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Krista Zaleski

Krista's Biography

Krista graduated as an Electrical Engineer from the University of Waterloo and worked in the high tech field for 25 years. Her creative outlets include quilting and ballroom dancing.

Senior manager, System Integration Team, at Wind River, Kanata Ontario.

As senior manager of the system integration team, I’m responsible for ensuring that all the software developed for my product lines is integrated, tested, and ready for release to our customers. My team and I are the interface between the development teams, test teams, and release organization, ensuring that all parts are coordinated and ready for release

Wind River provides embedded software for devices and intelligent connected systems.

Women in IT need to exude confidence. We too often downplay our own abilities or achievements, or let others take credit for joint projects. Women need to speak up, rise to every challenge and seize each opportunity that comes our way.

This year, I chose to retire (early) from high tech in order to pursue my creative passions. No matter how much you love your job today, make sure you are planning for the future and when that might change, either through choice or circumstance.

I am driven to solve problems. This made my job a perfect one for me because it involved daily firefighting to resolve issues, keep the projects moving forward on time, and ensure release dates were met. Being able to provide solutions to teams in order to overcome obstacles or delays is very rewarding.

I would be more self-confident, and more willing to ask questions. There were times I did not know the background for something, but I was afraid I’d look bad by asking questions about how things worked. It’s important to gain that knowledge, both so you can do the current job well and also in order to build upon it as your career advances. Shyness doesn’t fly in industry, and wallflowers will be left behind or stepped over. Ask the questions you need to in order to understand, and put your opinions/solutions out there when you have the understanding to support them.

 

 

 

 

Through outreach and professional development activities, research, partnerships, thought leadership and online initiatives, we work with industry and academia to educate on the value of diversity for innovation, to inspire women to thrive and to celebrate the contributions of women in science and engineering.
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