Rebecca Burns

Did anyone ever oppose your career plans when you were young or push you in a direction you did not want to go?

The show, CSI, was huge when I was in middle school and I desperately wanted to be a cool CSI-person "when I grew up." I still remember my 7th-grade math teacher definitively and authoritatively telling me, "no you won't" when I told her my plans to become a CSI. She ended up being right - mostly because I later realized I couldn't actually handle the morbid nature of the job - but the story still sticks with me almost 20 years later.

In layperson terms, what do you actually do at work?

I work on the "Business Strategy & Marketing" team for one of the products at my company; we're responsible for coming up with the long-term (3-5 year) plan for the product as well as developing a 1-year plan. So, we evaluate market trends & look at possible competitors then decide what sorts of things we need to be working on to be successful. My role in this is that I own the process, make sure we complete our work on time, and help the team identify any gaps that might exist.

What is the one piece of career advice you wish someone gave you when you were younger?

I actually received this advice early in my college career but foolishly didn't listen: apply to internships as a freshman! Freshman year is overwhelming and the internship application cycle, at least in engineering, started in early October. I was intimidated, shy, and unsure of myself so I skipped the career fair thinking "what's the point?" I remember professors and advisors telling us to go, that it was possible to get hired as a freshman, but the experience alone was worth it regardless. I should've listened. I did go my Sophomore year, but had I taken the time to check out the career fair the year before, it wouldn't have seemed so scary. And, who knows? Maybe I would've gotten an early start practicing my interviewing skills (or maybe even landed an internship!).

How did you pick your career? Did you know all along?

I think I'd say I've sort of fallen into my career through a process of finding things I didn't like, except for picking my major. In high school, I enjoyed chemistry & math so I made what I thought was a logical choice of declaring chemical engineering without understanding what it was chemical engineers actually *did*. It wasn't until late in my Junior year of college that I realized I didn't want to be a chemical engineer in the traditional sense - no process engineering roles at oil refining companies were in my future (but I also graduated during the Great Recession, so if they were willing to hire me, I wasn't exactly in a position to say no). However, college is expensive and I wasn't going to change my major - what would I even change it to? I got lucky and landed at Kimberly-Clark for my first position, far away from the oil & gas industry. With roots in Michigan & armed with an engineering degree, it was inevitable that I'd eventually end up in the automotive industry - again, something I definitely *did not* want to happen when I was in college. But I gained experience and actively looked for jobs that were more business-focused and gave me skills that might make it easier to switch industries. One cross-country move was all it took for me to eventually exit the automotive industry (at least for now - fingers crossed!).