A Truly Level Playing Field

Throughout my work in engineering, from my time in the classroom to my internship at STANLEY® Engineered Fastening, a division of Stanley Black & Decker, to my work now as a full-time employee, I’ve never felt that being a woman was an issue. In fact, currently, I’m working on a cutting-edge team and leading projects across three sites. I’m part of the Industry 4.0 team responsible for developing the new technologies and services selected by the company to be built into the next generation of the manufacturing process. When I started on this team, we had four advanced manufacturing engineers, and three of us are female. Today our team has grown to seven AMEs. We get the same opportunities to learn and deploy the newest techniques and take advantage of the newest technologies. People treat us just as engineers, not as male or female engineers.

We're ahead of the curve. The Industry 4.0 team is thinking about manufacturing five years out. That kind of ingenuity is what really drew me to Stanley Black & Decker.

– Ziyan Xu, Manufacturing Engineer - Smart Factory, SLP
STANLEY^® Engineered Fastening

STANLEY is a very welcoming environment and the company has a very flat management structure and an emphasis on the work you produce, and I feel that you get seen strictly for your work. Building your reputation, as an individual and as part of the team, is very important — I got some good advice from my manager when I first started here to start small, so I began by implementing small, quick wins. I think in any position, when people get benefit from you, you build trust, and they start to welcome more projects from you and your team — that was my experience specifically, and it’s particularly important when you’re working with new technologies and new solutions as we are on the Industry 4.0 team.

The ability to work on these new solutions is one thing I really value about my job at Stanley. We’re way ahead of the curve. It’s a pretty young team, but we think about the future of manufacturing, about five years out, and that kind of ingenuity is what really drew me to Stanley Black & Decker as a place of employment.

At Stanley Black & Decker, there's no such thing as a small project. The projects you work on have an impact. And the opportunities are unlimited.

– Ziyan Xu, Manufacturing Engineer - Smart Factory, SLP
STANLEY^® Engineered Fastening

I also appreciate the opportunity to learn about other parts of the business — I’m a part of the Stanley Black & Decker’s Leadership Program, which gives us the chance to rotate through the organization and learn about each part of the business. I love engineering, but I might want to pursue a different path at some point. This is a great opportunity for me to learn about management-related skills and learn about the business. We also get quarterly training with different executive-level speakers, and it has been very motivational to hear about the vision of our company. Program members can even relocate to different positions they’re qualified for if they’re interested.

I would encourage all graduates to consider Stanley Black & Decker. There’s no such thing as a small project. Even for interns, the projects you work on have an impact. STANLEY^® also offers a lot of co-op programs. Overall, the opportunities here are pretty unlimited.