Kellie Daffron

I attribute my success to the incredible exposure I've had throughout my career. I've worked at the National Security Agency for almost five years, on a NASA contract, at 6 KTAC, for TR for the Army, the Defense Information Systems Agency, and now on the Air Force's geospatial program. I think that's the coolest thing - how many people can say they've had that much exposure? The learning is my favorite part. You learn so much every single day, and the people you work with are so brilliant and eager to share that information with you. It's wild how much you can learn when you're surrounded by people like that. I've also been blessed with the best mentors you could ever dream of, especially when I was stationed at McConnell in Kansas, who pushed me through trainings and helped me develop professionally.

The best career advice I ever received came from a chief who sat me down and asked, 'What is in the best interest of your family right now?' He made me write a 5, 10, 15, and 20 year plan, and in that plan, it wasn't just where I wanted to be in my career, it was where I wanted to be in my personal life. He helped me understand where I could take what I had done so far and what I could do to support, in the best possible way, my personal life. We would sit in his office and talk about the life I wanted for my family, and it became a matter of figuring out what trainings I needed, what kind of education I needed, what kind of roles I needed to pursue to get there. It's been 6 years, and I'm past where I wrote down for my 10 year plan. The other piece of advice that stuck with me is to never burn a bridge. The military community is very, very small, and if you burn a bridge, you might meet that person again in the future. I've seen this proven true more than once in my career. Always align your professional life with what you want for your personal life, and use your personal life as a motivator in your professional life so you can support your passions and the things you really want to do.

If you're going to be in a field like this, accept now that there are going to be people that are going to make comments or be almost jealous if you're making it further than them. This is the Department of Defense, it's a lot of politics, a lot of older men that don't want to see a younger woman rising up or be at the same table. I've had so many weird comments made to me, and you'll hear a lot of active duty women say you'll be accused of doing things to get where you are. Just roll it off the shoulder. I've always just kind of sat there and stared at them, smiled, and said, 'Oh my gosh, okay, thanks.' It does motivate me - it's like, alright, well now give me 3 years and I'm gonna make it my sole mission to climb further up. Try to find a way to make those comments a compliment, because at the end of the day, it really is. How strange is it that this person is, you know, 60 years old, and I'm 30 or 35, and she's at the same table as me? Never burn a bridge. Just be like, okay, thank you, and then show them, because they'll find out very quickly why you're there. You don't even have to make it like you're trying to prove yourself to them - they'll find out.

The biggest challenge in my field right now is the change of tempo. One week, you'll just be doing the same mundane tasks, it'll be pretty easy, you'll find your groove, and then the next week, you're drinking out of a fire hose and you're like, oh my gosh, what's going on? As soon as you open your eyes and come to and kind of get your sea legs in that, it goes back to that mundane pace. This is hard even in active duty, but especially in contracting, because it requires so much more and a different type of thinking to do the tasks. In the systems engineering realm, it's a different way of thinking, a different level, and to drink out of a fire hose while doing those things is really, really hard. You never know when it's going to happen - you never know if you're going to sign on to your laptop today and be drinking from a fire hose. That's the hardest thing. Another challenge is trying to get more women into the field. The career field I joined in the military was very male-dominated - I think it's like 6% women and the rest is men. I've been in most positions where I'm the only woman, though right now I actually have a lot of women working with me.

I would say family first, always. You can cover for somebody, and you can pick up some extra tasks if their family needs it, and it will come back to you tenfold. Always, always, always family first. Everybody has issues, everybody gets sick, everybody's kids get sick, some people's parents get ill. If you have the resources to help them, or fill in, or back them up, absolutely do that, and even if it's not them directly, somebody will see that and they'll extend an olive branch. It's a lot more likely if you do that. For me, it's always, always, always family first.