When you hear Jennifer Quitoriano talk about her experiences at TI, you would think she were an experienced professional in an established career. Turns out the 23-year-old TI newbie simply has a gift for troubleshooting some of TI’s toughest IT challenges as a new business analyst for the project execution team in IT Services. Her talent for identifying solutions for optimizing and streamlining business operations took her from a 2011 internship to full-time hire and IT Services high performer in the span of one year.
“I support and coordinate projects in IT services, including upgrades to new systems. I also help our businesses analyze and understand the data they use to better forecast and plan for customer demands, identify any issues and resolutions from planning to delivery in the supply chain,” she said.
In the last year, Jennifer has shown commitment to sharing the lessons and experiences of being a new hire that has reaped the benefits of TI’s entrepreneurial culture while also leveraging the support and mentorship the company provides to help her flourish. As an intern, she became involved with the New Employee Initiative (NEI), delving in as a core team member when she was hired on in 2012.
“I am the new hire and intern coordinator, so I coordinate the buddy program and match-up new interns coming into our IT group with a person in our NEI group,” said Jennifer. “The goal is to help new people get acclimated into TI and do some networking that they wouldn’t normally have a chance to do.”
To a large extent, Jennifer believes she gets out of TI what she puts into it. She participates in activities hosted by a variety of TI community-based organizations – the TI’s Women’s Initiative (WIN), the Black Information Technology Professionals (BITP) and the Hispanic IT Professionals (HIP) – for example. She said an event put on by HIP called, “So You Think You Can Zumba,” was a fun way to be introduced to TIers she otherwise wouldn’t have ever met.
“It is just a great opportunity to get together, meet new people and learn about what they do at TI and how they got here. It was a really cool way to network,” she said.
Innately curious and always seeking new and better ways to approach her job, Jennifer makes the most out of every tool and resource available to her, drawing inspiration from others’ TI stories, advice and experiences. She credits her mentor as someone who motivates her to meet goals, set new ones and help her define her future at TI.
“During the middle of your work time you can forget there are other things you need to think about besides how your projects are going or the day-to-day tasks at hand. You really need to step back and reflect where your career is and where it is going,” said Jennifer. “I feel like my mentor is someone who I can go to and ask her questions about my current role and how she handled challenges or opportunities when she was in my position.”
Jennifer is “one to watch” because she’s just getting started here at TI, and her sky knows no limit. We wouldn’t be surprised if before long, Jennifer becomes not just a mentee, but a mentor for others, whether as a business analyst, as part of the New Employee Initiative or somewhere else in TI’s Diversity Network. Don’t worry, Jennifer will find the time – she always does.
