Influential Woman · Electric Utility, Engineering, Author, International Speaker
Jill S Tietjen
President and CEO, Technically Speaking, Inc.
Greenwood Village, CO 80112
Her Story
About Jill
I'm an electrical engineer, and my professional career has been and continues to be in the electric utility industry. I help plan power plants - I served as an expert witness before regulatory commissions. I've been on the board of Georgia Transmission Corporation, an electric utility, since 1997, so I'm still in the industry. I also spent 11 years on the board of Merrick & Company, an engineering firm. In 1979, I am a Fellow, Life Member of the Society of Women Engineers and served as national president in 91-92. In 1987, my colleague Alexis Swoboda and I started an essay contest on Great Women in Engineering and Science as an outreach program for 6th graders in Colorado and Wyoming. I have now successfully nominated more than 100 women for national awards, for state awards, for university awards, for organizational awards. I now have more than 20 books published and I speak all over the world. I don't only speak about women, I don't only write about women, but a lot of it is writing women into history - that's my passion. There are also opportunities for me to write technical papers and technical books and technical chapters, and I write those. I speak about one or the other of all of those kinds of things when I go and speak. I am the series editor for the Springer Women in Engineering and Science series. I have served on many non-profit boards, received many awards and have been inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame and the Colorado Authors' Hall of Fame and elected to the National Academy of Engineering. I am a graduate of the University of Virginia (B.S. Applied Mathematics, minor - electrical engineering; Tau Beta Pi, Virginia Alpha) and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (MBA). I am a registered professional engineer in Colorado.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Jill
01What do you attribute your success to?
I do know that people call me driven. I have had one friend who said, on a scale of 1 to 10, I'm a 15. I'm the oldest of 4, and I think I came out this way. I'm very achievement-oriented, I'm very outcome-oriented - that's how I derive my personal success. Give me a gold star, don't give me a vacation to Hawaii, give me another project when I finish my current project. I want to be doing meaningful things. And now, I believe that I was put on this earth to do certain things, and I damn well better be doing them, because that's what I'm here for.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
View each book you sell as a success. View each speech you give as a success. Take everything one step at a time. What happens is supposed to happen.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
The first thing is, and this applies to actually everyone, not just women engineers, is that you have to work hard, and you have to be good. You have to learn the material. You can't skate by and assume that things are just gonna fall into your lap. You have to demonstrate technical competence. And you have to be true to yourself in doing that, but you have to demonstrate confidence. And then you have to take risks and say yes to opportunities. You can't just be over in your little corner saying, oh, I'm doing such a good job, and they will see that I'm doing it. No, you have to put yourself out there, you have to write papers, you have to speak, you have to volunteer to take on tough assignments, and then you have to do an excellent job.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
In the electric utility industry the biggest challenge is posed by the growth in data centers paired with the aging infrastructure, the retirement of the baby boomers and fewer people available to follow in their footsteps.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Integrity. Excellence. Service.
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