Shawna explains the significance of teamwork and supporting the Customer:
“I am a jack-of-all-trades. In the branch I support, we have to be versatile and wear many hats. I enjoy that because it breaks up the monotony of doing just one thing day after day. I do mechanical engineering, support testing for aircraft, attend critical design reviews, and create 3-dimensional drawings for presentations and design. There is never a dull moment.
I believe every person on a team is important and therefore every contribution big or small matters. Sometimes you have to do the small oddball jobs or the tedious jobs that no one will ever know had to be taken care – and sometimes you accomplish the big jobs that gets the spotlight and Bravo Zulus.
As they say, there is no I in TEAM. Teamwork is a group effort and to be successful, communication is key. Things are constantly changing. Schedules change, designs change. In order to stay on top you have to know what is going on around you.
In our case – “customer” means THE NAVY. In my career, I have supported all branches of the military. They are our customer, which means every day that I come to work; I am supporting our military, which defends our freedom. What better job could you ask for?!
The best part is when I hear the results, such as we passed a ‘Critical Design Review, the Magic Wall is complete and operational and can now support the War fighter, the information obtained during testing was cutting edge and useful to the NAVY’.”