Hello, my name is Stephanie Escobedo, and I am a Senior Data Center Engineer at Equinix, the World’s Digital Infrastructure company. I am also a Veteran and served in the United States Navy.  

I was born in Mexico and my family relocated to Kenosha, Wisconsin where I spent most of my childhood. From as early as I can remember, I have always had a desire to join the military. In 2018, I completed my education and immediately enlisted. Military boot camp and my ensuing advanced training was transformative. It also proved to be very isolating and challenging as a queer, Hispanic woman surrounded by few and often no other peers who were like me. I eventually decided to join the Navy as my branch of choice and became an electrical gas turbine engineer—yet another fulfilling path that proved to be simultaneously isolating as someone with such a diverse background.

After being honorably discharged from the Navy due to injury, I found myself feeling completely lost and directionless. This is the dark side of civilian life that not many talk about, but it takes a major toll on your mental health. Everyone thanks you for your service, yet no employers are willing to hire you due to your “niche skillset” and “resume gaps”.  I decided that my best path would be to utilize my military experience to transition into the engineering world. This is often the only way forward for those in my situation since pivoting to areas like sales, finance, marketing, etc. require further initiative and often an MBA to facilitate the transition. One day as I browsed roles on LinkedIn, I came across an opportunity at Equinix to work in a technical capacity within data centers. Not only did this align with my goals and experience, but it also was earmarked and advertised for veterans.  

After interviewing, I was eventually selected for the role and joined Equinix. During my time at Equinix I have not only gained knowledge of how data centers work and how the people at the backend keep them working but have also produced valuable results and maintained the status of top performer. My experience in the military has provided me with the capabilities to quickly get up to speed via on-the-job training, providing dedicated support, and effectively communicating and collaborating with my peers. In fact, I have learned that this is very standard across the Veteran population. Veterans remain with their initial company 8.3% longer than typical employees, are 39% more likely to be promoted earlier, and are 160% more likely than nonveterans to have a graduate degree or higher.  

That said, working in the data center industry has proven to follow suit with my past experiences of being rewarding, yet challenging as a woman. Uptime Institute reports that women account for only 5% of data center staff globally across the entire industry. Estimates also predict that in the next 3 years, a startling 30% of the industry’s staff will retire (DCD). While there is still a long way to go in increasing representation for those like me in this space, I am proud to work at a company like Equinix that is actively breaking barriers in the hiring process to combat these statistics. With this continued dedication to hire women, veterans, black, Hispanic, disabled, and more talent—we will surely see this industry continue to transform.

While at Equinix, I was not only recruited, but have also been supported throughout my journey. Equinix has various employee resource groups (internally called EECN’s-Equinix Employee Connection Network) that can build community for those of all backgrounds. A few of these that provide me with pride due to my identities are our EECN’s supporting women, young professionals, Hispanics, the LGBTQIA+ community, and finally—veterans. I have had so many impactful mentors that have not only provided me with new skills, but also have helped me network with other leaders, identify new skillsets I can explore, and support me in continuing my education. I am back in school at UW Madison getting an MBA and am utilizing their hybrid program so I can continue my education while still advancing my career at Equinix.  

Being in the military has been such a great experience, however it put a halt on my career. I feel I am having to make up for that time that I “lost” --time that was spent serving my country. I do not regret the time I spent serving my country, however I do still see so many existing stigmas and barriers for those who leave the military and transition to corporate. I cannot wait to see the representation of women grow in this industry in the years to come.