Cimberly Weir
Associate Director, Michigan State University

What led you to pursue a career in this industry?

Honestly, I attribute my interest in manufacturing to Sesame Street and the episode where they make the crayons.  I was fascinated by it and will never forget it and could still watch it over and over. Studying packaging science as my major provided me an intricate foundation in the overall system of packaging and how materials, machinery, design, and distribution and more all work together to allow for global commerce to be successful. 

What do you wish more women knew about opportunities in our industry?

Being a part of the packaging machinery and manufacturing industry is more than ensuring products are manufactured well and on time and of high quality. It is about getting life-saving medicine to rural parts of the world in a timely fashion and about feeding growing populations through innovative solutions that require every single person within the supply chain to work together and learn from each other to continue to solve challenging problems that affect our long-term survival on this planet. Women have amazing ideas; our perspective is important and women can create positive change by being a part of our industry from the manufacturing floor and through the glass ceiling. We don’t have to be the CEO to be a game-changer, we just have to be creative and do what we enjoy to the best of our ability every day. And the pay is pretty great too!

What qualities that tend to come naturally to women do you think translate well into leadership qualities?

Women possess a level of emotional intelligence that many men envy, yet, I have met very emotionally intelligent men too; however, women still seem to be more organized and have an ability to multitask at both the micro and macro levels of organizations and projects. There are many research studies that can tell us any and every angle of who and what qualities are best, but I believe that when women know who they are working with they can adapt well to get the job done. The best tool I have found to do this well is the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI); I am an ENTJ by the way.

How do you feel being a part of a (for now) male-dominated industry?

Being a part of the industry for over 20 years, I have met some of the most incredibly smart men and women. That being said, most of the men I have worked with always supported and encouraged me to grow and learn and I have never felt held-back or unappreciated from the men in our industry. Yes, we still have a higher percentage of men, but I believe the trend will continue become closer to equal percent male-female in the next decade because changes in technology and manufacturing in general no longer require the heavy lifting that were once required on the job. Sure, there are still old-school manufacturing facilities out there, but that is where there is also opportunity and women know how to make opportunities come to fruition! Thinking of the men in our industry as peers and collaborators can help us when we are outnumbered.

There will always be negative people in the spaces we are in; negativity is not gender derived. Knowing who you are and knowing what you still need to learn and being okay with not knowing everything yet (growth mindset) can help you out in any uncomfortable situation. I remember an incident that I look back at and smile about today: I was a 25-year-old female and I walked into a room at an automotive R&D center and there were at least 15 men in the room and myself.  I started to unpack my presentation materials and one of the men asked where my boss was and while I was nervous, I promptly responded that I would be providing the data and analysis for the project since I was the one that managed the project. Once I got started, the shock seemed to wear off, but sometimes being young and female and in a technical world makes us have to start with the data first and pleasantries later.