How Identity Has Influenced A Technical Marketing Manager's Career At Edmund Optics
Cory, a Technical Marketing Manager, noted that their identity as a straight white male has not presented career barriers, unlike those faced by many in other demographic groups. However, managing social anxiety, through practices like meditation and self-reflection, has been a significant and ongoing challenge impacting their work-life balance, illustrating that even those without systemic barriers face unique hurdles in career navigation; "understanding that it's not the end of the world. Everybody has good days, everybody has bad days".
Overcoming Challenges, Stress Management, Communication, Resilience, Career Development
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Cory Boone
Technical Marketing Manager
Edmund Optics
University of Arizona, Graduated in 2016
M.B.A. from University of North Dakota
Biology & Related Sciences
Technology, Advertising, Communications & Marketing
Communication and Marketing
Honors Student, Scholarship Recipient
Video Highlights
1. Even in a male-dominated field, Cory has witnessed a positive trend of increasing female representation in leadership roles within his seven years of professional experience.
2. Cory's experience highlights the importance of self-awareness and managing personal challenges like anxiety, which can significantly impact one's career trajectory. He shares his strategies for coping, emphasizing the value of self-care and mindfulness.
3. Cory's background in optical engineering, with a nearly equal gender balance in his university class, provides a unique perspective on diversity in STEM fields and its implications for career paths.
Transcript
As someone who identifies as a straight white male, how has that impacted how you've navigated your career?
As a straight white male, that itself hasn't been any kind of barrier. Basically, anyone in any other of those categories tends to struggle more, just systemically.
One thing I appreciated was that, at least at the University of Arizona, my optical engineering class was about 50% men and 50% women. That's a very high percentage of women for a technical degree; usually, it's much more skewed towards men.
The industry as a whole is still much more skewed towards men. However, even in the seven years that I've been professionally active, I've seen the percentage of women in leadership roles increasing. So that's been great to see.
Those types of identity ideas haven't been a struggle for me personally. But another thing is anxiety. I actually struggle with a large amount of social anxiety, which doesn't necessarily have a rhyme or reason. It's not always that a big presentation is coming up or anything. Sometimes you're just anxious for the sake of being anxious.
Learning how to deal with that has been very important for my work life, understanding how to balance everything, and just personally as well. For me, things like meditation, looking inwards, and understanding yourself more have been very helpful in understanding how to overcome some of those struggles.
It's also important to understand that it's not the end of the world. Everybody has good days and bad days. Settling into that idea helps you do better when you feel anxious. You can think, "That's okay. We'll just keep on going."
So, while I haven't had any struggles with being a straight white male in that sense, I have had struggles with anxiety. Everything's relative. Everybody has something; nobody has an absolutely perfect path in front of them. So, those are some struggles I've had to deal with.