Emerging talent Cori Yancy, engineers her career through ASPIRE

A clear candidate for the ASPIRE program and an energy career, this Gen Z mechanical engineer surprises her mentors, pushing the edges of possibility.

The image of Cori Yancy talking to us on Teams from Houston, Texas seems unusually vivid. That’s her personality. At 25, Cori has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, a master’s in engineering, a rich tapestry of internships behind her and a yearning to find her niche in the productive world of work.

Baker Hughes was high on her list of potential employers when, at a careers fair, she learned about the company’s early-career program. The ASPIRE Engineering and Technology Track aims to empower young people to unlock their potential, be part of innovation and drive positive change in the energy industry.

ASPIRE is part of the Baker Hughes workforce leadership programs, charged with helping grow and develop the talent pipeline at different levels in the organization. The ASPIRE program is specifically focused on entry level employees. It is a two-year rotational leadership program for recent graduates and early-career employees, designed to grow their functional and leadership skills through challenging assignments, learning plans and global cross-functional projects. 

Cori describes herself as “animated and lighthearted”. In the engineering world, she says people are surprised. “They’re like, ‘Oh, you’re kind of different. You’re popping jokes…’” She enjoys the vibe on the manufacturing floor of Completions and Well Intervention, her third rotation so far in a personalized Baker Hughes development odyssey: “I really like my team because they make me laugh every day. They’re so knowledgeable, but still funny and great to be around.''

Question:

How did you come to think you were destined for a career in engineering? What were your interests in high school?

Cori:

Honestly? I was good at math, and I enjoyed physics. All the rest of the subjects, I just kind of showed up to school. I looked up to all my math teachers, and they were the ones telling me, “Try engineering. Try engineering!” So, I researched the schools that had good engineering programs, and I chose Prairie View A&M University. 

It's a historically black school, and that was important to me to experience during college. I think it gave me more confidence to be who I am. And Prairie View has a very good engineering program. 

I started off as a civil engineer, thinking that I wanted to build bridges. But then I realised civil engineers do other things than build bridges, but those other things didn’t really interest me. Because it was unlikely that I’d get to build bridges all the time, I switched to mechanical engineering – as far as career paths go it offered a very broad range of opportunities. 

Question:

What was your path through university like? Were there many young women studying engineering?

Cori: 

Of course, in STEM it's always male dominant, especially engineering. In my mechanical engineering class, I was one of three or four women, so we stuck together. The gender imbalance is something that I've kind of grown immune to – being the only woman in the room. I feel like I notice it more if I do find another woman in a room. Then I think, “Oh, I forgot what it feels like to work with women — I love this!”

Question:

Did you apply for the ASPIRE program, or were you channeled in on arrival at Baker Hughes?

Cori:

I like to tell my Baker Hughes recruitment story. My university had a four-and-one program, so four years to do your bachelor's and an additional year to do your master's. My master's was all about quality in additive manufacturing – studying ways to monitor and improve the quality of 3D printing was interesting to me. I thought that was what I wanted to do when I got into industry. Baker Hughes is known for trying to reduce emissions and for forward thinking in manufacturing, and it has a lot of 3D printing facilities in Houston. So that piqued my interest. At career fairs I was talking with people about it.

I got to sit down with Baker Hughes people at all different levels: there were some executives, there were people already in the ASPIRE program, and graduates of the ASPIRE program. What made me apply for ASPIRE, is that those alumni said it had directed their career within Baker Hughes and has helped them grow into a professional life. When they offered me a place in ASPIRE, I was excited, and I hoped to become part of an additive manufacturing team.

Question:

How have things changed?

Cori: 

I’ve been here for about a year, and the longer I’ve been in the company, the more I’ve been learning about myself. I think there is a major difference in going to school and studying mechanical engineering compared to pursuing a career. One thing I really like about the ASPIRE program is that it allows me to try so many different things. 

Question:

As part of ASPIRE, you do several rotations plus a 12-month stint in a particular role.What have you experienced so far?

Cori:

My first role was as a materials planner in Baker Hughes’ chemicals business, looking at supply chains that feed into our plants all over the US and overseas. That was interesting and kind of tough because it wasn't very ‘mechanical engineering’, but I just had to dive into learning how the business works, and that was fascinating. 

For my second role, I wanted to do something customer facing and technical. It turned out to be another challenge, just because it was more on the digital side than I expected. I was between the sales team and the InspectionWorks software engineers. This is in our product line for non-destructive testing of industrial assets. InspectionWorks is a software platform that streamlines the test data to allow better decision-making.

My main project there was to create a streamlined process for designing bore-scope inspection report templates. Previously, each report template was custom made in a time-consuming process that would take a month or more on average. We created modular templates based on common industry report styles which allowed our team to quickly create new tailored reports for our customers. This resulted in a faster time-to-value for customers and reduced time spent on manual report template design. The work was interesting. It made me realize that I like process improvement projects, where I'm working with multidisciplinary teams and have a broad overview of things. 

Next, I wanted to be on the shop floor in manufacturing. My current role is as Product Cost Out Lead for Completions and Well Interventions (CWI), with oil and gas production and carbon capture applications. It’s cool. I’m on the manufacturing floor, reviewing quality notifications. I’ve implemented an AI tool for data-driven decisions and led cost-reduction projects for CWI products. I'm enjoying it and I'm learning a lot.

Question:

It sounds as if you've been thrown in the deep end in every one of these roles. How do you tackle that kind of challenge?

Cori:

I've had a lot of support in every team I’ve been part of. So even when I do feel lost, there are people I can reach out to. In my materials planning role, I realized how much I don’t know about Excel. My manager would ask me to, “Go do this and get me these results”, but I didn't know how to get from A to B. I could reach out to ASPIRE alumni, who really pushed me through and helped me build up those skills.

Question:

Is there always someone you can turn to?

Cori:

Yes. In every role, you have a manager or assignment leader, and a buddy. If your buddy can’t help you directly, they make sure that you get access to what you need. They are often ASPIRE alumni, so they understand the culture of the program. It’s designed that way to make you stronger. I appreciate that.

Question:

Do you feel well equipped to do the work assigned?

Cori: 

Yes. Baker Hughes provides training on my Lean Six Sigma certification, which helps me a lot with the projects I am assigned to. Lean thinking is critical when you’re doing cost out, reducing waste and improving efficiency. It gets you in the mindset to understand what you're looking for. 

Question:

Where will you go from here? 

Cori:

I have about a year left in the program. I’m with CWI until July and I don't know yet where I'm going next. That's a bit of the challenge with the program as well. They supply you with a list of areas in the company that need support from the ASPIRE program, but many of them might not fit where I want to be. I've narrowed down the kind of roles that I am interested in, but it's more about seeing where there is opportunity and potential for growth as well. I do a lot of research. 

Sometimes I'll go to LinkedIn searching keywords in employees at Baker Hughes to find people to talk to. These last couple of weeks, I've been connecting and having a lot of conversations with people I found on LinkedIn who have had an interesting career path. Talking to them I’ve learned more about the company and their history within the company. Overall, Baker Hughes has great people who are willing to help you.

Question:

So how have your ambitions in additive manufacturing changed?

Cori: 

Several people have mentored me to understand what other kinds of roles I might be interested in. They helped me see that additive manufacturing is simply manufacturing using different technology. I need to find the kind of role I would want to do in manufacturing in general, and work my way to that team, or I might discover I want to be somewhere else! Being on the ASPIRE program is teaching me all the time to be more flexible in my outlook.

Question:

What excites you about working in energy? 

Cori:

Before working at Baker Hughes, I didn't know a lot about energy. Most of my past experiences as an intern during my studies were in aerospace, so coming into the energy area is very interesting. I also like being able to tell people around me more about Baker Hughes: they assume we’re an oil and gas services company, but I like to set them straight that we’re an energy technology company. We are doing a lot to develop technology for other sources of energy for industry in general. That's one thing that excites me about being in this field. 

Question:

Your work sounds incredibly busy. What do you like about your lifestyle as an engineer at Baker Hughes?

Cori:

One of the biggest surprises from my first day here was the diversity of employees. In my first role I had people from all over the world on my team. Everybody was from somewhere different. I would be sitting at the lunch table some days, and I'd be like, “Man, I'm such an American.” Growing up, I didn’t think of anything outside the US, and there's so much more to the world than what is happening in the United States. I really appreciate the diversity of people that Baker Hughes pulls in from all over the world. It makes me think of the bigger picture of what's going on in the world and other people's experiences as well. 

I really like that, within ASPIRE, most of us are at the beginning of our career paths. We went to a one-week training camp last summer in Florence, Italy, and I gained a lot of friends from all over the world. The people I got closest to were from the UAE. Now, having a catch-up call is hard, just because it's either too early for me to have a conversation or too late for them. But I value being able to have those relationships with people from all different types of backgrounds, as we are all trying to navigate our career in Baker Hughes together.