Vanessa Jimenez

I think it's really been the people I've surrounded myself with, my community. I was telling my boss, you know, I'm happy what I'm doing and where I'm doing it, because for a very long time, I used to work in TV, and while I was very happy working in TV, it kind of got to a point where you kind of hit a wall, and you knew that was it for you. You weren't gonna move anywhere, you didn't see really kind of the support to help you learn new things to at least even if you wanted to make a lateral move, you didn't see the support there. So I think what I've kind of - I guess everyone kind of has to build their community and their family, per se, and I think that's what's really helped me in aviation the past decade.

Something that I've received that was helpful is that if someone tells you no, it's not the end of the world. Someone is gonna tell you yes. I always felt like I was a bother to ask people, hey, can you teach me this? Can I shadow you? Can you maybe write a referral for me. I was always too, not shy, but I just didn't want to bother people, because people are always going, going, going and very busy. But someone said, you know, just ask. The worst that they can say is no, and if they say no, then you can ask somebody else. Someone is gonna say yes. Also, what I've learned is finding mentors. I didn't really have a mentor growing up, so I think that's so important. And it's something that I see a lot now, especially at the company I work with, they have a mentor scholarship program. We do internships, and we mentor the students that work for us for the summer. So, I think those two things are big important things to do. Find mentors and just keep asking, even if someone says no.

I always tell young women that it doesn't matter that you're a woman, you can absolutely do whatever it is you seek to do. Gender doesn't really mean anything. I think the people that make it mean something maybe negative are the ones that may be, most of the time, the male gender that kind of puts women down, in a way. But after being involved, there's lots of organizations that are very female positive and supportive of women in the aviation industry and in film. One of the things that I can always tell them is that the gender, even the color of your skin, being a Hispanic woman, it doesn't matter. You can do absolutely anything that you set your mind to, and it kind of goes back to if someone says no to hiring you, to doing a project, financing it for you, or giving you a raise, if that person says no, someone else is going to come along and say yes to you, to your project, to your work.

I think there's lots of opportunities right now to still learn so much. Like I said, you could do so much online. I've had the opportunity to do a lot of workshops to continue my education that way. Especially with the technology that I use, there's always new camera equipment, always new applications. VR was a big thing a couple years ago, drones and AI, especially right now. So there's always something new. I think that is great, and there's courses you can take, conferences you can go to, some kind of workshop you can do, and then just kind of learning from your network as well. As for challenges, I would probably say getting older, right? Right now, I'm in my mid-40s, so it's very different how things kind of - the workforce is, there's a different mentality. How things are maybe not as urgent as I was always brought up to kind of finish things. Especially from a communication standpoint in the airline industry, things are always changing in the airlines. There's always something going on, or some kind of incident, and we have to react to that via communications. So I feel like I always think things are a little more urgent than others may not think they are, or they just kind of move a little bit at a different pace than I do. Another thing also that I think is a challenge is different roles, or the idea of how roles are kind of given or received. A lot of people now have the idea, you know, you hired me for A, B, and C, and that's all I'm gonna do, versus being very - wearing multiple hats and doing multiple things. So, I think a lot of people are kind of learning that can be a very good thing or can be a very bad thing, having the wearing multiple hats, because you get the burnout, too many things happening at once. But then it's companies kind of learning, okay, this person, yes, should not be doing 50 things at once, because they're gonna burn out and they're gonna leave us, they're a really great employee, and we don't want to lose them. So I think that's a big challenge that a lot of companies are still learning.

I feel like how I present myself, where I present my work, is kind of a reflection of me. I want to be proud of the work that I do. I want people happy with what they ordered from me, per se, if they ordered a project for me. I want them to be happy that they got what they wanted, or that they were working with me and collaborating on a project that they didn't know how it was gonna come to life, but I kind of brought it to fruition for them. And I think I've always been brought up that way. I'm the oldest in my family. I have a younger brother. So, growing up, my parents were very much - they put a lot of responsibility on me as the oldest daughter. I always had to take care of my brother, so I always wanted to kind of be helpful, in a way. So I think that's kind of translated from my personal life to my professional life. Always try to be helpful and make people happy with what they are asking of me. I think it's a reflection of my character.