femengineer

extraordinary-machina replied to your post: Where am I going?

Engineering Without Borders? Also there are other cool things like my friend’s civil engineering brother works with underprivileged communities in India and Nepal atm

mathletenotathlete reblogged your post Where am I going? and added:

Hey! I just graduated civil engineering (from Canada though) and I’m working for a consulting company in their roadways department. I was in the same boat a couple years before I graduated and I only fell in love with roads after I took a course on asphalt mix design and one chapter covered innovation within the discipline. I thought roads were same old same old but turns out there are so many options and a lot of research and development into more sustainable practices. As your classes get more in depth you’ll develop a better sense of what you want to do. In addition book tours of dams, waste water treatment plants, landfills etc (as a class) because sometimes being on site spatula an interest. If you have any questions my ask box is open.

I really hope that my courses provide some insight into what I would like to do. For now, they are only discouraging. Thank you for the insight though! I am looking forward to fourth year where I will have electives. 

engrprof reblogged your post Where am I going? and added:

I totally get that! One area you didn’t mention is non-profits. In the US, some organizations that you might consider are the Conservation Districts and Engineers without Borders. They tend to be small, so you have to do everything so you can make a much bigger impact. The pay is low, but it’s a great place to start. Sometimes you might have to work in a mundane job until you can get your license and volunteer on the side for one of these. But it only takes 4 years to get your license after college! One of the things I love about my students at this point that you share is a determination to make a difference. You can do it! Just keep looking!

I will look into Conservation Districts :) 

btfreek replied to your post: Where am I going?

have you looked into organizations like engineers without borders? the instructor i was TAing for last week (civil engineer with a focus on global development) said that her student work with EWB basically put her on her current career trajectory

Thank you for the support and ideas and very sorry for the late response (school and all!)

It is a little frightening (who am I kidding, a lot frightening!) right now, in the start of my third year of civil engineering, to think that I don’t know where I am going. 

Nothing seems appealing. Not government, not corporate, not small business, not academia..everything has such distinct negatives. 

I don't know where I want to end up. I just know that I want my work to be meaningful and have positive impact, be challenging in the long-term, and have a mix of the technical and the managerial. Working with communities would be amazing. Working outside would be amazing. Working in the development of condominiums would be awful. 

I am restless to do something exciting and innovative and important. Everything in most of civil engineering seems so prescribed. Everyone moves up in more or less the same way, it is so hierarchical and traditional. I don’t want to estimate construction costs for the first 10 years of my life. I don’t want to become an expert in the design of some specific aspect of a water treatment plant. It would be so unexciting. It would require me to view work as only a means to pay the bills as opposed to a medium through which I can really contribute to society and receive fulfillment at the end of the day. 

Engineering consulting really appeals to me, but how much positive impact can I have in a corporation or small business which still has profits as its main objective. How often will I have to suck it up and compromise my values? 

I am nervous I will just end up wherever out of necessity and become complacent. And I won't have the guts to pursue something better, or I just won't be able to find it. 

Example: 

Hello tumblr world,

I’m going to be spending my summer doing research in the UK (Merseyside) in structural engineering. Yay!

engrprof reblogged your post Engineering and Representation and added:

You are so right! I just try to avoid those “inspirational” talks. Don’t get me wrong - I’m glad I became an engineer.  Being an engineer has made my life as a woman easier - I was able to negotiate a flexible schedule when my kids were young, I make enough money to support myself and my kids even when their dad doesn’t pay his child support.

But being a woman has made being an engineer harder.  What the men don’t realize is that they are assumed to be competent.  As a woman, I have to prove it over and over again.  When I took a class of all male students on a tour, every place we went, someone came up to one of the students and assumed he was the professor.  By the end of the day, my students were asking me, “Is this what’s like for you all the time?”  I had to say yes.

And, as you say, it’s much harder to access help.  My female students have a hard time finding study groups that don’t meet in the men’s dorm.  That’s just one example.

I don’t think this is a reason to avoid engineering.  But speaking out about our experiences and supporting other women and minorities can make a huge difference.

Hang in there!  You are not alone.

somethingfunnyuphere reblogged your post Engineering and Representation and added:

I have exactly the same experience.

My mentors at work are all white males as well who tell me that getting where I want to go is easy I just have to put myself out there. The problem is that white male project leads will choose white male technical staff 75% of the time.

The best thing I’ve found is to find female engineers, they are out there, and ask them the same questions that were put to the male panelists. The majority of the time they’ll be happy to answer the questions that you have.

I know if someone got in touch with me at work to ask what my experience was I’d be super happy to help out. And I could definitely pass you on to other females with more experience.

The only issue that I have is that our company is very very white. We have a lot of offices in countries around the world with POC who could answer questions. But the company has a loooong way to go in getting more representation for POC

I think I have lost the ability to fully enjoy hearing men (particularly white men) talk about their accomplishments within their career in engineering, how much fun undergrad was, and how many opportunities there are in the industry. 

It’s always men talking too. It’s so normal to go to a conference or an event and have basically only male engineers. If it were flipped the other way around everyone would be really shocked and confused.

Sometimes organizers make an effort to include at least one woman on a panel - we’re supposed to be immensely grateful for this. 

The reason I have trouble enjoying these talks without feeling a little bit of frustration, is how much these men don’t realize that what they have is not nearly as accessible to me and other women. Already my ability to feel safe and have fun in undergrad suffers because I am a woman. When I go into the professional world my experience will be different.

They talk about motivation, working hard, putting yourself out there, as if that is all it takes. As if income, connections, race, gender, etc., have nothing to do with it. They talk about how they got where they are purely by putting themselves out there. They say that being a little bit arrogant is good, and don’t realize they are only really addressing the men in the audience. Then they add some sappy inspirational quote and you’re supposed to be blown away.