Her Story
About Dusti
I just started in the custom ductile iron pipe fabrication and wholesale industry in November of last year, and honestly, I love it. I never had anything like this before - I never even put two thoughts about pipe and all that stuff before I started here. I got the opportunity through a recommendation from my brother-in-law who already worked at the company, and they were looking for a salesperson. I met with my current sales lead and we hit it off pretty well, so I applied and have been here ever since. In my role, I'm in charge of quoting pipe - we don't sell to individuals, we sell to other companies like Ferguson and HG Fowler. When I come in, I check my email to see if anyone wants quotes, then I make sure all of our orders that we've already put in go out on time by going out to the shop and making sure we're not falling behind or don't have anyone absent that could hold up the creation of the pipe. I also put out fires when issues come up, like if they got pipe that wasn't done to their specifications or if it was damaged in transit. Before this position, I worked for a company called Oregon Body Gift where we would remove brains for future study. We wrote up a paper that was published about preserving the brain and what method we use to preserve the brain, which was pretty cool. It wasn't legal for a long time to give your body parts away when you die, but now you can as long as you've already signed up and understand what's happening.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Dusti
01What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I've ever received is fake it till you make it. I've changed my career path so many times, and I'm like, oh, I don't think I'll be good at this, I don't think I'll be able to do this, and then I just lie to myself - yes, you will, you can do this, you can do this. You may think that you can't do it, but you just have to fake it till you make it. Especially when you're new to something, that's exactly what everybody has to do a little bit.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Don't overthink it. You can absolutely do it. In my profession now, it's a lot of logical, there's no emotion, there's not really a lot of 'well, I thought that we could do this.' No, you gotta be pretty precise with what you're doing and what you're asking for. But you can do it! If I can do it, anybody can do it. There's not a lot of women in my field right now - it's mainly a man-ran industry. Every time I send out an email, they're like 'yes, sir, yes, sir,' and when they call and eventually talk to me and they realize I'm a woman, they're like, oh, okay, alright. But I also don't want them to know - I want you to know that I can do my job. That's all you need to know. So no matter if they say you can't, you can. You can do anything most of the time better than them.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
A challenge would be that there's not a lot of women in my field right now. It's mainly a man-ran industry. It's funny, because every time I send out an email, they're like 'yes, sir, yes, sir.' When they call and eventually talk to me and they realize I'm a woman, they're like, oh, okay, alright. But I also don't want them to know - I want you to know that I can do my job. That's all you need to know.
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