From Product Assistant to VP of Operations, One Leader Shares Her Insights on Career Advancement
Jessica Teach is an executive member of the Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) team, a Lucasfilm company. She spearheads the operational, diversity and inclusion, and talent strategies across ILM’s five studios globally. Teach joined ILM in 2001 as a Production Assistant and has held a number of positions with increasing responsibility throughout the 20+ years she’s been with ILM.
ModelExpand sat down with Jessica to discuss her experience, insights on how to advance in your career, and ways to show your developmental and growth impact.
Career
You have worked in visual effects and operations for ~20 years on impactful movies such as Star Wars, Black Panther and Avengers. How did you first get into the industry?
My journey at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) began when I was hired as a Production Assistant on Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones. From there, I went on to work on more projects and took on increasing levels of responsibility on different projects along the way - we call them “shows” at ILM. After years of working on many different shows, I was asked to become a Talent Manager, and two artist discipline groups - lighting and creature technical directors - reported to me. I was responsible for hiring, compensation planning, performance reviews and helping align the team’s career aspirations with the show’s crewing needs. I really loved that role and felt like I had finally found my place at ILM. From there, I have had the privilege of taking on new challenges and higher level responsibilities, including helping to drive our global expansion, shaping our talent strategy and contributing to our inclusion efforts. I really do think I have the dream job!
What is your average day like?
My average day is pretty fun! We have so many amazingly talented people at Lucasfilm and Industrial Light & Magic, and in my role as VP, Operations I get to interact across many different teams and across all five of our studios, located in San Francisco, Singapore, Vancouver, London and Sydney. I love the spectrum of challenges that we all work on together, although I must admit, I am in a lot of meetings!
“The really appealing thing about the visual effects industry is that it is made up of a bunch of people with diverse backgrounds. I have a degree in writing - my friends and colleagues have backgrounds in architecture, industrial design, computer science, illustration, and the like. ”
What is the best part about working with the Industrial Light & Magic team at Lucasfilm?
Without a doubt, the people! Our team is simply the best in the world at what they do and what I love most is how generous everyone is with their knowledge and how we all can manage to laugh during the toughest of times. We have a team of wizards who rise to every challenge thrown at them and they constantly over-deliver. It is so inspiring!
What is your advice to women interested in pursuing a similar career path as yours? Where should they start?
The really appealing thing about the visual effects industry is that it is made up of a bunch of people with diverse backgrounds. I have a degree in writing - my friends and colleagues have backgrounds in architecture, industrial design, computer science, illustration, and the like. There’s no one path into our world and there are so many resources online now to help interested women learn more. Over the years, I think my curiosity and willingness to ask questions and jump in when help is needed has served me well. I think of visual effects as a journey - the learning and adventure is never done with what we do!
Advancing in Your Career
What do you think are the most important factors to developing and growing in your career? Any advice you could share?
In addition to curiosity, strong and clear communication, and a strong sense of follow through are really important. Visual effects is a team sport, whether you’re an artist, an engineer or a production manager. We all work together to get the impossible done and that can be so fun; at the same time, a strong backbone built around communication and seeing your part of the process through is essential!
With your experience moving into leadership roles at Lucasfilm and Industrial Light & Magic, what are some strategies to effectively ask for a promotion in a 1-1 with your manager?
The importance of advocating for yourself can not be overstated. At the same time, I don’t suggest doing so in a vacuum. What is going on in your company? Are you growing in a way that aligns with the business objectives? Developing a sense of the bigger picture and understanding how you fit into that structure, and then making the case based on facts - what you are doing, how much you’re stepping up, and so on, are key. I have not seen success with the “I want a promotion” approach. I have always been better served when I spend the time making a thoughtful case about what I specifically am bringing to the table and how that’s helping the business.
“I have not seen success with the “I want a promotion” approach. I have always been better served when I spend the time making a thoughtful case about what I specifically am bringing to the table and how that’s helping the business.”
How do you effectively track your accomplishments and present it to your manager to show impact?
I keep a running annual list of major initiatives I am driving - updated weekly. Because my role focuses on our talent and operations strategies, I cover a lot. So I make a point of noting areas where I have worked personally or with a team to improve things. Being part of the solution is always welcomed because in busy industries like visual effects, there are just so many challenges that need tackling.
Looking back at that list from time to time helps me compare where I am focusing my day to day against the larger objectives, so I can make sure I am keeping in mind the company’s annual goals. By the way, it’s also a great resource to help me draw from for my annual performance review.
Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
We are seeing more stories being told of those from underrepresented groups. Do you see a shift happening behind the camera as well in terms of diversity and inclusion?
Absolutely and it is so exciting! It is long overdue, and it is so exciting! Sometimes visual effects can feel like an invisible world - when we do our job really well, you actually can’t tell what’s been changed on the screen. We create immersive and magic worlds that make you feel like you could reach out and touch them. With that magic comes a lot of mystery about the process and so raising awareness about the huge spectrum of opportunities we have in our company is a very large part of our focus. In addition to working hard to hire the best talent - both up and coming and experts - in the world, we also work hard to reach kids of all ages to inspire them to consider art and computer science courses to prepare them for roles in the industry.
“Because the visual effects industry has a majority representation of white men, we need their partnership and support to make meaningful and lasting change. DISCo has helped many allies engage on these topics - through our conversations, those allies have in turn made small but meaningful changes in their day to day at work that have resulted in some significant improvements internally.”
What are 1-2 things that you are the most proud of that have helped Lucasfilm move the needle in terms of representation in the workforce? What is your strategy as you continue to grow?
I am the founder of an internal Employee Resource Group - DISCo, our Diversity and Inclusion Steering Committee. In 2018, I, along with a few other equally passionate folks, decided we would band together to make change in areas across the business to bring representation and inclusion to the forefront of our company’s day to day processes and efforts. That group spearheaded many successful changes, including company wide adoption of gender neutral job descriptions to appeal to a broader cross section of talent, blind resume screening where names and any indication of gender are removed before review and other inclusive hiring practices. Through DISCo, we have also helped influence our company culture by creating a safe space to help allies learn and ask tough questions. Because the visual effects industry has a majority representation of white men, we need their partnership and support to make meaningful and lasting change. DISCo has helped many allies engage on these topics - through our conversations, those allies have in turn made small but meaningful changes in their day to day at work that have resulted in some significant improvements internally. It has been so inspiring to see them in action!
I am also one of the Executive Sponsors of our Women’s and Underrepresented Gender Employees Resource Group that spans all our studios globally. It is a true privilege to be able to partner with such a dedicated, open and inspiring group of people to make change and build the culture we want to see in our company. This group was founded in 2020 and I am so excited to see our efforts gain steam across the world! We are doing really wonderful work together like creating internal mentorship and networking programs, bringing in experts to share their wisdom with us, and also helping our group learn practical skills like salary negotiation, writing effective performance reviews and much more.
Jessica will be sharing more about her experience at ModelExpand’s Women in Leadership Breakfast Series: How to Advocate for Yourself at Work on March 11th from 9:00am-10:15am PST. Click below to register for free!
Interested in working at ILM/Lucasfilm? Click here for Industrial Light & Magic and Lucasfilm open positions.
ModelExpand is a diversity, equity and inclusion consulting firm focused on radically accelerating the presence of historically underrepresented people in the workforce. ModelExpand’s work has been featured in Harvard Business Review, Forbes and CultureAmp. Need support embedding Diversity, Equity and Inclusion within your organization? Contact us below.
