“A big part of my job is to make sure we’re always keeping the lights on, meaning that our servers and services are always up and running, and that we continue to enhance our proactive monitoring and security techniques so customers aren’t impacted by potential issues and/or threats,” she describes.

Recently this has meant leading a project for her DevOps team to expand Citrix Cloud Virtual Apps and Desktops resources to Europe and Asia Pacific. Her team has also been heavily involved on the highly anticipated Citrix Workspace.

With the company since 2016, Drumm was the first female cloud DevOps engineer at Citrix. But today roughly 40% of Citrix’s cloud DevOps engineers are women.

How she secured her position is a story that demonstrates the power of connecting and taking chances.

Drumm began her career at Fort Lauderdale, FL-based Citrix as an intern. But as the end of her internship neared, she wanted to stay, and, living close by, asked if she could stay on another three months. As her second term was nearing, she, again, asked if she could stay.

“By the time it got to nine months, I was really trying to push to become permanent, and kept asking when there was going to be an opening, and what I could do to make that happen,” she remembers.

What she could do, she was told, was talk to someone else up the chain, the new senior vice president of engineering, Jeroen Van Rotterdam.

“I thought, ‘This is going to be interesting, he’s a senior vp [and I’m just an intern],’” she recalls.

But on Citrix’s International Women’s Day celebration in 2017, Drumm found her opportunity as the senior vice president was in the audience.

“I immediately beelined right to him, shook his hand and said, ‘Hi, my name is Delia. I've been interning here for nine months. What do I need to do to earn a full-time position?’ Being an intern and doing something like that took a lot of courage,” shares Drumm, who was offered a full-time position shortly after that.

“The most important thing I’ve learned is that a handshake can go much further than you think. Had I not walked up to Jeroen that day, who knows if I would have a full-time position. It’s much easier to not raise your hand for the hard stuff for fear of possible failure or to not put yourself out there because the unknown can be intimidating.”

She adds: “Don’t let fear stop you. The more you put yourself outside your comfort zone, the more you’ll thank yourself that you did.”

For Drumm, a great place to work has always been a combination of the people, the work that she does, and the ability to grow personally and professionally.

“At Citrix they work with us to make sure we have the tools we need [to ensure we] know we’re always supported,” notes Drumm. “It’s a fabulous place to work.”

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