{"id":3045,"date":"2024-04-15T17:54:05","date_gmt":"2024-04-15T17:54:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/resources.tannerbolt.com\/?p=3045"},"modified":"2024-04-20T16:58:24","modified_gmt":"2024-04-20T16:58:24","slug":"women-of-tanner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/resources.tannerbolt.com\/women-of-tanner\/","title":{"rendered":"WOMEN OF TANNER"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In March, we celebrated Women\u2019s History Month. This month focuses on women\u2019s empowerment, accomplishments, and achievements. We recently chatted with Tanner\u2019s own Maggie Soberal <\/a>about her experience related to women in the workplace. Maggie currently works as the purchasing manager at Tanner\u2019s Brooklyn headquarters. Read our interview with her interesting story below.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Carly: <\/strong>How did you get started in this industry?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maggie: <\/strong>My mother owned a body shop at the time and there was a woman who rear-ended one of my uncle’s cars. She ran a woman-owned business in Elmsford and was looking for a receptionist. So I started doing that and after two weeks I [was] extremely bored. I was making $12.00 an hour and at 16 it was good money. She said we could try to field calls. I really [didn\u2019t] know anything but here I am, 26 years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carly<\/strong>:<\/strong> Tell us a bit about your current role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maggie: <\/strong>I\u2019ve really only worked for two major companies. I worked for her company, Screws and More LLC, for almost 12 years and then ultimately I came [to Tanner] in July of 2010 and have been here since. I was hired as a Customer Service Representative in Brooklyn. In February of 2012, we opened our Long Island City branch and I became the branch manager. I moved from the branch manager and was given the opportunity to go to business development, then outside sales. I had worked on some accounts that I carried over from when I was a teenager that still buy from Tanner. Now I do purchasing but I still hold on to a few accounts for outside and those are some of them! They are like my babies. They\u2019ve seen me grow so its been kind of crazy to see them grow along with me. And it\u2019s been amazing to come into this field. I love this field. I love it. It\u2019s like \u201cchallenge me!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carly<\/strong>:<\/strong> Have you always looked for a challenge in your work?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maggie: <\/strong>Yes! That\u2019s why I don\u2019t only do purchasing. I also help around in the production side. I am now starting to do some working of the material for the Tanner in Maryland. So I\u2019m starting to have some of the bulk stuff shipped down there and then I organize that to then come back up here once it\u2019s all packaged. So [I\u2019m] trying to do a whole entire flow through and supply chain now.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carly<\/strong>:<\/strong> Did you experience any mentorship in your roles?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maggie: <\/strong>At that time, there were only 5 people who worked at the location that I was at. And again, [my mentor] was a woman in a man\u2019s industry, so if anything, Andis really inspired me. She taught me everything about screws and importing. I was able to then expand my knowledge to learn how to work with people in Thailand, Vietnam, and China [such as] getting up at 2:00 o\u2019clock in the morning to do Zoom calls because it\u2019s their normal time. She was definitely a big inspiration to me. Sometimes, it\u2019s like they say, \u2018right time, right opportunity\u2019 because I don\u2019t know how I would have ever found a job in this industry. The joke is you can hold the screw up across the warehouse and I\u2019ll be able to tell you where we get it from, approximately how much we pay for it, and how many are in a box. I could tell you what kind of material it is just from looking. Other people look and see the screw make; I see the part number. So Andis really put that into me. She was definitely one of the first people who put me onto this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carly<\/strong>: <\/strong>What specific characteristics helped you be successful in this industry?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maggie: <\/strong>Have a thick skin. Honestly, when you go to talk to somebody about a tool and you look like me, they\u2019re always going to think [someone else] knows better. So you have to get used to that. That was the thing when I moved to sales. Everyone could pick up the phone to reach me, but then it was time to go out into the world. So [that] challenged me. A lot of accounts were rough. As long as I can sell the product, that\u2019s all that matters. As long as I know what I\u2019m talking about, that\u2019s all that matters. I can show them how to use it, how it\u2019s [going to] make their job easier, safer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carly<\/strong>:<\/strong> What improvements or changes have you noticed in the industry over time?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maggie: <\/strong>[Women] are starting to be more predominant in this industry, which is something I love. My purchasing team is all women. I think women are detail oriented, can figure things out, and think emotionally and logically at the same time. There are also more women organizations now. I\u2019m a member of the National Association of Women in Construction for New York and New Jersey, so I hold dual papers in both. I never had any formal training. It was basically a free for all [when I started out]. I got [to Tanner] and the world was my oyster! Now I have tons of certificates and validations. They have women cut safety vests. The safety jackets are now cut for a female. I think headgear might need to be looked at a little bit better because sometimes women do have a shallower or smaller face, [so] not all hard hats fit. But it takes time. I think its great to get women more involved. We just have to get more women in there. They\u2019ve made some turning points, but I think we [have to] keep going. Women [have to] keep edging in a bit more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carly<\/strong>:<\/strong> What advice do you have for young women who are in a male-dominated industry?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maggie<\/strong>: Be a sponge. Don\u2019t ever say no. If you learn something new, it\u2019s a good day. If you go outside every single day and apply just one thing, you\u2019re smarter than you were the day before. Don\u2019t be close-minded. Just because it\u2019s not your job doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t learn it, because you never know when that might become your job or if you [will] change jobs. Always be willing to learn. The more you learn, the more value you bring to a table. That\u2019s why I went back to school! I don\u2019t mind stopping to teach anybody anything here because it\u2019ll be used along the way. It\u2019s really such a terrific industry to be in and I wish every woman would give it a shot. The old saying is that if you love your job, [you] never work a day in your life. I truly and genuinely do love my job. I try to find different ways to make it exciting for myself and always try to challenge myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contact Maggie at msoberal@tannerbolt.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Built on TRUST <\/strong>Est. 1965<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In March, we celebrated Women\u2019s History Month. This month focuses on women\u2019s empowerment, accomplishments, and achievements. We recently chatted with Tanner\u2019s own Maggie Soberal about her experience related to women in the workplace. Maggie currently works as the purchasing manager at Tanner\u2019s Brooklyn headquarters. Read our interview with her interesting…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.tannerbolt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3045"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.tannerbolt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.tannerbolt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.tannerbolt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.tannerbolt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3045"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/resources.tannerbolt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3060,"href":"https:\/\/resources.tannerbolt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3045\/revisions\/3060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.tannerbolt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.tannerbolt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.tannerbolt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}