Fostering professional development through external career events, including the Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers conference
Leading beyond limits: A look at RTX’s Asian Pacific Islander employee resource group
Yuta Yoshimura was ready for a big change but wasn’t sure how to make it.
Professionally, he felt ready to advance. But his personal instincts were telling him to stay in place.
“As Asians, we culturally want to stay in our lane; don’t want to rock the boat,” said Yoshimura, who spent eight years as a structural engineer at Pratt & Whitney, an RTX business. “In many of our cultures, there’s a deeply ingrained respect for hierarchy, which sometimes makes us reluctant to challenge authority. I found myself holding back, overanalyzing every word before speaking up in meetings.”
In 2021, he attended his first conference of the Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers and something clicked.
“‘Our work isn’t going to speak for itself. You have to speak on the value of the impact you are bringing,’” Yoshimura remembers a panelist saying.
So he got to work. For months, he made it a point to introduce himself to new people, build relationships and get advice on how to better position himself. Within a year, he landed his dream job as a manager of group strategy and development at Pratt & Whitney, an RTX business.
Now, as the community partnerships lead for RTX ASPIRES – the company’s employee resource group for Asian Pacific Islanders – Yoshimura is helping others grow their networks and access resources to develop in their careers.
“In many of our cultures, there’s a deeply ingrained respect for hierarchy, which sometimes makes us reluctant to challenge authority. I found myself holding back, overanalyzing every word before speaking up in meetings.”
Yuta Yoshimura | Community partnerships lead | RTX ASPIRES
The power of mentorship
RTX ASPIRES is part of the company’s commitment to strengthening inclusion and creating equitable opportunities for all employees. The group’s major objectives include:
Evolving a mentoring program targeted to API employees as part of the company’s Skills Enhancement and Employee Development program
Continuing to develop the API leadership pipeline at RTX through networking opportunities
Collaborating with other ERGs to build events that connect employees and develop leadership skills
Building skills, a community, and the future
RTX ASPIRES global chair Arun Mukherjee is focused on building on the group’s programs to support professional development and the API leadership pipeline at RTX.
A key part of that goal is expanding the group’s presence at the annual Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers conference so more employees can experience the event’s networking and learning opportunities.
“I want people to get involved in discussion panels and workshops and speak up and say, ‘These are my personal experiences I’ve faced,’” said Mukherjee, an associate director of program management at Raytheon, an RTX business.
Mukherjee is also collaborating across the company’s other ERGs to create speaking and networking events designed to connect employees and build leadership skills.
“That is invaluable because that will get you that leadership skill set,” he said. “You’ll be put in a situation with people who don’t think like you think, and you have to help bring them along.”
Taking the next step
Each year, RTX ASPIRES partners with the company to manage and advise the RTX Skills Enhancement and Employee Development program. The 10-month leadership program aims to enhance the skills of API mid-level individual contributors and managers to advance them into higher leadership roles at RTX. The program, now in its third year, includes one-on-one mentoring sessions, group networking and leadership skill workshops.
“We want to increase the API representation in our leadership levels, so this is one step toward that,” said Kristen Lee, who leads an RTX ASPIRES team that supports the program.
The program “expands their thought process to help them overcome any career barriers they are seeing through the context of their API cultural values,” said Lee, the group’s professional development lead and a principal mechanical engineer at Raytheon, an RTX business. “We promote risk-taking, being assertive, being accountable and helping each other. It helps them be more vocal about taking their career to the next step.”
“I want people to get involved in discussion panels and workshops and speak up and say, ‘These are my personal experiences I’ve faced.’“
Arun Mukherjee | Global chair | RTX ASPIRES
Networking works
Nearly two years into his new job, Yoshimura is the only person with an engineering background on a team of 10. The team is focused on strategic planning for a variety of projects, and Yoshimura’s diversity in experience is leading to direct and innovative contributions.
“I had a little imposter syndrome at first, but I’ve been incredibly blessed to leverage my past experience at the table,” said Yoshimura, who is now working on an engineering-related project. “It’s coming full circle.”
