Her Story
About Carlie
Carlie Chimenti serves as a beverage allocation scientist, collaborating with major food corporations to develop everyday products ranging from refreshment to nutritional items, with a primary focus on alcohol beverages. In this role at a flavor company, she creates products from concept to completion, emphasizing flavoring for shelf stability, safety, and taste, while balancing customer relations, bench experimentation, tasting, and product development. Her career path includes an associate of science degree with honors from community college followed by a bachelor of science in dietetics and food science from Rutgers University School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, where she was inducted into Kappa Omicron Nu. Prior experience encompasses nutrition and food service roles, healthcare support during the pandemic, bartending, distillery work, and serving as a flavorist assistant.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Carlie
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to an insane level of drive and an insatiable curiosity about the world. Both come from my parents - we grew up with four Type A's under one roof, all very busy and charismatic people. My curiosity makes me want every experience, read every book, listen to every podcast, and travel to many countries. I wake up every day still shocked that I'm here, and staying curious and open-minded gets you far.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best piece of career advice I've ever received comes from my father: never tell yourself no, wait for the world to do it for you. Women especially tend to invalidate themselves before even trying, like thinking they can't apply for a job because they're not qualified. If you go into every situation expecting a yes, you can handle disappointment, but you'd be shocked how many things work out when you don't tell yourself no first.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Get that degree - a degree is the one thing you can get as a woman that a man will never be able to take from you. Stop being so afraid to take up space. I am 5 foot tall with the audacity of somebody much taller. Don't be so afraid. You are the maker of your own universe, you just have to be able to pick up the keys. It's scary to get in the driver's seat, but you have way more agency over your life than you think you do.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Challenges include global warming being very real with finite resources on the planet, affecting sourcing, crops getting diseases, and sustaining feeding nearly 9 billion people. Opportunities are in getting more creative with food choices, packing as many nutrients as possible into products for an affordable price, especially for people who don't have energy to cook full meals after work. We're in a sci-fi moment of how many nutrients we can put into one product.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Integrity is always going to be my biggest one. I want my head to hit a pillow at night knowing that I did the best I possibly could with what information I had at the time. Being very authentic and true to who I am is incredibly important. I will never step over another person to get myself ahead. If I'm getting ahead, it's because I deserve to be there. Remaining authentic - I have ADHD, some people think I'm very funny, other people think I'm very odd, and they're both correct.
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