Alba Lima’s Passion Drives the Automotive Industry in Brazil

The current labor needs of the industries have given way to change in the working life of women, who break paradigms and through their knowledge and discipline demonstrate that they have the same skills and abilities to work in sectors categorized as male. The Automotive Industry is not the exception to the rule and that is why more and more women show their tenacity in carrying out jobs in this sector, reaching positions as CEO and senior managers of important companies worldwide.

Although the road has been opened, there is still a long way to go to continue empowering women in their performance, that is why The American Organization of Women Leaders in Automotive Maintenance (OAMLA) works to generate spaces to include and sustain women as leaders in the automotive maintenance field in the American continent, in favor of gender equality and personal and professional development.

Believing in Yourself Is the Key

Alba Lima Nascimento, one of those women leaders who are part of OAMLA as the Coordinator on Supply Chain issues for the Automotive Sector in Brazil. She is an outstanding Business Administrator with a specialization in International Trade, responsible on several occasions for the negotiations of import and export contracts for spare parts, engines, landing gear, and brakes for Boeing, Airbus, and ATR aircraft with countries such as France and the United States.

Her experience of more than 20 years together with her firm idea of ​​“believing in oneself” has led her to obtain high positions in the automotive sector, serving as CEO of the company Worlddoor Comercio Exterior and as an exporter in the city of Ribeiro Preto (SP Brazil). However, the path to achieving these goals has not been easy because, as she herself relates, "getting to work in the automotive industry is not easy because men do not think that a woman has the same capabilities as them… Men do not see the woman like a professional."

But where does her passion for the Automotive Industry come from? It all started at home, in her father's workshop. Despite growing up in a home with five female sisters at a time when it was not common for one of them to appropriate an exclusive knowledge of men, Alba Lima received the unconditional support of her father and her only male brother from a very early age. She learned to change spare parts and to become more and more interested in the automotive world. "While I was learning in the workshop I thought that I needed to study and train to be in the industry and handle things that I did not know, this helped me so that over time the clients in my charge will trust my work and recognize that in this field the important thing is not brute force but the knowledge one has."

Also read: UNDISPUTED COURAGE AND RESILIENCE OF WOMEN IN AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY

Tips To Conquer the Automotive World

Alba Lima has had the unconditional support of her husband and her children who have learned to support and trust a mother and a wife who must respond for long hours of work. That is why, from her experience, she makes some recommendations for those women who want to venture into the exciting automotive world:

1. The taste and passion for what is done must be the fuel to overcome the problems, which are not a few, that arise in the automotive sector.

2. You have to study hard to be a very good professional.

3. Languages ​​are very important to work in the automotive industry.

4. Learn to listen to those who work with you, they contribute positive things to your work.

5. All women who want to work in this industry must believe in themselves. Give yourself the opportunity to show that your work is amazing.

The empowerment of women like Alba Lima is a process that clearly contributes to individual and family well-being, and to social development, strengthening decision-making, process control, and leadership on the ground in senior management.