On Sept. 4, the M&T Bank Center for Women & Business hosted Shelly Carter, Cristina Schoeck, Sara Wilbur and Teodora Lupu to lead a panel discussing the challenges of being women in male-dominated fields.
This event was hosted in collaboration with the Hamden Regional Chamber of Commerce and moderated by Director of M&T Bank Center for Women & Business Tuvana Rua.
Carter is Hamden’s first-ever fire chief who is both female and a person of color. Carter did not plan on becoming fire chief, in fact, she had no plans of becoming a firefighter at all. It wasn’t until talking to the lieutenant of a fire department that she thought of becoming one.
Schoeck, the Meriden fire chief, shares a different story. While in college to become a respiratory therapist, she joined the volunteer ambulance. Through that, she joined the volunteer fire department. After some time, she changed careers and became a full time firefighter.
Wilbur, much like the others, unexpectedly found her career after applying for a job with People’s Bank while studying marketing at the University of Connecticut. She is now the executive vice president of financial crimes at M&T Bank.
Lupu is currently in her third career change. She started in international trade before switching to portfolio management and data analytics. Her current job is as the head of U.S. SS&P Business Processes & Strategy.
During the discussion, each panel member spoke on the challenges they faced within their careers and gave advice from their experiences.
The main issue Carter faced in her career was switching departments. Having been raised in Hartford, after switching to Hamden, Carter needed to learn their procedures. “But the language, the processes, the policies, the Hamden way, I was like, ‘wait, so when you started talking about asking questions it’s not because I don’t know how to fight a fire. It’s because I want to know, why are you doing it that way?’” Carter said.
Schoeck experienced similar challenges early on in her career. Because of her upbringing, Schoeck did not know many of the skills other firefighters did.
“And when I joined a fire service, I didn’t have the same skill levels as a lot of the other men, but what I did have was the ability to learn and the willingness,” Schoeck said.
Similar to Carter and Schoeck, Wilbur used her curiosity to her advantage.
“In order to be strategic, I felt as though I had to understand the details at the lower levels first to then kind of be able to coach and develop the team and understand exactly what’s going on,” Schoeck said.
For Lupu, her main concern was getting people to listen to her. She believes that if an outcome is achieved through logical thinking, then that is the appropriate response.
“But I think it’s really important to trust your judgment. Obviously, think deeply and trust your judgment once you’ve done that thinking,” Lupu said.
As for the advice, each shared a variety of tips inspired by their own experiences.
“Go with that gut instinct,” Schoeck said. “That gut instinct that made you step up, that made you raise your hand, that made you walk into the center of the room and be a part of it. That’s what got you there. Don’t doubt yourself afterwards.”
Wilbur’s advice focused primarily on networking and building connections.
“Begin to build your network in terms of doing that. Now, you know, any sort of networking event like this is great, where you’re getting to know people, LinkedIn, things like that, but as you get into an organization, you know, set up those one on ones, get to know different people, ask other people that have been there, questions of, who are those people you should get to know,” Wilbur said.
In addition to this advice, many of the panelists spoke about authenticity, something that resonated with many members of the audience. Kathryn Sakoulas, a second year 3+1 marketing major, agreed with the advice.
“I feel like the most important thing that I learned from this was being authentic, because sometimes like you feel like you always have to be the one to fit in and be like everybody else. But I learned that it’s good to be okay, to be different and kind of shine bright wherever you want,” Sakoulas said.
