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Insights > Powering the Future – National Careers in Energy Week
Powering the Future – National Careers in Energy Week
10/12/2018
Cat Wong is Manager, Customer Product Engineering. She started her career with Entergy over 11 years ago as an intern. In her current role, she works with different stakeholders at Entergy to plan, design and implement distributed energy resources into our system, including solar, battery storage and micro-grids. Cat shares why she focused on the energy field after majoring in electrical engineering in college.
What made you decide to work in the energy field? When I was young, I helped my mom repair some small appliances at home and was always curious about how we got electricity to our house. As I progressed through school, I found myself becoming more and more interested in engineering, and I ended up majoring in electrical engineering in college. There are a lot of different fields that fall under electrical engineering, and one of the catalysts for me to decide to focus in the energy field was an internship with Hydro Quebec Research Institute in Montreal, Canada. I worked with the real-time simulation development team for two summers and enjoyed testing equipment in the lab, analyzing power systems and running simulations with different tools. I also interned with Entergy before I completed my Ph.D. at Tulane University and was exposed to not only the engineering side of the energy field but also the business and regulatory sides. These experiences confirmed my decision to work in the energy field with Entergy.
Why are energy jobs so important?
Energy is needed by everyone and it is important for us to provide safe, affordable and reliable power to customers.
What do you love most about what you do?
Entergy is transforming its products and services function by developing new and innovative solutions that are responsive to evolving customer needs. I am leading the effort to perform engineering studies to determine the ability of the existing system to support those proposed new solutions. I love bringing in new ideas and technologies, developing strategies and processes, and ultimately seeing them successfully implemented into our company.
What excites you most about the future of the industry?
Our industry is at the crucial point where disruption is happening. New technologies will change the relationship between utilities and customers. It’s similar to the eras when we saw the switch from carriages to cars, flip phones to smartphones, and now centralized to decentralized energy resources. I’m very excited to be part of it and have the opportunity to influence those changes.
What advice would you give to a student who wants to work in the energy field?
Always be ready for change. Treat changes as an opportunity rather than a threat.
Are you interested in working in the energy sector? If you’d like to join our team, check out these career opportunities with Entergy! You can also keep up with Entergy career opportunities by following us on LinkedIn!
