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Corporations today are looking for a diversity of ideas, says Navajo Robert Whitman, board chairman of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES, www.aises.org) and professor of electrical engineering at the University of Denver (CO). "They want different approaches to engineering design. They want as many different ideas as possible to come up with an innovative product."
To that end, and with the support of AISES and their own Native American networks, employers actively seek out Native American technical pros. At a typical AISES meeting, large corporations vie for the best and the brightest Native American technical college students.
But the demands on students hoping to land good technical jobs can be overwhelming. For Native American students, the challenge is to connect with a company where they can find a good fit. For Native Americans, that means adjusting to a job that takes them far from where they grew up.
Many Native American students have taken a less-than-direct route to and through college, which can add to the difficulty of a job search. Experience in co-ops and internships or even research work with faculty at school can be helpful, Whitman says. "These are all good resume builders and can boost confidence as well," he observes.
Among the handful of Native Americans we interviewed for this article are some who took indirect paths to their jobs, and several who have relocated far from their family homes. But each one stayed focused on a career goal and has found a comfortable niche.
Navajo Kendrick Keyannie: field work at Bonneville Power
Kendrick Keyannie, a member of the Navajo nation, went to college at Northern Arizona University (Flagstaff) where he discovered EE and decided it was the field he wanted to pursue. But although he enjoyed engineering, he did not like the idea of a job that meant sitting indoors behind a desk every day.
Keyannie discovered that many positions at Bonneville Power Administration (BPA, Portland, OR) are anything but desk bound. During college, he interned at Bonneville for three summers, from 2001 to 2003. He worked for the test and energization department, testing high voltage breakers before they were installed at locations in Washington and Montana. This was real field work, and "after two summers I knew it was what I wanted to do," Keyannie says.
After earning his BSEE in December 2003, Keyannie joined BPA as a full time engineer. The job requires "a lot of field work," Keyannie says. "I like that. I like to be outside." Recently married, Keyannie plans to settle with his family in Spokane. But he still likes the active nature of the work.
Looking back on his education, Keyannie admits that staying focused was sometimes hard. "The important thing is to put in the effort and get good grades. During the first years it's just the grades. Then you need internships."
Keyannie urges college students looking for internships to "get out there and advertise yourself. If you have a good resume, doors start opening up."
Taking a job far from home was a hard decision. "A lot of Native Americans get homesick," Keyannie says. Most of his own family lives on the Navajo reservation in the Four Corners area where Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah meet. He says they had misgivings about his moving so far north, but "my mom was really supportive of the choices I've made."
Navajo-Hopi Jeannie Sandoval: IT at Los Alamos
Jeannie Sandoval (Navajo and Hopi) took the long road to her present position as a technical staff member for the information management division at Los Alamos Laboratory (Los Alamos, NM), a national Department of Energy lab.
Sandoval graduated in 1982 from Kansas State University (Manhattan, KS) with a BS in agriculture and animal sciences. She was planning a career in veterinary science and took a position with the Emergency Medical Animal Hospital in Phoenix, AZ. But her plans changed in 1988 when she was invited to the Navajo Reservation in Leupp, AZ as part of a program to train computer programmers for the defense industry.
Sandoval trained for a year and came in at the top of her group of about thirty. In 1989, she spent six months as a contractor to McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Co (now Boeing, Mesa, AZ), working with the Longbow Apache software team. At the end of her contract McDonnell Douglas offered her a permanent position as a member of the technical staff. She worked extensively in Oracle, something Los Alamos was looking for when they hired her eight years later in 1998.
Today, as a project leader in the health and safety division, she designs and develops software and works on Oracle applications, supporting the whole software engineering life cycle. While colleges teach software life cycle methodology, not all companies use it effectively, says Sandoval. Los Alamos National Laboratory does.
Her group, advanced information and business application development, has about eighty technical people. The group looks for people with Oracle training who are also strong in software quality management.
At Los Alamos National Laboratory, the focus has been shifting to homeland security since September 11, 2001. "There's a lot of opportunity for growth," Sandoval says. "Los Alamos is a frontrunner in business and science so IT here is always changing."
Successful employees at Los Alamos Laboratory know how to stay ahead of those changes. The lab's motto is "Excellence and Innovation" and it has a high number of PhDs and post-docs among its employees. Sandoval says their presence inspires her to pursue an advanced degree.
Sandoval, one of ten female Native Americans on the Los Alamos Laboratory technical staff, is happy with the direction her career has taken, even though it is a far cry from what she envisioned when she was in school. "I tell my nieces and nephews, you can be whatever you want. Everything is doable if you believe in yourself."
Navajo Jason R. Largo: data ops at AT&T Wireless
Jason R. Largo also changed his career plans in school. It his case, internships pushed him to rethink his specialty. Today he is a national data operations subject matter expert for the operations group at AT&T Wireless (Bothell, WA).
Largo, a Navajo, spent 1995 and 1996 at Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ) before transferring to the University of Advancing Computer Technology, also in Tempe. In 1998, he heard about an intern program at AT&T Wireless. Through AISES, he lined up an interview with the company and landed a summer internship in Bothell, WA after his third year in college.
He had been studying animation, multimedia and Web design, and took the internship "because I needed to pay off student loans," he says. At AT&T Wireless, he immersed himself in cellular digital packet design (CDPD) and learned "a lot about the industry at the corporate level."
When he began, Largo says, "Wireless was new to me. It was not what I expected." He found himself in a fast-paced technology environment, and he loved the challenge. "The technology is always evolving," he says.
His operations team of three to four people swelled to ten by summer's end. When his supervisor became a manager, Largo was offered a full time job even though he hadn't yet finished his degree. He worked with technicians on site to familiarize engineers with new software and help them install it. Over the next three years he built his knowledge of data operations and added more responsibility.
Largo has launched a successful career at AT&T Wireless, and he recently enrolled at the University of Washington (Seattle) to finish his bachelor's degree in technical communications. He says he may go on for a masters.
Largo credits much of his success to AISES, the group that helped him find the opportunities he wanted. "One thing that was always helpful was having a grounded group like AISES nearby when you have questions," he remembers. "What helped me a lot was being involved with peers who wanted a better foundation for education." His parents and family, too, were always very supportive.
Spokane Indian Ricky Jennings: a focus on Microsoft
Ricky Jennings focused early on a specific company, not just an industry. Jennings, a Spokane Indian, is program manager at the Microsoft Network (MSN) division (Redmond, WA).
Jennings planned on a technical career in computers as early as high school. By the time he reached Renton Technical College (Renton, WA) in 1995, he knew he wanted to work at Microsoft.
He sought out Microsoft employees at job fairs in Seattle and at the University of Washington and heard them talk about their work. He says, "You could hear the excitement in their voices."
Jennings earned his associates degree and a technical certificate in computer networking in 1997. He did contract work, offering PC desktop support in the Seattle area for companies like Intel, IBM and Entex (now part of Siemens). But he never lost interest in Microsoft, and eventually found a job listing that matched his focus, doing server support in the company's data center.
In 2000 he was hired as a systems engineer supporting Microsoft's HP servers, Windows 2000, SQL and data center operations. His team, Mission Critical Server Support (MCSS), included engineers with a variety of skills. Jennings' specialty was hardware.
Since then he has expanded his responsibilities and become a program manager for data center software. His team reviews the planning and implementation of services, including design and spec reviews, as each service is developed. The team ensures that new software has the necessary "tools and mechanics" to keep functioning during a power outage or service break. "We make sure that our customers can work without interruption," Jennings explains.
Jennings has his eye on a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification, an industry-wide credential that will bolster his career in program management.
IGT: relaxed settings lead to creativity
Gaming technology manufacturer IGT (Reno, NV) looks at both an applicant's degrees and whether the person is suited to IGT's unique atmosphere, says Teresa Macias, human resources and equal employment opportunity officer. "We're looking for both gaming experience and creativity," she explains. IGT has a relaxed working environment for engineers with sharp minds and creative ideas. The office includes popcorn machines, video games and football tables. For IGT, the question is whether engineering applicants will fit into the company's style. "They don't just sit in a cubicle here," she says.
Native Jason Hohman: proud of his heritage
Firmware engineer Jason Hohman is comfortable in the IGT environment. He has been with the company since 2001. Hohman knows that his grandparents were Native American, but says they never registered with nor identified their tribe. Many in their generation did likewise, because they feared a Native identity would lead to discrimination. Hohman, however, is proud of his Native heritage.
Hohman earned his associates degree at Truckee Meadows Community College (Truckee, CA), and then earned a BSCS at the University of Nevada (Reno) in 2001. At the same time, he was also supporting and raising a family.
His first exposure to computers came when he was well into college. He did his first internship at IGT in 1999 and began by programming pay tables and making harnesses and connectors for games. "I highly recommend internships," he says. "The company gets to feel you out and you feel them out."
Finding the internship, he says, was "a stroke of luck." An IGT employee was filling in for one of his professors and told the class about internships there. Hohman stepped up to seek the next internship that became available.
Now he works as a programmer in the firmware department where he helps create new games. The new game life cycle begins as a concept in the game design department. The concept then goes to the pay table department and then on to firmware. This is where Hohman and his twenty or so engineering colleagues code the game. "There are some great brains here," says Hohman of his fellow engineers. "If you come up with an idea, they can come up with a game for it." Hohman says his own job emphasizes both creativity and zero defects.
Although he may seem well suited for this work, he sometimes doubted whether he would ever make it through school and find work at a company like IGT. "In college, I had a wife and three kids. I wanted to quit more than once. My wife helped me keep my drive," Hohman says. "I truly understand people who don't want to finish college. But my advice is: don't give up. If you can stick it out, do it."
Rob Hoth, Athabaskan: a boost from AISES and IBM
Rob Hoth of the Athabaskan tribe in Alaska is a senior IT specialist at IBM in Rochester, MN.
Before college, Hoth spent several years doing manual labor, but his parents encouraged him to find work in a computer-related field. In 1989, he took a data entry job at the Fairbanks North Star Borough Community Research Center, a nonprofit that collects socio-economic information about the Fairbanks area. At the center, Hoth manually transferred data from VisiCalc, an early spreadsheet program, to Lotus 1-2-3. "It was a time-consuming process, but it helped me learn the basics of personal computers," he says.
That computer experience, he says, gave him the confidence to enroll in college. By 1996, Hoth had earned both a bachelors in MIS and a BSCS with a minor in math from the University of Alaska-Fairbanks (UAF).
In the fall of his senior year, Hoth attended a UAF job fair where he met with representatives of IBM. "The interview was not like any interview I had ever done before. It lasted thirty minutes. During the first twenty-five minutes, the interviewer asked questions about the ski slopes and the weather in Alaska. I went with the flow and tried to communicate as clearly and calmly as possible. When the interviewer asked more common interview questions in the last five minutes, I was prepared for them."
Hoth went to Rochester, MN for a second, in-depth interview, which lasted eight hours. In the end, he was offered a job as an IT specialist, integrating, deploying and developing computer applications. He started in June of 1996.
IBM works closely with AISES to recruit Native American grads; IBM recruiters attend the AISES conference every year. They generally pick about forty students for full interviews at IBM, says senior IBM diversity staffing program manager Bill Lawrence.
Hoth now works in the global test organization of IBM Global Services, designing, implementing, testing, deploying, and supporting Lotus Notes applications. "When a new customer has a business problem I work with the IT architect to help define the problem and work out ways to solve it," he explains. He also oversees the work of several other developers. "I get in there if it's too complex," he says. During his time at IBM, Hoth has been part of five invention disclosures that have produced one U.S. Patent and one patent pending application.
The most successful technologists, says Hoth, are those who seek out new ideas. "There's always a better way to do things. You just have to find it. Don't be satisfied with the status quo."
Cherokee Ray Clay of United Defense: persistence leads to a job
ME Ray W Clay III of the Cherokee nation is a survivability engineer with United Defense (UD, Minneapolis, MN), working on the Future Combat System for the U.S. Army. His department is responsible for ensuring that the crew of a military vehicle can return safely from a mission.
Clay grew up in Missouri and worked his way through college with odd jobs in stores, car lots and meat packing plants. "I took courses as time permitted. At the end of twelve years, I had a wife, a son in second grade, college debt and a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering from University of Missouri-Rolla," he says. He received the degree in 1996.
Clay's interest in engineering started with his drafting classes in high school. That's when he discovered he had a talent for drawing three-dimensional images on paper. The teacher talked to the class about professions that involved drafting and one was engineering. That interest carried him through the years of part-time study.
Six months before graduation, Clay started looking for a job through the university placement program and minority recruiting events on campus, but the results were discouraging. He began asking classmates about their internships. When one described his work at a Raytheon site in Waco, TX, "I was hooked," Clay says.
Clay called a Raytheon recruiter and they agreed on an interview the next time the recruiter came to campus. But when the recruiter finally arrived, Clay didn't get on the interview list. "I wasn't going to let this stop me. I waited outside the interview room until a break came and I found the recruiter. I reminded him about the conversation we had six months earlier. We talked in the hall for about five minutes and he said, "Lets go to Waco to talk to the engineers.'" Within days Clay had landed his first job after graduation. He stayed there for five years.
In 2001, Clay was ready for a change, and made his move to United Defense, where he has worked on technology for several challenging weapons programs.
Clay's flexible schedule at UD allows him to volunteer every other Friday at his neighborhood middle/high school. "During my time in the classroom, I encourage the students to think about being engineers or anything else that they will truly love doing when they finish school. I believe that a person who understands math at an early age can go much further and be much happier in school," he says.
"Don't let anyone or any life circumstance stop you from reaching an honorable goal. My goal was to be an engineer, provide a good home for my family, grow in my faith with God and make life better for as many people as I can reasonably reach. I may not be able to change the world, but I can make it better for some," Clay says.
Tlingit Laura Curtis: better medical care on the reservation
Laura Curtis, a member of the Tlingit nation of Alaska, is a senior research scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (Richland, WA), a contractor for the U.S. Department of Energy. Like many others, Curtis finished college while working and starting a family. She began in 1980 and got her BSCS with a math minor in 1989 from Bemidji State University (Bemidji, MN).
Her technical career started in 1990 at the Pacific Northwest National Lab as a programmer and systems administrator. She wrote programs for payroll, accounting and other departments of the lab.
"Over the years my systems administration work decreased and I moved into research," she says. One of her projects was a three-dimensional ultrasound system. From 1996 to 2003, she was one of a six-person team involved in the design, development and implementation of the system. Curtis was the technical lead on the project and eventually became the project manager. The team won Discover magazine's 1997 Discover Award for their work.
The first version of the system was tested in Bosnia by an Army physician in 1996. "We sent version two to Mt Everest with the same physician in May 1998 and again one year later," for a series of experiments on blood flow in extreme conditions, Curtis says.
In 2001, Curtis took the imaging system to the Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations near Sioux Falls, ND to train technicians on its use in prenatal exams. Curtis was delighted that she could help bring this kind of service to the reservation where medical care is often scarce.
Curtis was born in a small Tlingit village near Sitka, AK, and moved to the Cass Lake Chippewa reservation in northern Minnesota when she was nine. When she returned to her home in Minnesota for a recent high school reunion, she realized that she is one of only a few in her high school class who have moved away. Curtis, who has raised her own children off the reservation, says her childhood community "is always close to my heart."
A cultural tug-of-war
Annabelle Rodriguez, a member of the Laguna Pueblo in southwest New Mexico, is cultural and historic resource program manager for the Department of Energy's Hanford site (Richland, WA). She says Native Americans, especially those who grow up in the close-knit environment of the reservation, are often reluctant to travel far from home for college or technical jobs. It's an AISES mission, she notes, to help shorten that distance.
Both Curtis and Rodriguez are members of the AISES Columbia River chapter. The chapter meets regularly to host Native American and recruitment events and raises money for scholarships for Native American students.
AISES members like these show Native American technical folks that they can keep their community spirit and heritage alive and grow in their careers wherever they are.
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