welcome to bets on the future where we highlight the various career paths and the electrifying Metals World from the vehicle you ride in to the bridge holding it up metals are everywhere why not in your career too I’m Jennifer Betts a Metals industry veteran with almost 20 years experience here to highlight these incredible career paths As Told by the women who are living them this week Our Guest will steal a few moments of your time please give a warm welcome to Becca and moxagimba reporter for steel market update Becca brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table she is a true woman of Steel working in the steel industry for many years before joining cru’s team of knowledgeable steel reporters at steel market update get ready for an enriching conversation about the steel industry and how to jump into an industry ready for the next wave of passionate individuals so wonderful to have you here Becca Becca Moxie Gamba is a reporter for steel market update which is a community for the steel space and she is incredibly knowledgeable and it’s going to be a fantastic time to to be able to

learn a little bit about yourself how you got into this and just learn a little bit more about what you’re working on at steel market update thanks for having me I’m so excited to be here that’s so wonderful so when we were talking before we hit the record button you mentioned that you have not been at steel market update super long at this point how did you find SMU so I was actually a reader um at my previous jobs I worked for mitsui um it’s a Japanese trading house for four years and then I was at clockner for a year and I was on LinkedIn one day and I saw Michael had posted oh looking for a reporter and I did my undergrad in Communications and I was like oh what’s this about so I messaged him and he was like well send me a writing sample and I sent him a writing sample and the rest is fate here I am that’s fantastic it’s uh pretty incredible the range of careers that exist in this space for those that are not familiar with the metal space could you translate essentially what your previous

employers did or where they fell in the supply chain for the metals industry yeah sure so I I mean I fell into the industry by mistake um like I feel many people have um so at mitsui um they were a Trader so we would source steel coils all flat roll and sell it to customers clockner is a service center where the source material process it and then sell it to end users so I’ve been at the beginning of the supply chain kind of beginning middle and middle of supply chain that’s fantastic the opportunities and things that you have seen has probably been pretty incredible do you find anything different or more interesting now that you’re on the reporting side of things versus on the physical trading side um it’s a different perspective I feel like I definitely bring a unique perspective to our newsletters or when I’m talking to people in the market I’m not a journalist by trade I happen to have communications experience and can write and I know that’s not very common in our industry so I do feel like I’m a unicorn of sorts I’m just very fortunate to have

had the experience that I’ve had my career has been non-linear yeah somehow I started in Communications and wound up in the steel industry but it’s come full circle so I feel like I’m right where I should be and it’s just been a fun ride so far it’s quite interesting to hear how people fall into this there are several you know folks that are in the industry that have the family or the friends connections and then there’s others like myself career fair in college had no idea this world existed thought I’d take this job for six months and then reassess and go into something you know that appeared to be you know a little bit more appealing more Tech based something along those lines and this industry has truly surprised me it’s been way more interesting than what I expected it to be yeah it’s I act I actually feel like it’s kind of a secret like a special little secret that the people in the industry know about and nobody outside of it does um but I I you know I thought when I was at clockner I thought I would end up

as an analyst or some type of inventory management I like problem solving so that was kind of where I saw myself going I’d never in a million years thought I would be writing about the industry um so I did my MBA while I was at mitsui and I was definitely trying to go more down the business throughout I’m very passionate about business um and you know I read a lot about strategy and I just find it interesting um and then my career just took a complete turn but it’s a really cool turn I think it’s fantastic I used to work for Argus media which for those not in the metals industry is a price reporting agency it’s essentially a combination of reporters journalists writing on on news stories as well as well as you know doing price assessments and I always thought it was very interesting they did try to pull in individuals from the industry so there were several reporters there that had industry experience others not so much you know where they got the journalist background and and brought them in and it’s almost all of them had the same story where

they were just surprised to a find this industry and then love it as much as they have right it’s it’s and I’m sure you’ve seen it in the past year of you covering the industry I mean there’s news stories almost every day that are fascinating out there oh yeah there’s I mean that’s all we do all day is we we provide news and updates for um for the community um I actually in between working for mitsui and Klockner I worked um in risk management for as a credit analyst for about four months and I woke up one day and I was like oh my gosh I miss the steel industry this is I miss you know knowing everything and I miss the people that I’ve met in the industry because it’s so relationship based and I’ve met some of the kindest people in this industry most everybody I know is just super genuine you know they’ll help you out they’ll answer questions and like I said it’s just a special Secret it really is I have a finance degree in undergrad and I thought I was going in Investment Banking right and the more

and more I learn about what my life my day-to-day life would actually look like the more and more I realized I was not going to be for me and the career fair finding a company that essentially said here’s a company car here’s an expense account um oh yeah and by the way it’s in the um uh scrap metal world or as we call it now recycled materials and my family did not understand what I was about to go into and almost 20 years later uh I’m still here you know kind of exploring the all the different avenues that exist in this this industry but it kind of gets into your blood I know that’s a very cheesy thing that we say in this industry but it it kind of does yeah you’re absolutely right that is exactly what happened to me and I had somebody tell me pretty early on that you either love the steel industry or you don’t and you’ll know within six months yep and the person said within six months it’ll be in your blood and that’s what you’ll do for the rest of your life and I

was like no you know this is just a job until I figure out what I’m gonna do and six years later here I am still and you’re and you’re still here uh when you tell your friends and family what you do do they understand do they do they have a general idea of of what you’re a part of not really they they question when I first started they were like what is it that you actually do and I’m like well we have these big steel coils that look like a toilet paper roll and it’s turned into all kinds of stuff and I live in Houston so we have lots of metal buildings here in Texas lots of Barns and you know I use that as an example and then they kind of understand that when I turn to reporting they had a better understanding you know we’re reporting on the market um so they can kind of equate it to that Market you know regular Market reporting yes what most people probably are not aware of is steel is a commodity right oh absolutely so it’s essentially a stock if you will and market

news is what changes the pricing of it right yeah there’s a shortage because the steel mill goes down for unexpected maintenance for three or four weeks if lead time start you know shrinking it’s going to affect the pricing of that commodity and it goes into almost everything that we use to hold up our infrastructure in pretty much every society around around the world yeah and that’s what one thing I when I was an account manager at Klockner I was reading steel market update regularly we have newsletters that come out three days a week um but we’re constantly updating the website um you know it’s not just like here’s the news for the day and then tomorrow you’ll get different news no it is Around the Clock latest steel news where we’re a resource and I was able to communicate to my customers what was going on you know they would ask me hey what’s blah blah and I was able to tell them because I read the news that morning so I think being able to have steel specific news that you don’t have to go to a bunch of different websites to look

for streamline things when you’re an account manager when you’re in sales whether you’re a vpa executive whatever it’s all right there and we’re living we live in an era of convenience and that’s convenient absolutely it’s something that I didn’t know existed again when I was in college had no idea there was a world where there were essentially business Publications dedicated to this industry and it really is a very necessary aspect if you’re in this industry SMU is fantastic from a resource standpoint they have experienced individuals like yourself you alluded to Michael Michael Cowden earlier on who’s been in the industry many years as well very knowledgeable but what I think is very unique about what SMU does is that it’s also a community where they put on events and conferences and so it’s a networking opportunity as well yeah and I think that people they you know they’ll ask like oh you know still market update you guys do a newsletter I was actually at um awmi meeting a couple weeks ago and we were sitting around it was a crawfish boil very casual and we were talking about it and somebody had asked

oh so you guys just have the newsletter or or you know what do you have and I said we’re not just a newsletter we’re a community and you know they’re kind of like didn’t understand and I said we have the newsletter yes we have the website yes but we have our conferences we have steel 101 we are a full-on resource for the steel industry we have pricing we have lead times we we want you to call us and email us and say hey what’s going on I just had a four day long email chain with one of my industry friends and we were talking about everything under the sun we were talking about Mills we were talking about lead times we were talking about pricing we were talking about just everything and it was so awesome to be able to have that back and forth you know we love that not just as reporters like yes it’s great to get that Intel on the market but this is what we’re passionate about we wouldn’t be doing this job if we weren’t and I I love it when people call me or they text

me and they’re like what’s going on with this you know I I saw the article can you give me more or it’s just it’s so fun it really is and for those who are in the industry that are listening to this or watching this online however you stream it in the future having relationships with individuals like yourself are really important when I was in the marketplace and I was trading medals I had really good relationships and I still do I still keep in contact with the reporters uh in the industry because that’s exactly what I would do is I would call up someone and say hey I heard this rumor can you confirm deny have you been hearing this it’s that exchange of information that is fantastic reporters know everyone they know the whole Marketplace they know all the players so if you’re looking for an unbiased individual in this industry reporters are your go-to people because it’s not like when I call up a steel mill and say hey I hear like your furnace is down that doesn’t really benefit them you know um to to really share as much information as

they probably could right like they need to keep that to the chest a little bit more but on the reporter side you don’t have skin in the game like you’re just straight up reporting on what is happening in the industry there’s no biased and you can get really great unfiltered information through folks like yourself yeah and I think I also think it’s important to know that when you’re talking to a reporter or you know so they’re we’re asking for pricing or something or we’re never putting anybody’s name out there or you know if a mill if there is an issue with a mill we’re just reporting the information that they’re giving us we’re never writing you know super negative things or not you know that’s not what we want we want to be a resource for the community we’re part of the community you know no I’m not sending processing orders or taking POS anymore but we’re serving the industry and like you said it’s super important to know about pricing know what scrap is doing know what the market is doing and the only way to know what it’s doing is to talk

to people absolutely well I’ve blurred it out but uh I’m in Chicago in a hotel room this week because I was at a networking event because it is very important uh those in the industry would know the Boy Scouts dinner uh the the big Metals dinner that’s held in Chicago annually and I believe the the final count was around a thousand people last night a thousand people and this is really more on the finished product side of things so you’ve got the raw materials that go into the steel mills and the other uh melt shops you know throughout the industry and then the finished product like the coils that you talked about onto the service centers Distributors you know oems all the way down mainly basically steel mills on is what this dinner was about and there were a thousand people there and it’s such a small community by volume of individuals yet the impact that it has on our society is great huge right a lot of topics that come up in these networking opportunities revolve around sustainability that’s a Hot Topic right now around recycled materials around essentially carbon footprints and it’s

a very old school industry in the sense that you need to meet in person you need to establish those relationships to build up that trust to get the information and those business opportunities and it’s it’s very similar to to what you’re working on yeah I always tell people who are new to the industry this is a relationship based industry go to lunches go to dinners call people text yep you know send a carrier pigeon whatever you have to do um because and I but I think that’s what that’s part of what makes it so special is that you still get that human interaction you know we’re we’re so digital and we’re always on our phones all day and we’re teams and email and WhatsApp and everything under the Sun but to be able to you know call up one of my friends in the industry and be like you want to go to lunch talk about the kids talk about you know whatever is going on and like oh by the way did you hear what scrap is doing you know and to have that organically happen from networking events you know steel Summit

was my it was my first time last year to go and it was I just had the best time I was like I’m at a work function and I’m smiling this is strange but all the people that I’ve met you know I’ve kept in touch with or texting each other sending you know Tick Tock videos or whatever I love it formality no um right oh absolutely absolutely this industry is uh more welcoming than what I think most people from the outside would stereotype this industry and I mean that’s part of the reason why we’re doing this is because I’ve met some really incredible women over the course of my career and I’d like to Showcase them more right and show that the stereotypes that exist out there are not always accurate for this industry in terms of what you’ve seen over the years is there anything that you would recommend to someone who is interested in getting into this industry any words of advice or suggestions for them Network call people that you know get on LinkedIn send messages don’t be shy um you know I felt like I didn’t know Michael when I

sent him a message on LinkedIn about the job you know I was just like I work for Klockner and you posted about a job so um take a risk on yourself you know bet on yourself because you’ll surprise yourself absolutely I think the LinkedIn suggestion is really key if you aren’t able to find those in-person networking opportunities LinkedIn is a really great resource find companies on there that you’re interested in working for look them up online I’ve just on LinkedIn but on their social media sites too because then you can get a better perspective of what they’re up to and I recently learned about a new feature on LinkedIn where you can go to a company’s page and you can scroll down to the bottom and you can hit something along the lines of uh uh not apply but just send them a little note that says in the future if you do have an opportunity that arises I am interested and so that’s cool it’s it’s a pretty cool new tool I think it came out the past few weeks where if you don’t want to put open to work on your

profile badge right but if you see a company down the road and you’re thinking maybe in a few years that’s something that I would look forward to it’s just another great networking opportunity just to put your name in there just so that they have you in their database that if there is an opportunity so if you do want to get into the metals industry whether it’s from the raw material side steel mills service centers uh communities like yourself there are ways to get involved and it really revolves around relationships finding people online just starting the conversation yeah and if you want to move around within the industry like if you’re already in it and you’re you know one to two years at a company and you’re like I want to see what else is out there joining awmi is fantastic I have met so many people through just my chapter and I I wish I wouldn’t have waited so long to join yes for those who are unfamiliar AWI is the association of women in the metals Industries and there are there are many associations within the metals industry and awmi in my opinion

is probably the best association to belong to because it’s the only vertically integrated you will meet people across the full supply chain and it really opens up your eyes to what’s available out there as well as just from a connecting standpoint you meet individuals from your chapter from your region that you may not have necessarily ever done business with in the in in the past or in the future and so it gives you an opportunity to develop new business leads mentors overall just networking and having additional dialogue and discussions of hey I heard this did you hear this in the marketplace and it’s it’s a truly fantastic organization yeah and it is open to men there are male members so you are absolutely welcome to join even though it says women in the metals industry we do have lots of male members yes absolutely it’s an organization that is supporting women in the industry and that’s from male and female members there are individuals that I’ve met in the industry that essentially went on a steel mill tour saw molten steel for the first time in college and then got hooked on it right

so if we don’t keep doing that we’re going to eliminate essentially half the workforce from our industry and that’s a really archaic stereotype that perhaps some think that women are not interested in this industry and it’s absolutely not true there are very fascinating areas of this industry and women and men gravitate towards them because it’s interesting it keeps you engaged in your line of work yeah and it’s constantly evolving I mean look at where we are now with sustainability and green steel and there’s just all kinds of fun stuff coming out and you’re mentioning getting people interested in the industry I don’t know if you’re familiar with the next-gen metals Community I only relatively recently heard about it but I need to look more into it I haven’t done anything with it yeah so it’s an under 40 group um that we’ve kind of started here at steel market update um it’s free to join and we’re basically just building a community of the next generation of people in the steel industry you know you go to a conference and there’s a there’s a massive generational Gap if you if you look around

the room so our goal is to really push for the executives at companies to look around their office look at the demographics and look at the up-and-comers the people who are going to be in the executive positions in 20 30 years you know this is an opportunity for executives now management now to Mentor the people who are going to be in their positions in the future you know you go to conferences and you don’t see a lot of younger people and that’s an issue that’s a that’s a big issue yeah I know I’ve heard of companies oh you know um it’s for management and Executives only to attend but they’re missing out on the opportunity to Mentor someone to take them and say you know I know you’re in sales or I know you’re an account manager but I see your potential and I want to take you to this conference so I can show you how to network so I can introduce you to people so you can expand your knowledge and I think there’s a huge opportunity right now and I would love to see more people take advantage of

it that’s a really wonderful opportunity for folks to to recognize too from a career perspective the metals industry offers up a fantastic job security situation for the Next Generation right there are a variety of reasons why there is a bit of a gap in the in the metals industry in terms of of hiring uh but think about the experienced individuals that are going to be retiring soon there is a huge wealth of knowledge that if you get into this industry in the next five to ten years you can hopefully get even just like a little percentage of that knowledge transferred but then think about it from your personal perspective right you are now in a situation in an industry where I would dare to say the majority are going to start aging out and they’re going to start retiring and probably the next five to ten years I’d say yeah so from a career opportunity they leave their higher up positions that creeps a ripple effect so you get into an industry and now all of a sudden you’re going to have this opportunity to really climb the ladder get new opportunities new responsibilities

learn new things in probably not a traditional way whereas if you went into another industry that regularly recruits over the past you know few decades there may not be as many opportunities to quickly Advance within that industry in The Meadows World offers that today yeah I also think that along the lines of you know teaching younger staff or youth whatever you want to call it the Next Generation Um I think it’s a really good opportunity for people in executive positions to kind of solidify their legacy in the industry I think of mentors that I’ve had of my own and think of knowledge that I have that I’ve been able to share with my mentee um and I’m like I only know this because of this person who’s older than me whose experienced who’s been in the industry for a long time and I get to pass on that Legacy if you’re not sharing the knowledge if you’re not you know sharing your experience and you’re missing out 100 absolutely before we go on this podcast is there any piece of advice any last minute comments that you want to share maybe where people can

find you reach out to you um or even just advice on on the metals industry in general yeah I think just putting yourself out there building relationships network network network um don’t be scared to to do anything don’t be scared to try something new if I was an account manager and now I’m a reporter so anything is possible I love it um if you guys want to reach me you can reach me uh for email Becca steelmarketupdate.com and like I said we love to hear from you guys call us email us Pony Express whatever whatever means of communication you’d like to use we really truly truly enjoy hearing from the people who come to seal 101 the people who read our newsletter the people who look at our website um we’re we’re really trying to embrace the steel industry as a community and not just another commodity I think it’s fantastic this industry is not going away it’s local it’s Global you’re going to have a lifelong career in this and as you’ve showcased it’s not a one career track industry there are plenty of opportunities to take the experience that you’ve had

at clockner and translate that into your new Venture with SMU on the journalism side it it really does have a wide variety of opportunities in it and it’s really wonderful to see you succeeding sharing that knowledge participating with Next Generation awmi it’s it’s you’re a really great example of who’s in this industry and the really welcoming perspectives that that are out there to to newcomers well thank you I appreciate it and I feel like I’m still young so never know where my career is headed exactly and again plenty of opportunities to to you know grow in this industry I really appreciate it Becca Moxie Gamba thank you so much reporter steel market update you can find her on LinkedIn steel market update online really wonderful to have you thank you so much thanks for having me