On this Worker Highlight, we sat down with Julia Ostrowski to find out about her time at Cloudera, what she loves about her job, her expertise on each 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 through Hortonworks. Exterior of her typical tasks, Julia is deeply concerned in numerous philanthropic initiatives inside Cloudera in addition to in her personal free time.
“Every time there is a chance to do one thing good within the Santa Clara workplace for a few hours, I all the time 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 caring for animals or serving to individuals in want. It’s an ideal a part of Cloudera’s tradition.”
Julia’s Cloudera Profession Journey
When Julia first arrived at Cloudera, she labored in Help because the supervisor of the Help Product Administration staff, serving to guarantee Cloudera’s COEs and Help Managers have been in a position to present world-class technical help to our prospects. In 2022 she was supplied the chance to hitch the rising and dynamic IT division beneath Olivia Keenaghan as part of Enterprise Functions. Now, she’s accountable for managing a small staff that evaluations all the 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 “implausible,” crediting an incredible supervisor, an ideal staff, and rewarding tasks.
“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 realizing precisely what every day will convey, and I get excited to unravel complicated issues to assist Cloudera develop. I’ve all the time stated that at Cloudera your profession is in your palms. I’ve seen individuals go from one staff to a totally totally different staff 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 staff consisting of Ken McCarthy and Susy Mena-McCarthy tracks and manages all of Cloudera’s public cloud metering for billing functions and constantly optimizes processes to help enterprise wants. Their present massive venture is Venture Lionheart: the substitute of a licensing server to permit for extra flexibility and rather 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 all the time wanting to leverage Cloudera’s intensive giving and volunteering packages to volunteer her time to assist others.
Mentoring and Volunteering at Cloudera
Cloudera gives a mentorship program to assist workers enhance and navigate their careers. They achieve recommendation, set objectives, and learn to deal with troublesome conditions at work, comparable to a venture not going in keeping with plan. Julia, who shared that she’s benefited from being a mentee herself each at Cloudera at the moment, 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 thankfully, I do adore it. I respect with the ability to meet new individuals at Cloudera and do my greatest to assist information them of their careers.”
Julia says that lots of the time, the secret is to maintain a great perspective, however the greatest piece of recommendation she gives is that uncertainty is just not all the time a nasty factor so long as you’ve 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 you need to all the time have your subsequent objective in thoughts. It doesn’t should be a brand new title or a selected wage, however it may very well be a brand new talent set that you just need to add to your repertoire, for instance. I all the time ask mentees, ‘What’s your subsequent objective?’ 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 gives 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 just a little nervous to start out working with this system as a result of she had not had a lot interplay with teenagers. Nonetheless, 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 outdated?’ The primary time I used to be in an workplace in my early years, I didn’t know find out how to gown or what to do. And there are such a lot of easy questions. I bear in mind not realizing whether or not it’s a must to elevate your hand to go to the lavatory or what ‘CEO’ means. I put myself in these footwear, and I’m glad I did. It was truthfully implausible.”
In the course of the teen mentorship, Julia partnered with Cy Jervis (Senior Supervisor, Help Data Applications) to just about information the teenager mentee by means of the ins and outs of Cloudera, introducing him to key departments, and permitting him to ask questions and have interaction with colleagues. By the tip of this system, he left with a strong understanding of how trendy tech firms function.
“It was so attention-grabbing 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. Via this volunteer program, a gaggle of Cloudera workers (championed by Govt Briefing Program Supervisor Amanda Allen) help the group in distributing meals to individuals in want.
“Cloudera has fairly a number of volunteer alternatives, and this one is one among my absolute favorites,” Julia stated. “I benefit from 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 implausible Clouderans who I wouldn’t usually see, and I actually take pleasure in it. It is a nice group that places meals within the palms of people that really want it, and I’m so appreciative of Amanda’s sturdy advocacy in organizing these alternatives for Cloudera.”
Julia is really obsessed with her philanthropic efforts and serving to these in want each by means of Cloudera and outdoors of labor. She continues to foster canine and cats for native animal rescues (and infrequently they discover a everlasting house along with her!). She loves with the ability to make a distinction in her position 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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