Sheena Dumas

I attribute my success to staying connected with my alumni and giving back to both my technical school and my university. As a Black woman in the industry, I get so excited when I go back and talk to students because my career has really changed and evolved. I started off as a process operator, and I ended up working in IT with no experience, and I learned. Students get so excited and amazed when they hear my background because I started off like them, getting my degree, and now I'm working a salary job, working days, with work-life flexibility. I can come back to them and give them that hope and show them that you don't have to get stuck in a box, don't limit yourself. Maybe this is your stepping stone to get in, and then work your way up in the company where you can get off of shift work and have that work-life flexibility. I want them to know don't stop dreaming and get to wherever your goals might be. If they see themselves well beyond just being an operator, there's more things to look about past just being an operator.

The best career advice I've ever received is to always stand up for yourself and don't take no for an answer. I've learned to take feedback, positive feedback as much as I can, and get mentorships. I have mentors throughout my career here that give me great advice, especially with career and where I see myself next in the future, and going through assessment periods to make myself learn more and to do better and be able to grow myself in the company. I'm not willing to be like, okay, I learned that and I'm done. I'm willing to take as much advice as I can get from these top mentors that take their time off the day to mentor me, to help build my character, to help build my confidence, and think outside the box.

My advice is, you can do anything if you stay true to yourself. Don't let anyone take your shine away, just because you're a woman, because a woman can do anything that a man can do. Just be bold, be brave. And you can go anywhere in this company as long as you stay true to yourself.

The biggest challenge is not knowing what's coming down the pipeline. We have headquarters and we are mostly field sites, so the biggest challenge is the communication back and forth from corporate to field. It helps to know what's coming so you don't be blindsided, because we have to deal with so many different business and shareholders on the site, and getting their buy-in on projects that they are unaware of and we are unaware of. Just having that communication is what's lacking. Once we get the communication through and get people involved from the site and connect with headquarters and also with our team, we end up being a great team, but it's just the communication that's lacking. That's the part that bothers me a lot.

My values would be my family. They're the ones that make me who I am, and they're the ones that supported me, especially my husband, so my value is always family first. But also, having a great team here makes it all worthwhile. If you have good leadership and a good team, I will value that more in a company than overpay.