Women in STEM With No Access? How Lily Asongfac Built an Aerospace Career Anyway

Career Planning for Moms in STEM When You’re Starting at Zero Career planning for women in STEM does not require perfect credentials, insider connections, or a traditional ladder. In this episode, Lily Asongfac shares how she built a space career from Cameroon, a country with no space infrastructure, by staying curious, learning with the resources she had, finding mentors, and tracking milestones. Whether you feel boxed out of certain STEM career paths or you keep disqualifying yourself before even trying, Lily’s story shows how to build access one step at a time through learning, outreach, mentorship, and visibility. This episode is for: Moms and women in STEM who feel stuck because they do not have the right network, credentials, geography, or clear on-ramp. What you’ll gain: A practical career planning framework to help you start with what you have, find mentors, build visibility, and move toward your career goals without waiting for permission. Questions answered in this episode How do you approach career planning for women in STEM when there is no obvious path? How do you build a STEM career with no connections or country-level support? How do you find a mentor in STEM when you are starting from zero? Which skills transfer when you want a career change into a new STEM field? ~ EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS (5:42): Space careers (and other industries) are an ecosystem of diverse roles & skills (9:11): The new space economy is lowering the barrier to entry (15:35): Lily's origin story: from a curious kid in Cameroon with no resources to an international space professional (18:35): How to find a mentor: Lily's LinkedIn strategy that launched her career (27:40): How existing skills can support a STEM career pivot (29:53): Soft skills moms already have that translate directly into STEM careers (39:50): Rejection as redirection (41:58): Tracking milestones: the spreadsheet habit that keeps you moving forward (44:27): Career planning when you feel like you have no access