta keep pushing yourself to where you want to go, because only you can do that.
Keep Exploring
More Influential Women · California
Join Influential Women and start making an impact. Register now.