This article is slated to appear in Woman Engineer magazine in Spring 2003. For Jeanne Young it was the wise words spoken by her dynamic mother that jump-started Young's career in automotive engineering. "Go into a man's field -- be the doctor, not the nurse," she advised. Young listened -- and today she is Ford Business Unit Director, North America at Auburn Hills, Michigan-based ITT Industries, Fluid Handling Systems (www.ittfluidhandling.com). "I also followed my mom's advice and attended a college that offered ample opportunity to co-op," says Young, who chose both engineering and GMI, now Kettering University. Currently responsible for the company's engineering, sales, and program management program for ITT sales products to Ford Motor Company -- $100 million in annual sales -- she has never regretted her decision. A graduate of GMI's five-year program, Young credits her co-op experiences with rapidly "driving" her career forward. "I chose engineering because I excelled in math and science, but it was my years at GMI that affirmed automotive engineering as the right field for me," she states. "Many people select careers without having been engaged in work-related situations and subsequently find themselves unhappy when they enter the workplace," says Young, for whom that is definitely not the case. By the time she was a junior in college, her work experience was sufficient and successful enough for her to be a plant electrical engineer at one of the Big Three auto manufacturers. "That makes co-op sponsoring institutions such as Kettering even more valuable and their students better able to command higher starting salaries," she states. Since graduating from GMI in 1989 with a degree in electrical engineering, Young has held a number of positions -- all within the automotive industry. She also, in 1994, completed a Masters in Business and Engineering Management, a joint degree between the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management and the R.R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science at Northwestern University. In 1995, she joined ITT Industries where she has since held a number of positions, among them, Executive Assistant to the President and CEO of ITT Automotive and Director of Program Management, North America, ITT Fluid Handling Systems, before assuming her current position in 2001. According to Young the push for continuous improvements and consistent reductions in price make the automotive industry a very tough business. "It's fast-paced and requires the ability to learn rapidly," remarks Young, who finds the pace of learning even more intense at suppliers than at OEMs (original equipment manufacturers). She also mentions the recent move by other industries to seek out those with automotive experience. "As industries get tougher they look for employees with a track-record of performing in tough industries." Noting an increased focus on diversity within the automotive industry, Young sees the value of an inclusive workforce first-hand. "Diverse groups of people bring different viewpoints to the table and are therefore often able to arrive at better answers," she states, mentioning that one of the reasons she majored in electrical engineering was that, at the time, less than 2 percent of electrical engineers were women. "There's no doubt that made me more marketable," says Young, who never found that being female worked against her. She does, however, acknowledge a general need for assertiveness and the ability to stand up for oneself. Happily, she reports, the automotive industry is becoming less and less of an ol' boy network and adds that, in general, individuals lacking in assertiveness should not consider the automotive field. For Young, however, there is no other sector. "I love the work I do and I love the challenge of strategically trying to grow a business. I also thoroughly enjoy working with an exceptional team of people," comments this full time working mom of an 18 month-old baby who balances work and family by prioritizing tasks on a daily basis. "I now work 50 hours a week instead of 60, and for the first time in my career I'm able to put my work aside when I leave the office. At home, my family is my Number One priority -- and that's how it should be," she says.			Jeanne Young, Ford Business Unit Director, Fluid Handling Systems What two skills are most important to your job? Jeanne Young: Of the skills I find particularly essential to my position as a manager in the sales and engineering division of a worldwide automotive company is technical expertise. Despite not having been engaged in hands-on engineering in several years, it is my engineering background that allows me to understand and explain technology to others, and it is this area of expertise that is critical for those involved in discussions that affect a company's entire direction. In addition to technical expertise, I would rank financial and business knowledge as next in importance.