bloom: Enora Almeida
Going full circle: from mentee to mentor
company: OMP
Job title: supply chain consultant
Support from a mentor at the right time can make all the difference. Meet Enora Almeida, a Supply Chain Consultant at OMP, who is now giving back by inspiring more girls and young women to pursue engineering. Curious to know how she's making an impact? Read on to discover her story.
Mentoring as a path to growth
"Growing up in Normandy, I was very close to my grandfather and uncle. Even though my brother and cousin were also around, I was always the one eager to fix things like car engines or garden tools. My family encouraged me, which made me adventurous and open to exploring, experimenting, and trying new things. That is where my passion for engineering begun.
Throughout my studies I still gravitated toward it. I did consider going into medicine, but I'm too scared of needles, so that wouldn't have worked. I was planning a career in engineering when I was interviewed by a company for an apprenticeship in industrial logistics and I fell in love with it."
Now you work in the Supply Chain industry, and your first apprenticeship was in industrials logistics. What was it about that job that made you fall in love with the sector?
"My challenge was finding ways to provide better logistics services that helped our customers: letting them focus on adding value to their products by externalizing their supply chain. I had a mentor during the 2 years of apprenticeship. Because I showed I was interested in going beyond what was expected, my mentor went out of his way to give me challenging tasks throughout the 2 years I worked there."
"I didn't know it at the time, but my mentor had been talking about me to his manager, the Operational Director for the whole company."
Can you tell us about the type of projects you did at this time and what you learned from them?
"I was working as a consultant, observing processes in the warehouse and on the production line so I could identify improvements in how parts were received. After gathering insights, I proposed a plan and a commercial offer for them. It was this sort of challenging project that showed the trust my mentor had in me.
I didn't know it at the time, but my mentor had been talking about me to his manager, the Operational Director for the whole company. At the end of my 2-year apprenticeship, the Operational Director gave me a choice: a new project that was like what I had already done or a place on a task force working with him to completely turn around a site in Normandy within three months."
"I started by listening to the people working there, trying to put myself in their shoes as I followed them around the workshop and even learned how to build the large crates they produced while listening and watching these talented people share their secrets and skills."
Refining her superpower
Coming into that situation, aged just 21, must have been challenging. Can you tell me more about it?
"Even though Normandy was home, which made it a little easier to settle into the new project, I still found it tough to start with. I had to work with men who had been working at that company for 40 years and they struggled to trust my suggestions. The old expression says that trust is difficult to gain and easy to lose, and that's true. I started by listening to the people working there, trying to put myself in their shoes as I followed them around the workshop and even learned how to build the large crates they produced while listening and watching these talented people share their secrets and skills. I began to understand what they did and how they did it. And that's important. If you don't listen, it doesn't work."
After being so successful in an engineering situation, how and why did you make the change to software?
"I was offered a position as a project engineer to implement ERP software at the industrial packaging site. While there, I helped a colleague improve the order process. After making a few adjustments, they told me that the changes had saved them hours of work. That's when I realized that I enjoyed solving these types of problems.
"When COVID hit, I was put in charge of managing the COVID vaccine launch from our end because I could speak German fluently when communicating with our German logistics center."
Even so, I decided to move. I wanted to learn more languages and use the ones I already knew - French, German, English, Dutch, and Portuguese (partly due to my Brazilian husband). And I'm now learning Spanish. I even learned some ancient Greek and Latin in school. Language is so important for connections and understanding. I also wanted to live in a different country and travel more. That's why I went to Belgium, where I worked in the quality team of a European logistics center, making sure processes were good. When COVID hit, I was put in charge of managing the COVID vaccine launch from our end because I could speak German fluently when communicating with our German logistics center."
Listening and understanding to form connections in different languages: that seems to be your superpower. Even so, I'm sure it hasn't all been smooth sailing. What has been the biggest challenge you've encountered?
"As a young person in a position of responsibility, it can be challenging to gain the respect of others, especially when they don't share information or trust you due to your age. Being a woman in a male-dominated industry adds another layer of difficulty. But if you know what to expect, you can prepare yourself to prove your value and overcome these obstacles."
Finding paradise
You've just returned to Europe after a couple of years of living and working in Brazil. How did life take you to Brazil?
"My partner and I were on a trip to Germany when we asked each other: why are we living in Belgium? With his Brazilian paperwork always a struggle, we decided to move to Brazil. I had visited Rio before and loved the city. Plus working in South America seemed like a great career opportunity. The timing worked perfectly: my project would wrap up in April, allowing us to move in May and start work in June."
How did you manage working in Brazil?
"Well, just before we left Europe, I was offered a job with OMP in Antwerp, Belgium (a supply chain software company). When I mentioned I was moving to Rio, they adapted the offer so I could be based there.
My first project was to create a training manual for part of OMP's software for the metals industry. And it was really interesting! It gave me the opportunity to bring together my previous experiences in one project.
I worked with a Brazilian colleague based in Belgium to create the data set and training material and then gave the training to companies in the metals industry. I didn't know much about OMP at the time, so I had to read their existing documentation and find the right people to talk to. I also made a lot of good connections with the Belgian-based solution team, which was interesting.
"I recently spoke to my manager about how I'd like to grow and develop, and he's already prepared some extra things to help me. It's great to be working in a place where you're valued as a person, and not just as a diversity statistic."
Meanwhile the training has become my baby! I'm now the co-teacher of another training that we keep improving. I still spend time finetuning it and making upgrades whenever new software versions are released.
Ownership of these trainings is only a small part of my job. I'm primarily an implementation consultant, working on data integration, planning configuration, and the implementation of tactical software layers. I work with the core IT team to implement complex processes. It's really interesting work. I recently spoke to my manager about how I'd like to grow and develop, and he's already prepared some extra things to help me. It's great to be working in a place where you're valued as a person, and not just as a diversity statistic."
Sowing her entrepreneurial seeds
You always seem to be looking for new ways to connect people - both connections for yourself but also helping people to connect with others, such as language lessons. How did that start?
"When I planned my move to Brazil, I didn't know I'd be able to work for OMP. So for me it was still a big question mark how quickly I'd find a job. That's why I started to teach French online as a backup plan. I had 20 students when I left Europe, and 2.5 years later, I'm still teaching one of my first students."
It's great when you can build and maintain such connections. Are language lessons the only way you connect with people outside of work?
"No! In fact, I feel that things have gone full circle. I grew up surrounded by mentors, my grandfather and uncle, my first boss, and others, and now it's my turn.
For the past 9 years, I've been part of the Elles Bougent association in France which aims to encourage more girls to go into technical studies. We go into high schools and speak to groups of girls about our studies and experiences.
There's also My Job Glasses, another French platform, where students can contact professionals. Every month for the past 2 years I've freed up 4 hours to meet with 4 different younger girls. We talk about my career: what I did and where I am. I try to remove the cliché about women being in a software company.
And the thing I'm most proud about, is my own mentoring program for young women in tech. I only launched it a week ago and I've already got my first student. I'm super happy and proud! I've even hired a friend of mine to do the social media and promote it. Looking forward, I see this as a future hobby or side job. I really enjoy it.
"That's when it clicked: I didn't want to focus on women in leadership, instead, I wanted to look at getting more women involved from the beginning."
The idea for the mentoring program came to me during a boot camp training at OMP's HQ last year. It was all about increasing your impact and I knew that it was time for us all to encourage more women to start in engineering. OMP hosted a follow-up session a couple of months later that focused on finding your why. And that's when it clicked: I didn't want to focus on women in leadership, instead, I wanted to look at getting more women involved from the beginning. I wanted to inspire high school girls to study STEM, engineering in particular. Diversity is always a plus - especially in STEM. Women offer different points of view, and that can only be a benefit."
That's inspiring! With all this in mind, what's your ultimate goal?
"I'd really love to give back to my engineering school. It was a great place for me and I still do a lot for them, such as give some classes in supply chains.
I dream of becoming a director of a school somewhere within a network of schools. I want to pass on my experiences to new generations, so there are always new engineers with good values and a clear view of the world."