| There's no denying that BGS lifetime members are very talented people. Just earning invitation into the Society places members within a select group. Beyond their commonality as the "Best in Business" though, lifetime members are extremely diverse with a wide array of talents, backgrounds and expertise.
Seeing as my home is perpetually outdoors, I pay attention to companies that are protecting the environment. Just last month, Raytheon Company was awarded the 2012 ENERGY STAR® Sustained Excellence Award by the Environmental Protection Agency. I was able to track down Raytheon engineer Tessa Hoskin, who has established herself as quite the professional, and who also happens to be a Beta Gamma Sigma member! “I’ll be honest, it is a great honor to be part of BGS,” she said. Well it was a great honor to speak with her. Keep reading for more of her story…
BGS Member Profiles
Tessa Hoskin
Senior Consultant, Raytheon
Right alongside a pile of U.S. Black Engineer magazines and other “techie” reading, Tessa Hoskin keeps the latest copy of Bloomberg Businessweek. She’s a degreed electrical engineer, but is also involved with integrating corporate acquisitions.
There’s a new breed of engineers out there, and Tessa Hoskin is one of them.
Part of her job as a senior consultant at Raytheon involves managing employees in the Raytheon Rotation Program, and they often hear her mention this. “I try to explain that there is a new breed of engineers who say, ‘Hey look, I like being technical but I also want to know what is going on in my business sector.”
Hoskin is that rare combination of technical and business-savvy.
It was while attending an engineering pilot program with several other minority students that 12-year-old Hoskin discovered her love for engineering. “Probably within the first week of doing the prep program, I came home and told my mom, ‘You know, I’m gonna be an electrical engineer,’” Hoskin admitted. “I wasn’t patient with drafting and drawing so I knew civil was definitely out, which kind of left mechanical out as well. It was something about the electrical side that just drew me in.”
 After studying electrical engineering at McNeese State University in Louisiana and working with Foxboro (Invensys) in Distributed Control Systems and Automation engineering, Hoskin moved to the telecom industry. In 2005, she took a job with Raytheon and is now a senior consultant. She works alongside various teams, as well as the Raytheon executives.
Even though she’s an engineer, these executives don’t mind talking business with her.
“I’m one of those weird engineers who actually loves the business side,” Hoskin explained. “I like making money for companies.” But she recognized early on in her engineering career that in order to help turn a profit, she had to become more knowledgeable in doing so.
“I started realizing who made the business decisions, and it wasn’t the engineer,” Hoskin stated. “I looked at it from a holistic picture of who makes the business decisions and why people were worried about money and the business as a whole.”
A business degree suddenly made sense. “A lot of MBAs are engineers because you don’t get that side in the engineering realm,” Hoskin explained. She obtained her Executive MBA from Southern Methodist University in Texas in 2009 with honors.
“It was not an easy program, but definitely fulfilling,” she said. “Anything I picked up on Friday or Saturday I could put into place by that Monday morning; that was the thing I loved about it. It was fast-paced and definitely an eye-opener.”
Hoskin now serves on the SMU Cox School of Business Alumni Board of Directors. She is also launching a scholarship to honor a classmate who passed away while attending the EMBA program. Hoskin speaks highly of the institution’s leadership and also stays in touch with many peers from her study group.
“What I tell people about MBAs is that math is math, anywhere,” she said. “Statistics is statistics. But the big thing is the culture, the people that you deal with, and also the challenge that it presents to you.”
The importance of being challenged is obviously significant for Hoskin, who hates feeling stagnant. She cited one Monday morning after graduating from SMU as an example, when she was in a mentor’s office complaining of boredom.
“For me personally, I like to know everything about everything,” Hoskin admitted. “I like to say marketable, agile, and adaptable. I can definitely say in the six years I’ve been with Raytheon, I’ve probably evolved at least three or four times already.”
As a kid who dissected her toys and would not let herself lose in anything, Hoskin’s inquisitive, persistent attitude still permeates everything she sets out to do.
She showcased her talents as an engineer early on during her time at Foxboro. A problem encountered at a particle plant in Wyoming left her under high pressure and with billions of dollars at risk if the plant was shut down. Hoskin maneuvered a team to fix the issue, calling upon more experienced colleagues as needed. She was in her early 20’s at the time.
“You definitely learn your strengths,” she said. “As an engineer you’re kind of thrown into a sink or swim, so you have to stand on your own, use your head, stay calm, and come up with the best possible solution for your customer. At the same time, you have to be honest with them, keep them calm, and keep that trusting relationship going.”
Hoskin said credibility and competency are two things employers look for when they meet her. She’s holding her own in a field often characterized by Caucasian, analytical males—a field few African-American females choose to pursue.
“You kind of just get used to it and don’t let it bother you, because you still have to prove yourself,” Hoskin shared. “You showcase your talents and you gain respect in just the same way.”
In addition to her engineering prowess and MBA degree, Hoskin is also a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, one of the highest belts you can earn in Six Sigma training. The concept of relating opinion and data resonates with her.
“Right now Six Sigma is probably one of the hottest things on the open market now,” she estimated. “People take Six Sigma as automatically pertaining to manufacturing or operations. It’s anything but that; Six Sigma really is about the business, and that’s what most people miss.”
In much of what she has accomplished, Hoskin has leaned on others for guidance. Mentorship is something she emphasizes with her employees and she speaks of several significant figures very positively. These figures vary from Raytheon VPs to the mentor with whom she was paired as an SMU leadership scholar. She has nothing but good things to say about all of them.
“Get mentors who don’t look like you,” Hoskin advised. “They don’t have to have the same profession as you do because they are going to help you in different ways.” To practice what she preaches, she has her own diverse cast of individuals who call her a mentor. “And as much as I mentor them, they are giving me some mentoring as well,” she added.
Becoming an impactful mentor is part of what motivates her toward new challenges. She enjoys seeing things from a new perspective and hopes to advance into an executive position. After initially chuckling at the mention of getting her doctorate--her mother recently asked her that, too--she admitted that she is still open to the idea and would like to study business strategy and leadership.
Hoskin wants to have a platform for becoming a significant role model for other females, and especially female engineers. “If you are going to talk the talk, you’ve have to walk the talk,” she asserted.
Hoskin recently earned another round of technical honors from her Raytheon peers, so it seems she is already on her way to becoming a person of influence in both the engineering and business worlds.
“You’re going to know what you’re supposed to do and become, because you’re never going to feel complete until you do,” Hoskin shared. “It’s going to bug you and it’s going to gnaw at you. Someone can pay you a million dollars, but you’ll never be quite happy until you fulfill what you’re supposed to fulfill. That’s how you know what you’re really about.”
Hoskin figured out what gnawed at her when she was 12. Once she did, it was like flipping a switch. “It’s the part that you can’t turn off. It’s the way you think when you go to bed at night and the way you think when you wake up in the morning; you can’t turn it off.” |
