Interview with Helen Zhao

1st PART: Woman’s history comprehension/understanding

• Can you present yourself in a few words and explain us what is your job/responsibilities?

My name is Helen Zhao. I’ve been working for over 10 years. I joined St Gobain 5 years ago. At first I was in the process department, I was working on new products development, new applications, I was making samples, design the process and how to make the product. Now I do process improvements, I look at the efficiency, find solutions when the quality is not good, tell the workers how to do, make documents so that the operator can do it. I also have to do training for the workers if they can’t do it properly and train the new guys. I’m also doing technical support for the other departments, if they want to know what are the characteristics of our materials, their applications, their performances... In this factory we do new products. We analysis our ability to do new products, do we have the machines and the materials to do this new product? and tell the cost of it. If the company agrees with the cost I make the sample and design how to make it, every step, and imagine the quality control. After the technicians do the performance test and see the differences with concurrence. If the clients are interested, we send it to mass production. Our abrasives are used for construction materials such as brick, floors, asphalt, marble...

• How did you come to engineering and sciences?

In your childhood you don’t know what you want to do. I wanted to do some technical things, solve problems, use my brain to find solutions. My major is material sciences and technology. It focus on the metal materials, analyze their characteristics, how to make a shape, how to make a precise design. We were not a lot of girls, you know engineering is mostly for men, girls are teacher, or they work in finance, in HR. But me I’m not so tender, I want to do more challenge things, I’m closer to the boys in my opinions. And it’s good because my class mates and now the people I’m working with are mostly boys! In my major there was 7 girls and 32 boys. My parents let me select what I was interested in, they would accept  any decision for my studies , because everybody has his own opinion, they could advice me on what to do but they don’t really know where I would success, it depends on you, if you are interested in something, you will be excellent in this area.
Girls were not necessarily working more than boys at school, it depends on yourself, if you want to be the best. It’s the same for the boys, but girls we marry, we have a child and, unlike boys, we don’t have all our time to do our work.

• Did you have to face any difficulty as a woman in your studies/in your job? Or do you think being  a women facilitated it?

I had to strengthen my speech a bit as a woman working with men. But you know for men it’s difficult too to work with others, we have different opinions, different backgrounds... As a woman, I need more to talk with them, to know what they are thinking, to know what they want to do and how they are used to do the things and finally I can give them my opinion about how they can improve themselves, it’s not easy!
In China, for an engineer job, it’s easier to find a job if you are a boy. I think it’s because of the traditional opinions, people think that women should stay at home to take care of their family, of their children. Chinese people opinion change step by step. In big cities like Shanghai, because it’s very open, I think it’s easier, but not so easy compared to your countries. Now it’s better, to do much better you should put all your energy to show to the men that you are not worst than boys, you must prove this, you must study harder, work more.  So for my job I don’t need to be strong physically, but I need to be strong in my mind!

• How do you conciliate professional and personal life?

I’m single. Sure I don’t have a child, in China you have to be married before or you will have a lot of pression from your family if you are not. I don’t think it will be complicated to conciliate my job and my child if I have one, if I can solve very complicated problems here, it won’t be complicated for me to manage that! If I have a husband and a child, I want my husband to take care of my child too, to share the responsibility. Another thing is that it would have been complicated if I have had a child at the beginning of that job, but after all those years, I know how to manage my job, how to solve the problems, and my efficiency is good.

• Could you tell us professional realizations you are proud of?

When I design a new process for a new product, I’m proud! I did that many times for brazing products. You know when we use new machines and do new products, we don’t have any experience, so the product quality can be poor, I make a lot of trials and find improvements. This is wonderful and I’m very proud of it!

• What is your next challenge ?

We have a target for each year, so I want to get this target! I need to find which product needs to be improved, which one needs to be developed, be sure of the quality, find how to improve the efficiency. And it’s also very important to teach our workers to make it real!

•  Why did you choose Saint Gobain ?

Because it’s very famous! For the glass and for a lot of other products. It has a long history and a very good culture. Here I can have a good personal development, you have the opportinity to acquire a lot of knowledge, there is a lot of trainings.
 

2nd PART:  General debate on woman engineer: differences and new things a woman can bring in a male team

• Do you think men and women work differently? Could you give us concrete examples (personal works, project works)?

I think the women are very careful, they take care about details and the opportunity of making mistakes is very low.  Men they make good strategies. But it also depends on your job and your experience. But women, after some training, they can do as the men.  
In China if you have to say something to a girl you should speak really carefully, and if you have to say something to a boy, you should too because you know in the families here there is only one child, if you are angry both won’t feel satisfied. You have to take care of the way you tell the things, you have to respect the persons. I think it’s due to the fact that we have only one child, when there are several children in a family after the adults are used to be with other people, you don’t only think about you. Imagine in Chinese family, you have your 2 parents and 4 grand parents who look after you, you are the top 1 all the time! Now in China we have this problem: team work is very difficult, you have to accept others opinions, and we are not used to that in our education. We are also not used to share, and in the plant it’s an important point in our job, we have to share the informations and work together.   
I don’t think that women are better in communication than men, both at the beginning we don’t know how to do, after some years you know how to do that, I think it depends on your experience.

• Do you think that a mixed team is helpful for working atmosphere and/or is linked to team performance?

I’m managing 3 engineers, 2 boys and 1 girl. I think that the mix is good because different people have different ideas and different advantages, it helps to solve problems, if everyone has the same opinion, you can’t solve the problem! Honestly, I don’t care if they are boys or girls, if they can do team work and if they do a good job. But I think it’s important to have girls in the factory because sometimes there are conflicts and if there is one girl it helps boys to communicate.
I think the work is better if there is boys and girls, we have different skills, if you only talk to males or only to females, you will find it very boring! And the difference is interesting!  



3rd PART:  Vidéo


• Short representation

My name is Helen, I work in Saint Gobain abrasive China. I’ve been working here for 5 years. I work in process department, it’s very nice for me.

• Which advice would you give to any young women who hesitate to start engineering studies?

Please select what you like! If you like it, please love it! Put your interest and your hopes in it!
• What has been your biggest difficulty as a women engineer?
I think that the difficulty is to work with the others, communication, team work...
• What has been your best satisfaction as a women engineer?
To solve problems, develop and manufacture new products and have my contribution in the company.
• What is your next challenge?
To manage well with my CP process department and improve our work, to do the right choices for my career!