Keri Ginn

I attribute my success to really good mentors who taught me how to advocate for myself and how to communicate my needs effectively. Being neurodivergent, it's sometimes very difficult for me to communicate or understand what exactly is needed when someone's not being very direct. Having people take the time to explain things and let me ask them a million questions, without feeling that I was challenging them, that I just really needed more information, was really instrumental in helping me progress and grow. Now I try to do that in mentorship of younger women, passing on what was given to me.

Your name is all you have in this world, and once you do something that takes away the weight of your name, or the power that your name holds, you won't have a career. This advice has stayed with me throughout my career and guides how I approach my work, especially in a field where integrity is everything.

I would say there's an entire realm of jobs that can be done, and where you want to go in your career is completely up to you. But surrounding yourself with people who help you, cheer you on, and mentor you will help you get there in the best way possible. The opportunities are there, and with the right support system, you can achieve whatever you set out to do in this field.

Right now, the non-destructive testing industry is made up only of somewhere between 5% and 8% women, with the rest being men. While there have been a lot of really amazing women who have paved the way for those coming behind us, we're facing a huge workforce gap, not only in women but in men as well. The numbers of people going into skilled trades have decreased each year, which is concerning because your bridges, planes, buildings, roadways, and cars all get built by people in the skills trade. Without them, we won't progress further as a society. In April, I'm going with ASNT to talk to Congress on the Hill, to Senate and our congressional leaders, to advocate for skills trade and getting more funding for programs. We need to inspire more people right out of high school that within 2 years of working in the field, they can be making six figures. It's not a pipe dream - it's something that's really attainable because I did it. Two, three years in, I was making over 6 figures a year. There are jobs in clean environments like aerospace, or in fields like bridge inspection where every bridge in America has to be tested every two years. These are really skilled, high-paying jobs, and it's hard to advocate for that when no one even knows what the industry is.

Integrity is a huge aspect of my life. A lot of times what we do is the last line of defense, so to speak, before something gets used, and when you're talking about military equipment that's highly critical, if things go wrong, they go wrong very quickly. Being able to know that whatever I put my name to, I can stand behind is essential. In school, they told us that when we sign something that it's good, we have to be able to think that there will be a time where we will be called in front of a court of law, and sit in front of a jury of our peers, and have to stand behind that signature, knowing that we did everything right. In this field, you have to have integrity, honor, ethics, a good moral compass, all of that, because if people don't trust you, if they don't see that value in what you say, then you don't have a career.