Episode 90: Celebrating Latinas In Tech with Salesforce’s Iliana Quinonez

Did you know that, despite accounting for over half of the college-educated workforce, women in the United States made up only 29% of those employed in science and engineering (or STEM) roles? That’s according to the latest research done by the research group, Catalyst. For women of color, the number is even smaller at 11.5%. But here’s an even more disturbing statistic, in engineering, specifically for Latinas, this figure drops to a low of 2.3%!

In this episode, we get to celebrate one of these trailblazing Latina women who has worked hard against the odds, fighting tooth and nail, to be in this elite 2.3% - Iliana Quinonez, Sr. Director of Solutions Engineering at Salesforce. Iliana shares exactly what it's like working with the boys and how we can pave the way for future female generations.

Iliana is an award winning, Latin Trailblazer Woman in Engineering and a Developer of Leaders. She is a passionate advocate and ambassador for Equality, Diversity & Inclusion. Her career in the high tech industry spans over 25 years across 3 continents and more than 15 countries, working at both enterprise and startup companies. She has held leadership positions in several functional areas including solutions engineering, product, and marketing strategy, consulting and business development. She is the former Chair of the Board for Latinoforce, the Salesforce Latinx Employee Resource Group and currently serves as their Advisor.

Highlights:

[03:42] Iliana’s journey

[08:57] Moving forward in moments of uncertainty

[11:39] Techniques in dealing with uncertainty

[15:42] Iliana’s success habits

[19:43] Keys to building your community

[23:54] Asking for mentorship

[28:06] Secret to achieving your professional goals

[35:04] How to accelerate your career in the digital age

[38:09] How to do your personal brand audit

 

Quotes:

“Fear is a natural response to uncertainty. But the more exposure you have, the more comfortable you become in those moments .”– Iliana Quinonez

“Practice visualizing different scenarios, as it will condition you, psychologically, to be better prepared for challenges.” - Iliana Quinonez

“At the end of each day, take some time to review your TODO list and prioritize.” – Iliana Quinonez

“Building your network so that it is broad, you need to have different circles that will add value to your network.” – Iliana Quinonez

“Find joy and fulfillment in giving to the community at a time when nobody's asking you for something.” – Iliana Quinonez

“We don’t have failures, we have experiences and lessons learned.” – Iliana Quinonez

“If you aren’t investing in networking, at least a few hours a week, it's something you need to put on your agenda.” – Iliana Quinonez

“Be sure to do a brand audit - you need to know what people are saying about you when you're not in the room.” – Iliana Quinonez

 

About Iliana Quinonez:

Iliana is a Latin Trailblazer Woman in Engineering and a Developer of Leaders. She is a passionate advocate and ambassador for Equality, Diversity & Inclusion. Her career in the high tech industry spans over 25 years across 3 continents and more than 15 countries, working at both enterprise and startup companies. She has held leadership positions in several functional areas including solutions engineering, product, and marketing strategy, consulting and business development. At Salesforce, she currently leads the Solutions Engineering team for the West Coast.

Iliana is the former Chair of the Board for Latinoforce, the company's Latinx Employee Resource Group and currently serves as their Advisor.

Iliana is originally from Mexico City, holds a BSc in Computer Science from Universidad Iberoamericana (Mexico) and an MSc in Information Systems from the London School of Economics (UK). She lives in San Francisco with her husband and their two daughters.

 

Links:

Website: www.salesforce.com

LinkedIn: iliana-quinonez-34794/

Twitter: @iquinonez1