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 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 by way of Hortonworks. Exterior of her typical duties, Julia is deeply concerned in varied 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 at all times join it, it doesn’t matter what it’s,” Julia mentioned. “There are such a lot of rewarding initiatives that Cloudera places collectively, from mentorships to taking good care of animals or serving to folks in want. It’s a terrific 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 group, serving to guarantee Cloudera’s COEs and Assist Managers had been capable of present world-class technical assist to our clients. In 2022 she was provided the chance to affix the rising and dynamic IT division below Olivia Keenaghan as part of Enterprise Purposes. Now, she’s chargeable for managing a small group that opinions the complete entitlement enterprise course of, taking possession of any components of the lifecycle that had been distributed and/or unowned.
This was fairly the profession shift, however she described switching to the IT division as “incredible,” crediting an incredible supervisor, a terrific group, and rewarding duties.
“Making the change was such a welcoming expertise,” she mentioned. “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 carry, and I get excited to resolve advanced issues to assist Cloudera develop. I’ve at all times mentioned that at Cloudera your profession is in your arms. I’ve seen folks go from one group to a totally completely different group with such success and charm, completely supported by their former and new managers. You simply don’t see that at each firm, sadly”
Julia’s group 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 massive mission is Challenge Lionheart: the alternative 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 at all times wanting to leverage Cloudera’s in depth 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 acquire recommendation, set objectives, and learn to deal with troublesome conditions at work, similar to a mission not going in response to 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 mentioned. “I’ve gotten a lot out of getting a mentor that I really feel obligated to be a mentor myself, however fortuitously, I do like it. I admire with the ability to meet new folks at Cloudera and do my finest to assist information them of their careers.”
Julia says that loads of the time, the secret is to maintain perspective, however the largest piece of recommendation she gives is that uncertainty shouldn’t be at all times a foul factor so long as you might have a path ahead.
“It’s okay to not know precisely the place you can be in ten years, 5 years, and even two years,” she mentioned. “Anticipating to have your complete profession path mapped out all the way down to the final rock or pebble is a really old-school mind-set, however you must at all times have your subsequent purpose in thoughts. It doesn’t should be a brand new title or a specific wage, but it surely could possibly be a brand new ability set that you simply need to add to your repertoire, for instance. I at all times ask mentees, ‘What’s your subsequent purpose?’ 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 somewhat nervous to begin 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 mentioned. “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 the way to costume or what to do. And there are such a lot of easy questions. I keep in mind not realizing whether or not you must 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 actually incredible.”
Throughout the teen mentorship, Julia partnered with Cy Jervis (Senior Supervisor, Assist Data Packages) to nearly 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 interact with colleagues. By the tip of this system, he left with a stable understanding of how fashionable 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 mentioned. “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 Govt Briefing Program Supervisor Amanda Allen) help the group in distributing meals to folks in want.
“Cloudera has fairly just a few volunteer alternatives, and this one is certainly one of my absolute favorites,” Julia mentioned. “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 incredible 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 actually need it, and I’m so appreciative of Amanda’s robust advocacy in organizing these alternatives for Cloudera.”
Julia is actually keen about her philanthropic efforts and serving to these in want each by means of Cloudera and outdoors of labor. She continues to foster canines and cats for native animal rescues (and infrequently they discover a everlasting dwelling together with her!). She loves with the ability to make a distinction in her function in Enterprise Entitlement and appreciates the flexibleness Cloudera granted her to discover a brand new place in IT that she actually enjoys.
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