On this Worker Highlight, we sat down with Julia Ostrowski to study her time at Cloudera, what she loves about her job, her expertise on either side of Cloudera’s mentorship program, and her spectacular volunteer work.
Meet Julia Ostrowski
Julia is the Director of Enterprise Entitlement at Cloudera and has been with the corporate since 2019, becoming a member of by way of Hortonworks. Outdoors of her typical obligations, Julia is deeply concerned in varied philanthropic initiatives inside Cloudera in addition to in her personal free time.
“Each time there is a chance to do one thing good within the Santa Clara workplace for a few hours, I at all times join it, it doesn’t matter what it’s,” Julia stated. “There are such a lot of rewarding initiatives that Cloudera places collectively, from mentorships to taking good care of animals or serving to individuals in want. It’s a fantastic a part of Cloudera’s tradition.”
Julia’s Cloudera Profession Journey
When Julia first arrived at Cloudera, she labored in Assist because the supervisor of the Assist Product Administration workforce, serving to guarantee Cloudera’s COEs and Assist Managers have been in a position to present world-class technical assist to our clients. In 2022 she was supplied the chance to hitch the rising and dynamic IT division below Olivia Keenaghan as part of Enterprise Purposes. Now, she’s accountable for managing a small workforce that opinions the complete entitlement enterprise course of, taking possession of any components of the lifecycle that have been distributed and/or unowned.
This was fairly the profession shift, however she described switching to the IT division as “unbelievable,” crediting a tremendous supervisor, a fantastic workforce, and rewarding obligations.
“Making the change was such a welcoming expertise,” she stated. “I nonetheless get to my laptop computer every day with a smile on my face. I just like the problem of by no means understanding precisely what every day will carry, and I get excited to resolve complicated issues to assist Cloudera develop. I’ve at all times stated that at Cloudera your profession is in your arms. I’ve seen individuals go from one workforce to a totally completely different workforce with such success and style, completely supported by their former and new managers. You simply don’t see that at each firm, sadly”
Julia’s workforce consisting of Ken McCarthy and Susy Mena-McCarthy tracks and manages all of Cloudera’s public cloud metering for billing functions and persistently optimizes processes to assist enterprise wants. Their present large venture is Undertaking Lionheart: the substitute of a licensing server to permit for extra flexibility and way more management over the perception gained into buyer utilization over their on-premises product.
Whereas Julia has an actual ardour for fixing issues and driving worth throughout her day-to-day job, she is at all times desperate to leverage Cloudera’s in depth giving and volunteering packages to volunteer her time to assist others.
Mentoring and Volunteering at Cloudera
Cloudera affords a mentorship program to assist workers enhance and navigate their careers. They acquire recommendation, set targets, and learn to deal with troublesome conditions at work, corresponding to a venture not going in keeping with plan. Julia, who shared that she’s benefited from being a mentee herself each at Cloudera presently, and at earlier organizations, volunteers to mentor as much as 4 colleagues at a time and views this act as paying it ahead.
“I actually take pleasure in it,” she stated. “I’ve gotten a lot out of getting a mentor that I really feel obligated to be a mentor myself, however happily, I do like it. I admire having the ability to meet new individuals at Cloudera and do my greatest to assist information them of their careers.”
Julia says that plenty of the time, the secret’s to maintain an excellent perspective, however the largest piece of recommendation she affords is that uncertainty just isn’t at all times a foul factor so long as you’ve gotten a path ahead.
“It’s okay to not know precisely the place you may be in ten years, 5 years, and even two years,” she stated. “Anticipating to have your complete profession path mapped out right down to the final rock or pebble is a really old-school mind-set, however it is best to at all times have your subsequent aim in thoughts. It doesn’t must be a brand new title or a specific wage, but it surely may very well be a brand new talent set that you just need to add to your repertoire, for instance. I at all times ask mentees, ‘What’s your subsequent aim?’ and work with them on discovering a path there.”
Cloudera Cares Volunteer Program
Julia additionally lends her time to philanthropic initiatives like Cloudera’s Teen Accelerator Program, an initiative organized by Cloudera’s volunteer group, Cloudera Cares.
The Teen Accelerator Program is a partnership with the Boys & Women Membership of America in each Tennessee and the San Francisco Bay Space. This program affords college students a six-week paid internship program at Cloudera and 1:1 worker mentorship, serving to facilitate alternatives in company America for highschool college students in under-resourced communities.
At first, Julia defined, she was a bit of nervous to start out working with this system as a result of she had not had a lot interplay with teenagers. Nevertheless, regardless of that preliminary nervousness, she dove proper in and was hooked immediately as this system tapped into her ardour for serving to others.
“It was such a rewarding expertise,” Julia stated. “I requested myself, ‘What did I need to know in regards to the world of enterprise once I was 16 years previous?’ The primary time I used to be in an workplace in my early years, I didn’t know find out how to costume or what to do. And there are such a lot of easy questions. I keep in mind not understanding whether or not you need to elevate your hand to go to the toilet or what ‘CEO’ means. I put myself in these sneakers, and I’m glad I did. It was truthfully unbelievable.”
Through the teen mentorship, Julia partnered with Cy Jervis (Senior Supervisor, Assist Data Packages) to just about information the teenager mentee by the ins and outs of Cloudera, introducing him to key departments, and permitting him to ask questions and interact with colleagues. By the top of this system, he left with a stable understanding of how trendy tech firms function.
“It was so fascinating to listen to all our colleagues go in-depth sharing what they do and what their division works on that I used to be even studying proper together with him,” Julia stated. “I wasn’t anticipating to have a lot enjoyable, however he was so engaged, and it was simply nice.”
Julia additionally takes benefit of one other Cloudera volunteer initiative by spending a few of her time with Second Harvest, a meals distribution group in her native space of San Jose, California. By this volunteer program, a bunch of Cloudera workers (championed by Government Briefing Program Supervisor Amanda Allen) help the group in distributing meals to individuals in want.
“Cloudera has fairly just a few volunteer alternatives, and this one is certainly one of my absolute favorites,” Julia stated. “I make the most of each alternative to participate in it. Whether or not it’s sunny or raining out, it doesn’t matter. I get to go and spend time with different unbelievable Clouderans who I wouldn’t usually see, and I really take pleasure in it. It is a nice group that places meals within the arms of people that really want it, and I’m so appreciative of Amanda’s sturdy advocacy in organizing these alternatives for Cloudera.”
Julia is actually enthusiastic about her philanthropic efforts and serving to these in want each by Cloudera and outdoors of labor. She continues to foster canine and cats for native animal rescues (and sometimes they discover a everlasting residence together with her!). She loves having the ability to make a distinction in her function in Enterprise Entitlement and appreciates the pliability Cloudera granted her to discover a brand new place in IT that she really enjoys.
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