In an interview with Siliconrepublic.com, Ann-Marie Holmes, Fab 24 factory manager at Intel Ireland, reflects on her 23-year career with the company and offers advice for those who may follow in her footsteps.
Holmes interviewed for a job at Intel after leaving college and the multinational chip-maker has been her employer ever since.
While she has worked at the same company, Holmes has held down a number of different roles, primarily involved with leading teams. She admits she never would have realised as a student that a career in engineering would be so focused on working with other people.
Holmes also learned that doing something you love makes it easier to work hard at it, and that a broad understanding of a subject offers a helpful base from which to choose a specialised field.
She also learned how to adjust her working life to suit her personal life. In the early years of her carer as an engineer and team leader, she often travelled to the US to transfer back technologies to the Irish workforce. When she became a mother and relocation was no longer option with two young children to look after, she took a sideways move within the company and continued her progression from there.
This decision ended up being the most fruitful of her career, as Holmes says her role as transfer manager taught her a lot about leadership. She continued to hone her management skills in successive roles until she became the factory manager of Fab 24 – a job she evidently takes a lot of pride in.
Holmes’ own career path shows the wealth of opportunity a career in engineering can offer, and how progression doesn’t always have to come at the sacrifice of family life.
Women Invent Tomorrow is Silicon Republic’s year-long campaign to champion the role of women in science, technology, engineering and maths. On 7 March 2014, we will kick off the campaign’s second year. Let’s change the ratio.
