Mackenzie Triendl Calitri

The biggest piece of advice that I could give to anyone, including young women, is that you can do everything right, and still not get what you want, and still not exactly have things come out the way you want them to. I can actually say that, like, as someone who's currently in intelligence and trying to figure out their way there, you can create the most perfect product ever, and it can be well-researched and well-written and well-spoken, everything, and a principal or someone who you're reporting to, a policymaker, can just not want it or just have a personal bias against either you or the product, and that's just how it works. At the end of the day, like, hold your head high for what you're doing, and know that, like, you are supported in the long run, and that things will get better.

It's very hard to work in DC right now. I feel like the consensus is that the job market is shrinking here. As much as I would like to work in national security, that is purely up to what the universe kind of dictates. I've talked to a lot of women in the national security field just by virtue of what I do, and there's an understanding that it is a male-dominated field. A good portion of the women I've talked to are a little bit begrudged about that, especially in the open source field, which is relatively new. It's a very up-and-coming practice that a lot of contractors are currently looking at, and the military is trying to sink their paws into it, so there's a lot of bloating in that regard. But basically, yeah, it's a man's world is kind of the point I'm trying to make, and I don't think the scarcity in the job market is going to continue to make that worse or inflame that area.

I do think it's important that women should be able to share their voices in any industry, but especially when it comes to defense. We are such a marginalized community in there. It is primarily a man's world, and we are just as smart, and we can perform just as well as men can, especially on some of them more analytical political topics, so I believe that it's important that other women know that, and they're not exactly discouraged from the dogmatism that occurs in this type of field, and while it can be scary at times, like, you are doing the right thing as long as you're following what you want to do, and you should keep doing that, and if, you know, someone tells you otherwise, well, they're not you, so keep going. I very much value personal image, and I think it's important to get my word out there, or my opinion out there. Maybe in a sea of other people, but at the end of the day, I think everyone's voice has to be heard.