I never thought that I would be able to do the job that I studied four years for, in a flexible manner, after having a baby!
When leaving school I was not really sure what I wanted to do, so when a careers officer suggested that I should go into engineering I blindly accepted. I enjoyed what was then ‘CDT’, maths and physics in school so it did make sense.
At the time there was a push to get women into engineering (isn’t there always?) so I applied to a number of local engineering companies’ apprenticeship schemes. After what felt like all the aptitude tests ever written, I was accepted into one of the better schemes in the area. The scheme was four years long covering all aspects of engineering from the very basics of how to solder all the way through to design and installation principles and implementation. I had the opportunity to experience these principles in a number of disciplines during that apprenticeship but settled on a more project-based role for my final year of training and study. I loved the subjects I was studying, the business and practical information I was learning and, of course, the experience I was gaining; however, once my apprenticeship ended I couldn’t see a place for me to thrive in that company so I moved on.
I decided that I wanted to experience ‘London life’ so I applied and got accepted for a job as an IT Support Team Admin in a financial firm just prior to Y2K. That was really interesting and quite exciting for a while, especially as the media were acting as if the world would end at midnight on 30 Dec 1999! Although it was fun to be partying like it’s 1999 for a while, the travel and extended working day finally got to me so I looked for something closer to home again.
I stayed with IT and moved into a Support Analyst role within a global law firm, learning more and more and moving up to Team Leader position. As the company evolved so did the role, culminating in a ‘follow the sun’ support methodology and, ultimately, redundancies. At the time I was going through some personal challenges so decided to ‘sack it in’ and go travelling… so I applied for voluntary redundancy and went to Africa for ten weeks.
Those ten weeks (and to be honest, the following six months) were some of the best and worst of my life. I experienced things that most can only dream of but also felt the loneliest I probably ever have before and since… but it helped give me focus to find myself again.
I got back into the work force, again into an admin role, but soon became a project engineer in a German-owned manufacturing company. I used this position as a stepping-stone into a larger manufacturing company, leading large projects installing food/drink production line equipment.
I loved the ethos of the leadership team of this company and their strive to improve through the principles of Lean. They were also really focused on improving their employees’ working lives through learning opportunities and fulfilling their full potential. Over the five years I was there, I progressed from Project Engineer to Project Team Leader, to Lean and H&S Leader. During this time I met my husband and we decided to start a family. While on maternity leave COVID hit and the company decided to close down the facility I was based at, moving all operations to a facility in Manchester. After some soul searching, helped with the looming dread of COVID, I decided to take voluntary redundancy once again. This worked in my favour as it allowed me to have the first 18 months at home with our son. My husband was close by, working from home during lockdown and the weather was glorious. We had it a lot better than many during that time, and for that I will always count my blessings.
As the country was starting to open up, we decided that I needed to get back into the rat race and start earning money again (who know how much one kid and cost!)
This is where I found myself in a most incredible situation. I applied for a role at Trinity House on a full time, fixed term contract in the Procurement team covering maternity leave. I had never done any procurement type roles before but felt that I would never know if I could if I didn’t apply and, you know what, I got the job. I loved every minute. It was always busy and, as Trinity House does a lot of engineering projects, I was able to re-kindle my love for the field. I was also finding that my Lean experience was allowing me to see opportunities to improve the working processes, even if I was not always able to implement change, my team leader actively encouraged me to look for areas that I may be able to influence. The real kicker, however, happened after about three months. I noticed a role advertised internally for a part-time role within the Engineering Support team…..WHAT, that NEVER happens…but it had!
I felt I had no choice but to apply. I had studied for four years (at the beginning for my career, granted) to do this job and it was part-time, allowing me to spend more time with our son. I really did not expect to get anywhere as it was so long ago that I had last done any engineering type role but I must have impressed someone as I got the job… woohoo!
Two and a half years on and I still can’t believe it. I absolutely love my job and love the fact that I am able to have a great work/life balance allowing me to support our son’s progression into school.
It felt a little like a baptism of fire, trying to remember all that ‘stuff’ that I had buried in the depths of my brain so many years ago, but the team were so welcoming and helpful.
Trinity House has been amazing in supporting me to build on my ‘aging’ engineering knowledge by providing training to refresh my skills and projects to hone them. I am able to draw on my Lean experience and engineering knowledge to affect change in our processes and procedures.
As a Project Engineer, I am like a kid in a sweet shop with the work we do. One day I could be on board one of our vessels reviewing how we work on our navigational buoys at sea, the next I could be travelling by helicopter over to one of our rock stations to understand how we are going to implement new equipment into a structure that is, generally, over 100 years old!
I also get involved in designing new products, peer design reviews for major projects, motion analysis and modelling to understand how our buoys perform, along with supporting the business by answering engineering queries and questions that always arise.
I feel that I have come full circle; I started my career as an engineer and am back there now… the difference is I have now found a place that I can thrive.