EngineerHer

In twenty years, I’ve been around a bit. And for the sake of protecting all concerned, I’ll be vague on where exactly I was when certain things happened, but for now, here’s some background into my experience.

The graduate years

I was lucky enough to be accepted on a graduate training program in a steelworks in England. (And I do mean England, I never worked in Wales or Scotland). That was a bit of a baptism of fire. I thought I was pretty worldly wise due to some unfortunate decisions as a teenager, but wow, were my eyes opened.

In saying that, I got some great experience in a bout six different areas of the site, including my top tip to always check where the nearest bathroom is before accepting any office placement! Preferably, check at interview stage whether your hiring manager knows where the nearest bathroom is that you can use. Seriously.

But I got used to working with different levels of managers, from directors to apprentices. I also held the record for getting the excavation permit signed within hours rather than days. (not my proudest moment in work, but close enough!)

I spent a bit longer in the graduate program than planned because of illness and some personal circumstances. Lesson learned – organisations make allowances for both illness and personal circumstance when they know what’s going on. Especially when you’re recognised as someone valuable to the organisation.

The hectic years

After four years then, I moved onto another steelworks. This one wasn’t a full steelworks – they didn’t actually make steel, just processed a few different types of tubes. I say a few. I mean a few hundred. But I was working mostly on a chemical plant, consisting of 9 baths of 25,000litres of various nasty liquids each.

This is also the one and only place I’ve managed to get my parents a tour, and they were far more impressed by the remote control cranes than the chemical plant I’d poured blood, sweat and tears into for 3 yrs at that point! This was also the location where I had the longest hours. 70hour weeks were not uncommon. During shutdowns, sleeping at work was not uncommon. At certain points of the year, time lost all meaning.

But it was fun and I learned so much. Plus, I had no responsibilities outside of work, I was completing an MSc at the same time through the Open University, and I was enjoying life. I think this time in my life was my favourite from a social life point of view as well. To be fair, I met my husband at this time as well, although it took a few years to get married.

Moving Industries

It was scary moving industries. I moved because the plant I was working in was closing down and I didn’t like the options I was being given for alternative roles. So I had a move into what I call the explosives factory. I mean I wasn’t handling explosives, usually, but my start date was delayed by three months because of an explosion, so I think the title is warranted.

Now, I thought the steelworks were hot on safety. Well you’d expect it with 500 tonnes of molten steel flying around overhead, and 175,000litres of various vicious liquids to manage. But this place took it to new extremes. They provided 100% cotton underwear for everyone on site so that if there was an incident, it wouldn’t melt into our skin. Always a fun conversation to have with new hires. And particularly difficult conversations for me with my new managers when he started asking what size I took… Still, we got through it.

But I ended up getting bored. A new factory that I was meant to be designing the training and maintenance plans for was delayed, meaning I was stuck doing things I could do in my sleep. And, the wedding was approaching and I wanted to move home. Still had to convince the husband of that, but hey ho, he knew what he was getting into when he married me.

First pharma role

So, moving from one plant with an extremely high safety focus to another safety focus was one thing. Now I had to deal with FDA levels of regulation, which was a massive shock to the system. The first time I had to complete a form and get it signed to get a motor changed. On an AHU… Seriously.

I was formally a reliability engineer now, but I was constantly on the look out for a role back in Ireland. Still, I got some good things covered in this time. Spares locations. PMs. RCMs. Problem solving techniques like Kepnor Tregoe. Involvement in PAS 55.

But my husband was suffering enormously with mental health issues and navigating the NHS was a nightmare. At least I understood the Irish system. When an opportunity came up at home, well two of them, I took the offer.

Second pharma role

Now the role I took was at a slight salary reduction, and my husband struggled to work because of his health issues. So, we had a tight few years. Then the health issues got worse, significantly.

Plus the work I was doing was easy and not really challenging me. Well, it was challenging my patience, I suppose. But, essentially, I needed a payrise and I needed more challenging work.

Med devices, food and med devices again

Honestly, the work I put into that first medical devices role was immense. But it resulted in a €30k payrise. Which was amazing for us at the time. It meant we could breathe again for a bit. And the work was interesting, the people were grand my manager was supportive.

Then my manager changed, two years in. This is why I say your relationship with your direct line manager outweighs any policies in the organisation. My life turned to a living hell. Nothing I did was good enough and the requirements changed by the minute. I was crying on the way to work and crying on the way home. I went from a confident and happy, to sneaking around and trying to escape.

So I took a job in food, not my best decision ever, because it was a much longer commute, on bad roads, and longer hours. The experience was good, the people were wonderful for the most part, but the expectations on the role were too much for me and I eventually ended up needing three months off for mental health reasons.

So, now I’m back in medical devices and enjoying life. Work is tough sometimes, commute is slightly shorter, people are great, manager is supportive. Life could be worse!