This week celebrated International Women in Engineering Day, so we wanted to showcase some of our talent here at AFL Hyperscale while simultaneously shining a light on some of the facts surrounding women in engineering. Unfortunately, engineering is still a lesser pursued career path for many girls and women in the UK.
In fact, the UK has the lowest percentage of female engineering professionals in the whole of Europe, at just 11%. In comparison, countries such as Latvia, Bulgaria, and Cyprus lead the way with nearly 30%. In addition to this, the proportion of young women studying engineering and physics has remained virtually the same for the past eight years.
We’re lucky here at AFL Hyperscale to have some fantastically intelligent women involved in various engineering roles across the company, and we wanted to learn a little bit more about some of them…
Why I followed a career in
engineering and management
During my last couple of years at school the teachers started to promote different types of apprenticeships that local businesses had to offer. So, I made the decision to apply for an NVQ apprenticeship in Engineering Manufacture and Electronics Engineering, as I always had an interest in building things, problem solving, and trying to work out a more efficient way of working.
Fortunately, my application was successful, and I’ve never looked back during my 25 years working in an engineering environment. During my career I’ve had the pleasure of leading Quality, Production and Process engineering teams, all within the fiber optics or semiconductor industries. My working day is filled with challenges, and I love that about the job.
If I had to sum up a typical day, it would look something like this: to lead a team by planning and coordinating activities, providing advice and support when required. It's all about juggling people management, project management, and technical knowledge to perform the task at hand. If you enjoy problem solving, designing and making things, and you’re up for the challenge then maybe Engineering is the career for you!
Never give up
I started out as a Product Designer, graduating in 2008 with a degree in BA Product Design. I then spent 11 years working in retail design in increasingly technical roles until I eventually decided that I wanted to move into engineering. So, I am currently studying engineering part time at the Open University alongside working full time at AFL Hyperscale.
From a young age I always enjoyed creating things. This initially led down a creative path, but I gradually developed a curiosity for manufacturing and how things work that creative design did not satisfy. I also really got into CAD & design for manufacture –– it is challenging but also rewarding when you then see the product you have been looking at on a screen transformed into a final physical object. The biggest challenge I faced was getting my career going after graduating. I graduated at the start of the recession in 2008/9 and it was extremely difficult to find a stable role as a graduate fresh out of university – it took a couple of years and ‘never give up’ mentality to make a proper go of it.
What advice you would give to your younger self or to young girls who may want to study a similar subject or work in this field?
1. If you want something badly enough and are willing to work hard to achieve it, you can make it happen no matter what anyone else says.
2. Mistakes happen, try not to see them as a failure but as a learning opportunity.
I knew from an early age
I started my engineering career at a very early age, about 6, by taking things apart to find out what made them work, Dad helped put them back together. I also knew then that I wanted to learn, as my answer to “what do you want to do when you grow up?” was “go to University”.
I was fortunate to study how stars work and get an Astrophysics degree in London, then learnt how businesses work with an MBA at Warwick. From stars to fiber optics seemed a logical step as it’s all about light – and I have been working in fiber optics since 1982.
The communication industry based around optical fiber is moving fast and there is always something to learn in finding out what makes things or processes work better.
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