Cindy Ly

For Women’s Day, I want to acknowledge something I’ve carried for a long time—something that’s difficult to admit. For much of my life, I felt like the world wasn’t meant for women. And if I’m being honest, there was a time I felt ashamed

For the longest time, I believed I had to be perfect. Not just good, not just excellent—perfect. Anything less felt like a personal failure, a disappointment, a reason for my parents to disown me. They never said it outright, but the expectation was woven into every rule, every scolding,

Life is hard. No matter how perfect it looks on Instagram, everyone struggles with demons, doubts, and dreams. For most of my life, I thought I was the only one failing while everyone else had it figured out. I grew up constantly comparing myself to others—what they had, what

Every day at work, I meet people at their level. As a consultant, my job is to bridge the gap between complex technical concepts and the understanding of my clients. I analyze their perspectives, break down jargon into digestible insights, and ensure that solutions make sense from their vantage point.

Ten years ago this week, I left my first job out of college. I had spent six years at an EPCM firm—Engineering, Procurement, and Construction Management. It was the company that gave me my first paycheck, my first taste of responsibility, and my first real understanding of the working

I grew up in survival mode. My parents arrived in the U.S. in their twenties after the Vietnam War, carrying nothing but the clothes on their backs and my father’s old army bag. No degrees. No money. Just the relentless will to survive and the hope to have