Finding your tribe

After the Engineers Ireland conference a few weeks ago, for International Women in Engineering Day, I had several women approach me. They were mainly working in maintenance, like myself, and were looking to connect with other women in maintenance. It’s harder than you think. And it brought me to thinking about how I have found and developed my tribe, my support networks, the people I can turn to…

It can be isolating, being a woman in engineering. And it can be even more isolating when you work in one of the real hold-outs for male domination, like maintenance. (Domination in terms of numbers only for the more dirty-minded of you!) So, how do you find your people?

Here’s a few ideas.

Find communities

Google is a great resource. Seriously. Google is probably your best bet starting off trying to find a community of women in your area or your field of expertise. And they don’t have to be specifically in your field. A maintenance engineer working in pharma deals very similar issues to one working in steel. Trust me, I’ve worked in both.

(Although, if you have the choice, pharma has more money and better amenities, usually!)

Take a look at LinkedIn as well. You can find me on there! You can also find the Engineers Ireland Women in Engineering group. There are women in construction groups, women in reliability groups, all sorts of places you can seek out other women in your field.

You have to take the first step though.

Attend Events

Yeah, this one is a step further. But it’s also hugely important for finding your tribe. Meeting in person or virtually is really useful at growing your network generally.

It’s hard, I know. Particularly if you’re not getting on with your manager or they don’t allow you time during work hours to attend professional events. Then you’re looking at turning up to a meeting room on a dark winter’s night (they’re always on in winter…) and trying to be engaging and talkative.

But it’s also worth it on several levels. First off, you can actually learn things that are useful. Second off, you can meet people and even just say hi and find out their names. Then you can go LinkedIn stalking. Or Google stalking. Connect maybe. Start a conversation.

Trust me, it’s easier than it feels at the start.

Share your story

Why, yes, this blog is a sneaky way of building my tribe. You don’t have to go to this extreme though. You could post about something that happened in work on LinkedIn. You could write in your company newsletter. You could, as I did, appear on a podcast or two.

It’s not as difficult as you’d think to share your story in the modern world. And you will find people connecting with you because of it.

Embrace diversity

Your tribe doesn’t have to include only women. Or engineers. I found huge overlap in experiences with an accountant one time – because she had only ever worked as part of all-male teams. Turns out, the toilet issue isn’t just limited to engineering!

Some of the most valuable people I count as part of my tribe are not women. Sometimes it’s useful to have diverse perspectives as well as those who have been through the situation before.

The most valuable members of my tribe, if I’m honest, are the ones that turn around and say, “look, that sounds terrible, I’ve no idea what you should do, but feel free to vent a while longer”.

Nothing worse than someone who thinks they know everything…