'I Owe My Life to Aerospace': Seattle-Area CEO Shares Her Unlikely Career Path

PUGET SOUND BUSINESS JOURNAL - As a child, Nikki Malcom’s stepfather would take her to airshows.

“I’ve always loved planes,” she says. “He explained what stealth aircraft were so I loved it, but in my family we didn’t do aerospace jobs. There was no path to aerospace for me.”

Malcom says she had a “tough, tough upbringing.” At 16, she decided to drop out of high school and move away. For two years, she worked customer service jobs before deciding she wanted a career. A temp agency placed her with a Boeing supplier. That’s where her passion for aerospace grew.

“I’ve achieved everything I could have imagined and more in my life because of aerospace,” Malcom says. “I owe my life to aerospace and the ability to get a job, to buy a first house when I was 19 years old and get out of poverty because of that.”

Click here to read the full article.