Thriving As A Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry: Alejandra Flores of Civilitude On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman In a Male Dominated Industry

An Interview With Ming Zhao

Be predictable: As fun as it sounds to be spontaneous, it doesn’t work the same way in a professional environment. Unpredictability can easily lead to chaos. You want to have things put together, organized, and be trustworthy. Your male peers will respect you if they know they can count on you and that you are a problem solver.

In the United States in 2022, fields such as Aircraft piloting, Agriculture, Architecture, Construction, Finance, and Information technology, are still male-dominated industries. For a woman who is working in a male-dominated environment, what exactly does it take to thrive and succeed? In this interview series, we are talking to successful women who work in a Male-Dominated Industry who can share their stories and experiences about navigating work and life as strong women in a male-dominated industry. As a part of this series, we had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Alejandra Flores.

Alejandra Flores is a Principal at Civilitude Engineers & Planners, an Austin-based civil engineering and planning services firm centered around land development for private and public projects. In this role, she employs her management know-how to project manage on-site plans, subdivisions, determine the feasibility of projects and coordinate with city of Austin staff for permitting. She also puts her engineering skills to the test by working on projects directly focusing on subdivisions, site infrastructure, and providing expert counsel.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood “backstory”?

I was born and raised in a border town in Mexico as the oldest sister of two (and the only girl). I was always a little bit “bossy” but I was actually developing my leadership skills from an early age. My parents are opposites, my dad is an introvert, but my mom is a big extrovert. I think that my mother being so outgoing really shaped me and gave me a lot of confidence as a woman.

My dad was born in a very small town (population of 6,000). When he was given the opportunity to go to college, he was trying to decide between becoming an architect or a dentist. Because architects in Mexico are usually a lot more hands-on and are required to do a lot more labor, he decided to become a dentist. My mom went to school to be an engineer. This is really significant because this is not a career path that women choose; she was the only woman in her graduating class. Her family wanted her to be an accountant, but my mom went against the grain and decided to pick engineering over accounting. Ultimately, she didn’t end up practicing.

I gained an interest in math courses over all others in the 4th grade and that really flourished in high school. I took on any and all projects that were related to physics, math and science. I remember going to sleep late because not figuring out a solution to a physics problem would keep me up! This is around the time I became interested in engineering.

Can you tell us the story about what led you to this particular career path?

Since I was in high school, I used to be involved in multiple extracurricular activities, from coordinating religious weekend retreats for 100+ teenagers, to being a part of the basketball team for the sake of traveling.

Later I went to a private-Catholic university where I was originally studying to be an optometrist. My dad highly encouraged me to become a dentist, but I wasn’t excited about it so optometry was a happy medium — the goal was to move back to Piedras Negras and open up my own practice.

One year in, I decided to switch because I wasn’t passionate about it. I knew I wanted to be an engineer but didn’t have a guide or baseline on how to get started, or a plan post-graduation. In the end, I switched my degree plan and decided to go all in on engineering. I was 1 of fifty engineering students at that university, and only 13 were women.

I must admit I wasn’t always the smartest one in my class, but I was always in the top 3 and was probably the most well-known student by my professors for being present, curious, outspoken, dedicated, and always determined to understand everything and making things right (some will describe these traits as a little stubborn). I got to charter the Society of Women Engineers chapter for the university, and managed to graduate magna cum laude.

I’ve never really known exactly what my long-term goal is, but for some reason I’ve been able to make the right decisions throughout my career that keep me learning and growing in an accelerated manner. I’ve never had a role model and don’t have anyone’s path to follow, but I’ve been lucky enough to have met many mentors throughout my career that have pushed me in the right direction.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

I went from a large engineering firm with 100+ employees to a 10 employee company with only one PE. At first, I joined this smaller firm because it was the option I had, but three months in, when I had the opportunity to go back to the larger company I realized that I loved the smaller firm.

Working at smaller companies, you get to see problems from the top and not just stay behind the scenes. It’s always exciting to get involved with companies and partners directly and tackle problems from all angles.

You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

1. Don’t take things personally: People don’t do things to you, they just do things. I’ve had many instances in which I felt attacked by someone’s tone. If you allow people to make you feel underappreciated or intimidated you will create a barrier and create resentment. But, if you switch your perspective and try to comprehend where they are coming from, and empathize with them, chances are they will start feeling more comfortable with you and you will not be affected by this. It only affects you if you allow it to.
2. Work hard: “Nothing beats hard work,” this is a line my boss once told a client when introducing me. I am a big victim of impostor syndrome. Thoughts of doubts cross my mind, especially in this industry — how will developers ever trust me? How can I win an argument with a contractor? How will I ever win projects? Working hard is the answer to all of those doubts. When you prove that you are accountable, consistent, and prepared, you show people that you’ve got what it takes, and they believe it because they see it.
3. Hold yourself accountable: You want your superiors to know they can trust you. The only way to move forward in your career is to make your boss’s life easier. Being proactive and taking ownership of challenges proves that you are reliable and ready to move up.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Can you help articulate a few of the biggest obstacles or challenges you’ve had to overcome while working in a male-dominated industry?

There are tons of obstacles when working in a male-dominated industry, but the biggest obstacle I encountered is impostor syndrome. This doesn’t happen in male-dominated industries only, but it definitely adds to the weight of that. There is no quick fix for this obstacle. It’s a work in progress, what helps is being surrounded by the right people and having a good support system who allow you to talk through your insecurities, validate your opinions, and help you reevaluate your perspective and insecurities.

Can you share a few of the things you have done to gain acceptance among your male peers and the general work community? What did your female co-workers do? Can you share some stories or examples?

1. Overprepare: Show up to every meeting prepared and ready to run through the project and answer questions. The best way to beat the perception that women can’t or shouldn’t be engineers is to come with a problem-solving mindset with everything you do
2. Don’t be shy, ask questions: It’s okay not to know things. Asking questions is a great way to get to know your colleagues better and establish trust. It’s better to ask the right questions than to move forward with a project and make a major mistake.
3. Don’t take it personally: As I mentioned before, try not to take things personally. People react differently and will behave differently in the workplace.

What do you think male-oriented organizations can do to enhance their recruiting efforts to attract more women?

The biggest component is that organizations need to be understanding of the differences in ways people operate. Women will work in very different ways with differing opinions and ways of expression. Being open to these differences can be very helpful.

Ok thank you for all of that. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your opinion and experience, what are the “Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry?” (Please share a story or example for each.)

1. Tenacity: You need to be consistently tenacious because nothing beats hard work. You need to show that you are reliable and know when to push yourself — from showing up to work every day to pushing for permits, for example.
2. Don’t be susceptible: Understand that everyone is human, and we all have bad days where we do not always communicate things the most appropriate way, don’t be susceptible to hurt feelings or taking things personally.
3. Stand your ground: You need to prepare yourself because things will get difficult with colleagues, clients, or contractors, so it’s important to really stand your ground. Be aware of when a difficult situation is getting emotional and try to bring it back to project goals and results.
4. Be predictable: As fun as it sounds to be spontaneous, it doesn’t work the same way in a professional environment. Unpredictability can easily lead to chaos. You want to have things put together, organized, and be trustworthy. Your male peers will respect you if they know they can count on you and that you are a problem solver.
5. Do not cut corners: Be practical, don’t overcomplicate things, but make sure the quality of your work has a high standard.

If you had a close woman friend who came to you with a choice of entering a field that is male-dominated or female-dominated, what would you advise her? Would you advise a woman friend to start a career in a field or industry that’s traditionally been mostly men? Can you explain what you mean?

Don’t let the male-dominated or female-dominated be a factor — pick something you love and you will be able to find a way to make it work.

Do what you can to show you are a valuable team member. Maybe hard skills cannot be learned from one day to another, but nothing beats hard work- be punctual, show up early, dress professionally. The things that you can do to be better, do them. The rest will come with time.

It’s okay that you don’t have all the answers as long as you know how to find them. It’s okay not to know because it has nothing to do with gender but rather experience.

Have you seen things change for women working in male-dominated industries, over the past ten years? How do you anticipate that it might improve in the future? Can you please explain what you mean?

There have been advancements and changes more because of reactionary policies. We’re seeing an evolution of time where people see that gender isn’t something that should factor into decisions — we’re seeing that women can provide a diversity of experience which allows them to be great leaders and engineers and attack problems from different angles.

There are definitely still walls and barriers that need to change, but the true next step is that women take action, prove themselves and tap into their power.

We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

Definitely Karla Souza. She is a Mexican actress whose career exploded, and she reached crossover success with shows like “How to Get Away with Murder’ and Hollywood movies. I’ve always been a big fan of her work. She did a Ted talk titled “Dulces son los Frutos de la Adversidad” which is a translated quote from William Shakespeare's “Sweet Are the Uses of Adversity.” In her Ted talk, she talks about the journey to her success in her professional career and the different challenges that forced her to make the hardest decisions in her personal life.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.