Paula Astorga, Senior Manager of New Product Introduction and Support Engineering, Hologic
A path of dreams and effort will be crowned with great success.
Paula Astorga’s career in a nutshell: a hard-working Materials Engineer who graduated from the Technological Institute of Costa Rica, and who today is Senior Manager of New Product Introduction and Support Engineering for Hologic.
Since college, Paula has defied the myths and stereotypes traditionally imposed on women; for instance, she learned to melt and weld materials – a field that, far from intimidating her, actually made her fall in love with her profession.
After joining Hologic, a specialist in medical devices for women’s health and located in Coyol Free Zone, Paula began her journey as a junior engineer, climbing the ranks to a management position where today she is in charge of 25 people.
Among her duties, Paula is responsible for the growth of the company through new devices in Costa Rica and provides support for other areas of the plant. Also, she is in charge of the Office Projects, Operational Excellence, Process Engineering, and Chemistry and Nanotechnology departments.
Throughout her professional career, she has also led projects with a high economic impact in the country and worked with groups on high-tech medical devices in plants located in the United States.
Paula is extremely grateful to Hologic, a company that has opened doors for her and allowed her to grow professionally, train, and improve her technical and soft skills to put them at the service of women’s health in the world.
Paula is married and has a 7-year-old boy – responsibilities she performs alongside her different tasks on a daily basis with determination and quality.
In her own words
“I call on the girls of the new generations to overcome stereotypes, get out of their heads that engineering, manufacturing or technology careers are for men and break paradigms to go out into the world to take advantage of the opportunities that are presented to us.”
“Studying a technical career brings out the best in you and challenges you to explore within; it asks you to be constantly challenging yourself, be updated and learn; what it does is motivate us, women, to reach that next level.”
“We must always pursue our dreams; sometimes we want to travel or do something different, which is outside of our comfort zone, and so, we must take the leap into looking for new things and meeting our goals.”
“We as women can have a professional career as well as be mothers, wives, daughters and partners. We can grow as people, always working with passion and drive and looking to fly high beyond the 4 walls. Strive, be brave and bring out the best in yourself – fly and fulfill your dreams! “
“The medical device industry offers many opportunities, internships, professional practices; for example, at Hologic, we have a STEM program where we motivate employees’ children to study science and technology or mathematics, sometimes considered very stereotypical careers.”