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Workplace dress-codes: a win for the ladies!

20 Saturday Oct 2018

Posted by EngineerChic in Engineer Chic!, Marketing Yourself!, women in engineering

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

businesscasual, businessformal, dressforsuccess, shiftdress, whattoweartowork, womeninengineering, workoutfit, workwear

 

Untitled design

The workplace is no safe haven from the ongoing battle between the sexes. Lets face it, in most cases (pay, promotions, team events that mostly involve drinking) the guys usually come out on top. Women are slowly closing the gap, but there is still much more to do. However, there is one domain where there is a clear advantage to being a woman in the workplace: work attire.

Whether it be business casual, business formal or any other variation of “work clothing”, I’ve observed an unmistakable edge that women have over the men in the office.

In the Summer, while my male colleagues at my Firm slog all day and night in their identical grey, blue and black suits, which grow ever more creased as the work week wears on, sweat patches expanding under their shirtsleeves and feet swelling and blistering in tight dress-shoes, I get to breeze around in sleeveless dresses and sandals.

Blue dress

This is me wearing a green dress. You may say, “No Rhea, its a blue dress!” But don’t fight me on this, just accept it. This dress is green.

In the Winter, when staffed in snow-stormy cities like Minneapolis or Chicago, I bundle up with tailored, down-lined coats that come down to below my knees, thick pants with sweaters, scarves, classy gloves and boots. My poor male teammates shiver away in their not-nearly-as-warm coats worn over thin wool suits, their feet once again blistering in frozen dress shoes and hands and faces freezing due to their macho choices to leave their gloves and scarves at home.

I also get to change my outfits every day of the week; my clothing being small in size and weight, and easy to fold. The men, however, end up wearing the same suit four days in a row, and having to carry their steam-ironed suit jackets in a separate bag on the plane.

I can express my personality with different colors and styles from day to day, choosing outfits, shoes, jewelry and accessories to match my mood or the season. The men have very little wiggle room to express themselves, although I will give credit to those who at least try and differentiate themselves with watches, cuff links, tailored suits or in some cases, embroidering their initials on the torso of their shirts. Unfortunately for them, these fancies often cost a small fortune compared with women’s clothing and accessories.

Pink and blue dress

Business meeting, conference, after work drinks or holiday party. This look is very versatile. Choose a style that suits your body shape and get it in a few colors, necklines and lengths.

Our clothing is also much more versatile, allowing us to do more with less when we travel. I’ve worn the same black shift dress with a cardigan and flats on a regular business-casual work day, threw on a suit jacket and black pointy heels for a client steering committee meeting, and swapped the suit jacket for a trendy scarf and handbag for an after-work dinner meeting. You could mix and match five tops with a pencil skirt and a pair of trousers and look completely different each day of the week!

The dress code for women is also much more fluid and ambiguous, meaning we don’t have to try as hard to conform to it. A fitted dress and low heels could pass for both business casual and business formal, while men need to swap out their suit pants for slacks or jeans to look anywhere close to business casual.

When I worked as an engineer on a construction site, I got away with a ton more than the men could, choosing a bright pink hard hat, steel-capped safety boots with pink lightning bolts along the sides and breezy, light-colored blouses over well-fitted skinny-jeans worn under my reflective vest. I was truly Engineer Chic! The men on the other hand plowed around in identical, checkered, short-sleeved shirts and baggy, shapeless jeans. I almost felt sorry for them!

Now there are those that feel that having limited choice makes things simpler in getting ready in the morning, or packing for a trip. These people are right! Still, for me, and for many women, I love that I can still be myself and let my personality shine in the workplace! I love that I get away with brightly painted nails and designer shoes and handbags at work.  Being a consultant, I spend most of my life at work, so I love that I can be comfortable wearing what I love during that time.

And if that weren’t enough proof that women definitely win work attire, consider this: women don’t have to shine their shoes!

Mindblowing

I encourage other women engineers to bring their whole selves to their workplace. If dressing up is your thing, or if you want to try something a little more daring, just go for it! Don’t be afraid to be you. Don’t be afraid that people will take you less seriously if you dress well or express your creativity. Go ahead and nurture that creativity and cultivate a sense of style. This may even help you later on in your career as a high-powered manager or executive who means business and looks the part too!

Of course there are huge caveats to this message. You may work in a setting that makes you wear a uniform, or overalls, or dressing up may just be the most terrifying or soul destroying thing you could ever think of doing, or you may have another reason for holding back.  One colleague said she dressed down to avoid another #metoo situation,  after facing one at her previous employer. I find this really sad,  and very, very real for a lot of us. In promoting gender equality in the workplace and tackling sexual harassment, we should work to build a workplace environment where everyone feels safe to express themselves.

And this should go without saying, but please stay well within the boundaries of you company’s dress code and in the realm of common sense. Frumpy, torn, dirty and very revealing looks are just not professional, and also not at all chic, so do give them a skip!

And remember, in your walk, your talk, and the clothes you choose to wear, always be Engineer Chic!

Follow me on Instagram for more looks for work, travel and leisure @rhea_lism

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Mentorship vs. Sponsorship for career advancement

27 Monday Feb 2017

Posted by EngineerChic in Career, Diversity, Engineer Chic!, Marketing Yourself!, women in engineering

≈ 3 Comments

young-indian-businesswoman

As mentioned in my last post, one of the most critical factors to achieving success in the workplace is finding sponsors – the right sponsors – who will open doors for you and actively support you as you grow. Malcolm Gladwell listed this as one of the 3 critical factors for meteoric success in his book, Outliers (along with 10,000 hours of hard work and a large spoonful of luck) and Sylvia Ann Hewitt wrote a whole book about it: Forget a Mentor, Find a Sponsor

Until lately, this was a pretty new concept for me. Looking back at my career thus far however, I can definitely see how sponsorship has shaped my path. Let me share a bit of what I’ve learned.

What is a sponsor, and what is a mentor?

A mentor is someone who gives advice. She/he is typically a person more senior than you, who has taken an interest in your development, growth and success and tries to guide you as you define and follow your journey, sharing experiences, knowledge and suggesting course-corrections. You can think of a mentor as someone who helps you passively.

A sponsor, however, is a senior person who actively helps you follow your journey (or leap-frog into a whole new journey you never even dreamed about). They would typically hand you a challenging assignment (giving you that chance to show off your fabulous skills and get noticed), connect you to an advantageous person or opportunity or flat out “bang the table for you” when you come up for a promotion or an assignment.

Why is this important?

I know that the engineer in every one of us believes that she/he should be valued primarily on the virtue of his/her work, but that simply is not the case.

Organizations are made up of people, and despite them being governed by policies, are in the end, just a bunch of human beings being human beings. At every level within an organization, irrespective of company culture, there are “politics” at play. People build networks around their interests, gravitating towards people they get along with and people that can/will help them in some way now or in the future. Little communities emerge at the water dispensers or on the weekends. As individuals in a community achieve greater success, they tend to start creating opportunities for others in that community to also succeed, keeping their “followers” close to them at every level.

Very clearly then, in order to get ahead, you need to be doing a lot more than just showing up to kick ass at your daily tasks!

The sponsorship cards are stacked against women

McKinsey & Co. teamed up with LeanIn.org to do some killer research on Women in the Workplace, and discovered some important – and unsettling – facts.

“Women are three times more likely to rely on a network that is mostly female. Because men typically hold more senior-level positions, this means women are less likely to get access to people with the clout to open doors for them.”

 

20170226

 

Although the number of senior women leaders in a typical US workplace is increasing, senior leadership is still largely dominated by men. This means that a woman is less likely to get access to senior level people who can really open doors for them. This effect deepens the more senior a woman becomes. 20170226_3 201702262

 

So what does all of this mean for you and I?

In the field of engineering, cybersecurity and others, where senior women are still very few and far between, women are even less likely to have access to senior women sponsors. In my last post I talked about how its a total misconception that women don’t sponsor each other. The truth is, they do! What we also need to start doing a lot more of, is actively seeking out male sponsors as well, with the ability to really open doors for us.

It also means that as we progress, we need to be acutely aware that younger women will be seeking us out as sponsors, and that we have the duty to create opportunities for them and connect them to a more balanced network of men and women.

My next post going to be on how to go about finding a sponsor. Stay tuned for more!

 

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Women in cybersecurity: building community and sponsorship

14 Tuesday Feb 2017

Posted by EngineerChic in Career, Diversity, Engineer Chic!, women in engineering

≈ 3 Comments

Its been a few years since I attended a “Women in Engineering” seminar and I must admit that I’ve felt quite disconnected from my original purpose for starting this blog. Having left engineering for consulting, and having made a major career change into IT Infrastructure and then into the adjacent field of cybersecurity, I found it impossible to craft and authentic post as a champion for women in engineering. What would I talk about? What life experience would I draw from?

Today however, my mission was reignited at the RSA conference in San Francisco. For the first time in RSA history, there was a diversity-focused session (finally RSA). I spent 3 hours hearing from prominent and inspiring women in my field, about the very real challenges they faced. And guess what? They were exactly the same issues I had experienced as a young mechanical engineering student, and later, a graduate working in mining in the rural regions of South Africa. Sure, the lingo and the working environments may be quite different, but the experience of being a smart, ambitious woman in a male-dominated and highly exclusive field was the same with this group.

Interestingly enough, the key take-away from today’s sessions was not the need for women to hone their negotiation skills, nor was it to encourage women to “lean in” and emulate more masculine-like qualities to get ahead (I write this despite my immense respect for Cheryl Sandburg and her organization). No, the one thing that the speakers listed consistently as the key to achieving success in your career is one, ironically, innate to us as women: building a support network, a community within which you can feel safe to speak up, reach out and be bold. The last speaker, Valerie Plume (former CIA agent and role-model for women) said that studies have shown that women are able to build higher levels of trust with others and are generally perceived as being far more trustworthy than men. A young speaker (herself still an intern) gave some fantastic advice to a concerned mother/cyber professional, saying that her daughter should take a friend along to robotics club (even one who had no interest in robotics) to help her feel more comfortable among the over-jealous (and quite possibly highly insecure) high school boys, dubbed the “arrogant geeks”. I could relate. After all, I have been surrounded by them since I was 17.

One woman complained that she had somehow fallen into the role of bridging divides in her team, and that people constantly brought her their issues with others to help them figure out. She wanted to know how to get out of this hole. Valerie however advised that she was in fact in a privileged position and that she should rather leverage that POWER and turn it into success. Having listened to Elaine Seat’s simply outstanding talk “Selling your Ideas in the Absence of Authority” a total of 3 times at various ASME events, I am completely with Valerie on this one! (Look out for another post on this topic). Simply put, women should be looking for OPPORTUNITIES use skills so fundamental to being women – the ability to build trust-based relationships – to their advantage in advancing themselves and others in their fields.

A theme that was touched on, yet not explored in a meaningful way (hint for next year, RSA!) was the idea of mentorship and sponsorship. A common misconception is that women don’t support each other. Recent research on this topic suggests this is true in cases of “token diversity positions”, where there is only one spot for a woman on the team (think early-90’s). This creates heightened competitiveness over the one seat at the table, inevitably resulting in any incumbent being treated with disdain. Once women (and this applies to other minority groups too) are confident that they are not competing for the only seat at the table, they do the complete opposite: they throw their support behind each other, even exhibiting the “mini-me” attributes that men have been using to bring their younger-selves along with them as they rise.

Sponsorship is a theme that I will be exploring in the next few blogs. I have been incredibly fortunate to have found mentors, and more importantly, sponsors throughout my career. I’d like to share some of my experiences, as well as hear from others on how they have succeeded in finding effective sponsors. Please reach out with your thoughts.

#RSAConference2017 #RSA #RSA2017 #womenincybersecurity #womeninsecurity #valerieplume

 

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Simply Chic Design

12 Saturday Sep 2015

Posted by EngineerChic in Engineer Chic!

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Architecture, Chic, Design, engineering

RegularWP8 visitors to my site may notice the new look and feel of the page. In recent months, I have struggled to find content to post. Since starting EngineerChic in 2010, I have always reflected so much of my own self through my writing but as I have grown and changed, so has writing style, priorities and taste. In order to stay true to who I am and seek inspiration for writing, I have decided to make a few changes that I hope you find Simply Chic!

I have also  finally secured the EngineerChic.com URL for the site – until now being held hostage.

 ** Yaay **

A recent business trip to Austria took me through Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. I have been to some beautiful architectural-masterpiece airports around the world – not least of all Denver and Dubai – but the CDG creation by architect Paul Andreu was more than chic – it was breathtaking!

cdg2While walking through Terminal 2, I marveled at the design of the interior. As an engineer who has worked in construction, I was amazed at the effortlessly smooth lines of curved concrete which encased the terminals – a subtle reminder of an airplane fuselage. This sweeping design features apertures in the side-walls, allowing in natural sunlight to balance the severe atmosphere created by the avant-garde design.

The execution of this masterful design came at a cost. In 2004, part of terminal 2E which had recently opened to travelers collapsed killing 4 people. It was found that some inconsistencies occurred in the construction of the concrete structure (preparation of concrete and inclusion of some steel work adding points of weakness) which undermined a design with an already low safety factor.

If you’re wondering about the inspiration of my site’s new look, CDG definitely played a big part! During my short layover, I had some time to deeply reflect on how to translate my older and wiser self into my long-standing blog, and the clean lines of beauty surrounding me reminded what it was about engineering that I loved in the first place – at its core, it is also art. For most of my career, I have had to struggle to balance my scientific and artistic selves – both demanding breathing space from me. In my unending quest to achieve balance in all things, architecture has always been a safe haven for me.

Beautiful!

There is something distinctly feminine about architecture like this – so unusual in design

Everything about this airport merges functionality and art, from its expressionistic support beams to its use of natural light and shadow.

Don’t you just love how the planes look parked in gentle curves outside the terminals?

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What to consider before dating an engineer

06 Thursday Feb 2014

Posted by EngineerChic in Engineer Chic!

≈ 11 Comments

Seeing as though I have dated not one, but two engineers, and I am constantly surrounded by (male) engineers, I seem to have become the authority on this topic. My site stats agree that this content – strange as it may be – attracts substantial traffic. So here it is: why not to date an engineer part two.

As much as I hate to generalise, and agree that there are surely many engineers out there who don’t fit the mold, I have picked up certain patterns that should be considered before getting yourself involved with an engineer guy.

0-nerd_protector_white_man

You will not get more of his time – so get over it

Whether your engineer boyfriend is a student, a graduate or senior-level engineer, our workload tends to border on ridiculous.  He will spend more time with his classmates and colleagues than with you.  One of the engineers I worked with and I spent so much time together at work that I knew his wife’s weekly schedule and reminded him a couple of times that he needed to be home early that day to babysit as his wife had book club.  Another graduate engineer at work recently got married and brought his young wife out to the little mining town we lived in. She found it really difficult to adjust to a new home and was always frustrated that her new husband consistently was at the plant late into the night.

Rest assured though – when your engineer boyfriend says he’s at work, he really is at work! And he is busy making a ton of money which you will enjoy spending. Sacrifices.

He will never be the life of a party – so get over it

Engineers are sensitive creatures underneath that tough exterior. They are genuine without being simple and smart without being arrogant. What they will never be is the social butterfly that you want them to be. If they are anything like my ex, they will be reserved and even shy in social situations. They feel most comfortable around family and familiar friends, and will sometimes even close down if forced to make conversation with someone new.  If having a cool, popular and outgoing partner is what you crave, date a guy who studied commerce.

What has worked for me though, is to ply them with a substantial amount of alcohol before introducing them to people. They tend to get on quite well once mildly inebriated.

Engineers are nesters – and you may not like their particular nesting habits – but get over it

An engineer’s home is his safe place and they spend a lot of time making it just right and comfortable for their needs. I have NEVER seen straight men take so much care and pride in their homes.  I might add that not all of them are particularly neat nesters! My first engineer boyfriend was positively a mess! The random stuff he had accumulated over years was stored everywhere – including a massive set of couches which took up most of his room and served no apparent purpose. Nevertheless, what the engineers I know have in common is that they detest anyone trying to rearrange their homes. My first engineer boyfriend would not let me (a neat freak) throw anything out and the second – who I somehow convinced to allow me to redecorate his bedroom – held this against me until the day we broke up. He happened to be an even bigger neat-freak than I was and thought I was a mess. (the irony)

Your engineer boyfriend will have to trust you completely and be confident that you know them and their taste before you can attempt to rearrange their homes. Tread with care ladies – you have been warned.

Their dress-code is bizarre – so get over it

You will notice that your engineer boyfriend has a certain dress-code which he will stick to most days. This may be the standard t-shirt and jeans/ shorts as a student, which may transform into a golf-shirt and jeans/ shorts once he graduates. In short, engineers are most comfortable in their casual clothes and you may have to even put up with awful sock/sandals combinations which will make most women cringe (despite their expansive shoe-collections – don’t bother trying to figure this one out). Unfortunately, attire is not a high priority to engineers as they are practical beings who don’t see a practical reason to dress better than they do.

When engineers go out to a formal function, they realise that they need to dress up to conform to social expectations. Although this is a great start, their execution very often misses the mark entirely.  Ladies, be warned, you will have to guide them in this regard. DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES let them dress themselves. Oversee and direct this process as far as you can. They will likely appreciate the guidance in this area.  Basics such as dressing for your height and body shape, or choosing appropriate and fashionable ties (from this decade) – things that you will take for granted – will need to be supervised. You don’t want to end up at the races dressed in a classy, neutral, chiffon dress alongside your engineer boyfriend who is wearing a shiny, silver suit (which, to make matters worse, he is swimming in).

Yes, yes this actually happened.

So should you date him?

Despite all of the above, the engineers I have dated/ worked with have been great boyfriends. They are sincere and caring and if you can put up with the hours and bad dress sense, I’d say go for it!  Like most men, they will not understand you, will try and solve all your problems when all you want to do is vent a bit, and like any of us will have to make their own mistakes in relationships before they get it right. However, nothing in your house will ever remain broken for more than a week, you will have personalised and trustworthy advice when it comes to cars, cameras, laptops and just about any other mechanical/ electronic purchases and they will be there for you when you are in trouble.

Good luck!

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Interview Tips for Engineers

19 Thursday Sep 2013

Posted by EngineerChic in Career, Engineer Chic!, Marketing Yourself!

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Business, Engineer, Interview, Job interview

I recently got a comment from a reader who asked me to share some tips on what to wear for a first interview with some engineering companies.   Having a little experience in that department, let me try and offer some advice.

o-JOB-INTERVIEW-PERSONAL-QUESTIONS-facebook

1.  Be prepared

Possibly the most important thing you can do before an interview is your homework.  The interviewer wants to see that you know enough about the company, and that you really want to work for them above all other companies.  Research the core business of the company and have a good idea of what they produce or manufacture.   Know in which regions the company operates and where their head office is situated.   All of these facts can be easily found on their website or company profile.

 Also be ready to answer technically specific questions to the field you are applying to.  An operational or manufacturing company is vastly different from an engineering consultancy and the possible career-paths in each of these environments are worlds apart.  For an operational position, depending on your level of experience, you may be asked to answer technical questions, whereas in a consulting environment, they may quiz you on codes and standards related to design.   In project management, you may be questioned on schedule management and quality assurance.

Make sure you are prepared to tackle a question of a technical nature or a small, problem-solving exercise.

2.  Practice

Write down a few questions that are likely to come up in the interview such as:

  1. Tell us a little about yourself.
  2. Why do you want to work for this company?
  3. Why should we hire you for this job?

Practice your answers, out loud, several times until you are comfortable with them.  Your answers should be short and to-the-point and should not drift from the topic.  Each answer should be no longer that about a minute long and should cover a few important things about you that you want them to know.

You can find more common interview questions on the web.

3.  What to Wear

I think that engineers get confused as to how formally to dress for an interview.  Although in most cases, an interview always calls for neat, business-formal attire, there are some engineering companies where the dress code is more relaxed.

 A good rule to follow is to rather be overdressed than underdressed.

Exactly what I would wear

Exactly what I would wear

For a female engineer, you should apply the same logic as a woman applying for a job in sales or banking.  In exceptional cases, you may be called for an interview on a site where a safety dress-code is required, but this is not the norm and they will inform you of this beforehand.  Wear neat and well-fitted clothing that is not too small or large for you.  Rather buy something new that fits well than swim in something of your mother’s.  Stick to neutral, professional colours and neat lines without distracting flourishes and detailing.  A pants or skirt suit with a crisp, white shirt is always a winner.

Wear heels!  Just don’t wear crazy stilettos or anything that you think belongs in a club.  Make sure you can walk comfortably in them.  I like a wedge heel which is far more stable for me since I don’t wear heels on a daily basis.

Try and look attractive, but don’t break the cardinal rules of showing too much skin, cleavage or being to fashionable.  The people doing the interview may not appreciate your efforts!  Check out this earlier post for more tips.

10 Wardrobe Must-Haves for any Engineer-Chic

Selling Yourself: Where Engineers get it Wrong

What Does Business-Casual Mean Anyway?

4.  Accessories, Make-up and Hair

I would encourage the use of accessories and make-up, but in moderation.  Wear small, silver earrings or a dainty pendant and stay away from anything that dangles or distracts. I have a habit of continuously removing and replacing any watch I wear so get rid of anything that could cause a similar distraction.  Carry a small handbag with only what you need for the interview.  Fumbling for documents in a large, oversized handbag may give the impression that you’re disorganised.

 Make up should be light and tasteful. Think of a classy business women going into a meeting. Use foundation and blush sparingly, stay away from coloured eye-shadows and dark or bright lipstick. A little bit of eye-liner and a tasteful lipstick which you can rely on to last the interview is almost all you need. Go all-out on the mascara (I love mascara!).  Don’t ever apply make-up in front of anyone, unless it’s a clear chapstick or labello if you absolutely need to.

This is ideal for an interview

This is ideal for an interview

 Make sure your nails are neat and clean although you should steer clear from flashy French manicures and bright, trendy colours.  I once interviewed a girl with half chipped-off, red nail polish that she chipped away at during the interview.  This did not give a god impression and was very distracting.

 Your hair should be neat and swept or pinned back. It should be professional and you shouldn’t constantly have to sweep it away from your face.  Grown-out highlights may be really hot right now in Hollywood, but simply looks trashy in a professional setting.

5.  Manners

When you walk into the room, greet everyone with a smile and a firm handshake. Especially if you are a woman, offer your own hand and make sure its firm.   I repeat, make sure you offer a firm handshake while looking the person in the eye.  As you know, this is something that is foreign to most women and certain cultures in particular. (In my industry, everyone greets everyone with a handshake every day. This is still difficult for me, but I’m getting used to it).

dreamstimeextrasmall_139463242

 Introduce yourself with your first and last name and try your best to remember theirs.  Don’t beat yourself up too much if you don’t get them right the first time.

 Sit up straight and be as relaxed and natural as possible.  Sitting in interviews can make you really nervous, but try not to be.  Try not to fidget or wobble your leg or anything like that.

 Smile!

 Look people in the eye when you talk to them and maintain good eye-contact.  This may be difficult if it’s something you don’t naturally do, but try practicing with your friends to get over the fear.  Acknowledge what they say and keep your answers and comments short and to the point.

Check out these relevant posts:

10 Wardrobe Must-Haves for any Engineer-Chic

Selling Yourself: Where Engineers get it Wrong

What Does Business-Casual Mean Anyway?

Winter Business Wear

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Goldiblox – No more Barbies for Future Engineers

15 Monday Jul 2013

Posted by EngineerChic in Engineer Chic!, women in engineering

≈ 1 Comment

I have always counted myself lucky that my parents gave us legos and puzzles to play with as kids instead of dolls.  My two sisters and I kept ourselves entertained with spatial problem-solving toys, although they weren’t very popular with our young friends. Two of us are now engineers and the other a successful graphic designer.

GoldieBlox_SusanBurdick2-330

Debbie is an awesome, young female engineer who realised the need for a good quality toy aimed at developing problem solving skills in girls. This is how Goldiblox was born.

Goldieblox YouTube Video

The project was funded in five days. I’m just bummed that I didn’t think of this first!

Goldieblox Follow-up Video

20130301__0304toys~4_300

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Engineering the Blogosphere – Article for ME Today

21 Sunday Apr 2013

Posted by EngineerChic in ASME, Engineer Chic!

≈ Leave a comment

Why engineers across the globe are choosing to connect and share online

With the rise of internet accessibility over the past few decades, the art and business of blogging has become commonplace. Budding writers are hoping to be noticed by publishers, entrepreneurs capitalizing on the marketing and economic opportunities of the ‘blogosphere’ (online blogging community) and everyday users wanting to connect with people and share experiences the world over. One thing that struck me, when I started blogging three years ago, however, is the scarcity of practicing engineers who engage in this medium. Excluding the highly-technical sites that turn a profit through advertisements on their blogs, it seems that today’s engineering society is more wary than their counterparts in other technical fields to share their passions, relating to personal and career related experiences musings.

Although this might spark an interesting debate on the reasons that people feel the need to share their thoughts on this type of public platform, and why in particular, engineers don’t; this article instead looks to showcase some of the top ‘personal’ engineering blogs out there, and shed some light into why these engineers have chosen to engage in this medium.

Read my full ASME ME Today article…

http://www.asme.org/kb/newsletters/me-today/me-today—november-2012-issue/engineering-the-blogosphere

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The Smallest Girl in the Room

30 Monday Jul 2012

Posted by EngineerChic in Cars and Tech, Engineer Chic!, women in engineering

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So as you know, I am a femal mechanical engineer. Most people think this is pretty cool, and I definitely do, but it sometimes gets really annoying having to constantly prove your right to be in the room…

Now please dont think I’m just a whiney, neo-feminist, poor-me woman in the workplace. To be honest, most of the men and women I work with are just great! My team mates respect me and my superiors have put a lot of trust in me and my capabilities. But every now and then, you get one loser who insists on perpertuating the stereotype and takes us back 20 years…

Luckily, this is more and more becoming the exception, not the rule.

So whats got my panties in a twist, you may ask? Last week for instance, after an hour long meeting where a supplier (salesman, not Engineer!) painstakingly explained to a bunch of engineers some basic physics principle which showed that the equipment he was supplying wasn’t going to do what we needed it tpo under our present operating conditions. This concept was obviously one which gave him some trouble when he first tried to understand it, because he explained it about 3 times.

This was okay, but at the end of the meeting, he shook my hand to say goodbye and added in one last statement, “Rhea, I really hope you understand this. I will await your revised documents.”

I really hope you understand this??? Funny how he didn’t say this to any of the (male) design engineers in the room…only the one Client who was responsible for awarding his contract!  (Thats me by the way 🙂 ). So I was like wtf dude? But had the good sense not to say what I was thinking at the time. I just shot the mechanical design engineer a look, which was returned, equally surprised at the nerve of this guy. Well anyway, it looks as if I’ll just have to cut the dude’s order in half…(what? he himself admitted the equipment wasnt going to work that ell anyway!)

Then today, I’m talking to my petrol attendant (yes in South Africa we have people who fill our gas for us),

Me:  Please don’t over-fill my tank. Just fill until the 1st automatic tank…,

Petrol guy: Most people try and fill the tank to the brim, why do you want me to stop before its full?

EC: Its actually quite bad for your car

Petrol Guy: How I can be so sure?

EC: I’m a mechanical engineer. I know these things.

Petrol guy: So have you read it in a book or can you actually fix a real car?

EC: Huh? Dude, I can open that hood and tell you what every single component is.

Petrol guy: Sorry, I didn’t mean to undermine you, just wanted to know if you know how to fix a car…

EC: Here, take this cash. I’m in a hurry.

Wow…that one really sucked. Being undermined by the guy that fills your tank! I’d love to give some philosophical advice to all the young women in the world who aspire to be/ engineers. I’d love to tell them exactly how to react to a situation like that. But to be honest, I don’t know. Its just something we’ve gotta deal with as feisty females in this industry. I don’t think its going to change anytime soon, so all you can do really is brush it off, smile your gorgeous smile, and when you get home, crack open a bottle of red, put on some Oasis and be comforted in the knowledge that you really are that good at what you do.

If you’re interested in why you shouldn’t overfill your tank, check this out: http://overfillfueltank.blogspot.com/

And one last thing (that I wish I’d said): No, I don’t know how to fix a car! I’m an Engineer, NOT a mechanic! Ha!

 

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ConstructingChic

25 Wednesday Apr 2012

Posted by EngineerChic in Career, Engineer Chic!

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So have I started a blog-trend? Or could there really be another me out there?

I recently discovered another awesome Sassy Southern Sister with a super-chic blog about being a feminine female in the rough-and-tumble world of engineering!

(and by South I mean Southern Hemisphere, of course 😉

Check her out at ConstructingChic.com

 

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