Hard Work, Luck and a Great Mentor = the Perfect Recipe for Success

Annette Baxter from the Careers Service explains the difference a good mentor can make. She draws on the examples of elite athletes, and the support teams that guide them towards their success, illustrating the importance of developing a network for achieving your goals. Annette also highlights mentoring schemes engineering students can access.


Ask most successful people what it was that helped them to achieve success in their careers, and many will mention a lot of hard work, some will say a modicum of luck but most will also refer to the help and support they received from a significant person who pointed them in the right direction or gave them the time, encouragement and support to achieve their goals. Some would call this inspirational person a friend, a parent, a teacher or a manager but the common term in industry is often a mentor.

A mentor can share the benefits of their experience and insights in industry, a company or job role; they can give you advice and tips on the recruitment process and help you face job search and progression with greater confidence. They may also help you to assess your current skills, identify gaps in your skill or knowledge base and then help you to identify strategies for meeting these development needs.

"Remember the old phrase ‘it’s not just what you know, but who you know’ that can make the difference."

No one can ever tell you what to do, but people often say that discussing a situation with another objective person can help them to see different perspectives, generate other ideas, find alternative ways of overcoming obstacles or handling situations and therefore make better decisions – benefiting from the experience (and mistakes) of someone else who may have been in that situation before.

Whatever you want to achieve, your role as mentee is to define the goals you want to achieve and a mentor may be able to help you to identify the steps you need to take to achieve them, offering feedback and encouragement along the way.

When you look at any successful athlete or sportsperson like Andy Murray or our very own Jessica Ennis, they are surrounded by a team of people to help them reach peak performance and achieve the accolade in their event. They may have a coach, nutritionist, physiotherapist just to name a few and just as in sports, you may want to build a team around you to improve your career fitness and support you to achieve success in your career.


In the careers sense ‘your team’ may include an academic or project supervisor, a Careers Adviser, family members but it can also include a career mentor (or all of them), each able to offer you advice and support to help you achieve your career goals.

You don’t have to wait until you get into employment to have a mentor, you can start to build your network now by contacting the Careers Service and speaking to a careers adviser. You may want to join the Email Mentoring Scheme offered by the Careers Service, and mentoring schemes are also offered by professional bodies such as the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) who offer mentoring to engineering students.

If you want to widen your professional network wider, professional bodies such as Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) or Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS) also have opportunities for students to meet with society members and build their professional network. Social media sites such as LinkedIn can also be invaluable to help you develop your professional networks but who knows, this may be the topic of a future blog on this site!

Remember the old phrase ‘it’s not just what you know, but who you know’ that can make the difference. Start today by building your network and finding your mentor for success.

Memories of 1960's Sheffield from our first female Civil Engineering Graduate - Mrs Alison Moore

Alison Moore BEng Civil Engineer Graduate of 1964

50 years ago Mrs Alison Moore BEng graduated from our University. In her own words, she shares an honest account of what life was like for a fledgling female Civil Engineer at University and in industry.

Between 1950 and 1960 I spent ten years at a very low key girls’ boarding school in the middle of nowhere. At this time relatively few girls went to university so my parents were a little surprised when I announced that I would like to not only go to university but to read civil engineering - I think that I had romantic notions about building grandiose bridges and spectacular dams! In fact, my father was so concerned that his delicate flower of a daughter might struggle in such a male environment that he arranged an interview with Professor Boulton, the then Professor of Civil Engineering, to make sure that I would be properly cared for! Obviously he received the right assurances and I was allowed to apply and in due course was offered a place on the course.

Unfortunately my school had no idea about university courses and I discovered that I would require A Level Chemistry in addition to Maths and Physics which were my only A Level subjects. I was instead offered a place in the Preliminary year which catered for those with the wrong A Levels and international students who needed to improve their language skills. This proved to be fortunate as there was one other girl in the year who was reading Mechanical Engineering. For this first year we joined forces and had a fairly easy time where we covered Engineering Drawing, which had obviously not featured at my Victorian Ladies’ school, maths and an awful lot of chemistry. This left plenty of time for sport and social activities and participation in the University Boat Race. Our home made boat of wood, wire and oil drums survived the course better than many put together by the boys so we were obviously learning some engineering skills!

For my first proper year in Civil Engineering I had another girl to keep me company but she struggled to cope with the male company (not that they were unkind or particularly chauvinistic) and she gave up after one year, which left me as the only girl and eventually the first one to graduate in civil engineering. After some initial wariness I was treated normally by the rest of my classmates. My only problem was that the lecturers always knew if I was absent! As trousers for girls were still considered a bit risque at that time I usually wore skirts and high heels to mix concrete, climb over the machinery or whatever else we were doing in the labs.

I joined the Engineering Society which then covered all the engineering courses and graduated from being Year Rep to Publicity Officer and eventually Secretary. This gave me my first success as a woman in a man’s world! After a particularly drunken Engineering Society Dinner at a nearby hotel there was a slight disagreement about the fate of several bottles of liqueurs which some unfortunate waiter was foolish enough to leave on a table. The manager became extremely agitated and vocal in the process of throwing us out of the hotel and stated very loudly that he would be getting in touch with the Secretary. At this point I stepped forward, all of five feet two inches in my best red velvet, low necked mini-dress and six inch heels and informed him that I was the Secretary. That put an end to all the swearing as in those days no gentleman could swear and shout at a lady and no more was heard of the incident. (Apart from all engineering societies being banned from the hotel!) From then on this became one of my particular roles in engineering!

"I travelled all over the country supervising teams and ran the drawing office as well as practicing my special skills as a trouble shooter whenever a contract went wrong"

My only really negative treatment was my first summer vacation job when I spent two months at a local engineering consultants. Instead of giving me a proper engineering job I was side-lined to the architects’ department and given very trivial tasks which I had to persist with in order to fulfil my holiday commitment. Fortunately the following year I had exactly the opposite experience when I was given a job at the local Water Board, where everyone was very supportive and I was given work in all the different departments.

In 1964 I applied for my first full time job at a firm who were recruiting Designer/Detailers for a new Sheffield office. At my interview it was made clear that I could not expect to have any site experience as there were so many young men in the company who would take priority! I was in fact the first female graduate that they employed and I was very pleased to see in later years that they were one of the first firms of consulting engineers to allow women on site. I moved on to a small specialist firm of pipeline engineers who were involved in surveying and contracting work for the Gas and Water Boards. Our biggest area of work was locating and checking gas pipelines in preparation for conversion to natural gas and this was my job. We worked closely with a German company who manufactured mains location and gas leak detection equipment, which demanded specialist teams working in the field and a drawing office to record the results. I travelled all over the country supervising the teams and ran the drawing office as well as practicing my special skills as a trouble shooter whenever a contract went wrong.

In general I think that most men were very supportive of a woman coming into their world although I was never really treated as an equal. I was especially a target at conferences where I was usually a minority of one and quite a number of the men thought that I would be 'available' after a few drinks.

My engineering career was all too short as I 'retired' when I married, which was still very much the norm in the 1960s and by the time that my children left home I was too busy and too long out of touch to pick up my career.

The Importance of Internship by Tanya Coupland

engineering in my spare time with an old mini 

In the summer between my third and fourth year studying Mechanical Engineering I was offered an internship at a Tribosonics in Sheffield. The company was set up by a former PhD student from the University of Sheffield and employs a handful of graduates from the university.

Tribosonics provide a variety of ultrasonic monitoring systems for a wide range of things. Their motto is that they have solutions looking for problems. It was because of this that I think I gained so much more from the six weeks I spent there than I ever could have imagined.

Far from the stereotypical intern (there to do everything other people didn’t want to do and make the tea) I was given my own project so was hands on at every stage. From conducting research and literature reviews to designing and carrying out experiments, it was my responsibility to decide the next step in getting a new product off the ground. This was a very steep learning curve to what I had been used to during my time at university when you are given specific tasks to do and a specific set of requirements.

Although it was a big responsibility and hard work, it was much more rewarding when I collected and presented results knowing that this was something I had set up and worked on; and knowing that it could be a solution to a real life problem. This was a different experience to uni lab classes when you collect data simply to discover something you always knew was going to happen. 

I have always believed that the best way to learn is by doing things, not by reading about them or being told about them. I would encourage anyone to take the opportunity to do an internship or work experience if they get are offered it. 

Working as an intern broadens your experience of engineering. As there were never more than three placement students in the office at once I learned far more than I would have done in a class of over 100 people with one lecturer. It gave me the opportunity to pick the brains of experts in the field of ultrasonic measurement every day. It also meant I had the chance to learn skills such as machining that there simply isn’t time to fit into the packed schedule of an engineering undergraduate.

I have always believed that the best way to learn is by doing things, not by reading about them or being told about them. I would encourage anyone to take the opportunity to do an internship or work experience if they get are offered it. Not only do you learn so much I had such good fun at Tribosonics! I met some great people and decided to stay involved with the company by working with them on my final year project. I think it showed how much all the interns enjoyed it when one morning the three of us were all stood outside the office waiting for someone to let us in! I feel privileged to have been able to study a subject that allowed me to work somewhere which made me happy to get up and go to work every day.

I am a fourth year student in the department of mechanical engineering. My degree course is Motorsport Engineering Management and my interest in engineering is in the automotive industry, particularly engine technology.

Imagination Can Take You Anywhere - National Women in Engineering Day Monday 23rd June - Celebrate With UoS

Date: Monday 23rd June 2014
Time: 4pm – 8pm
Venue: Mappin Hall, Sir Frederick Mappin Building, Mappin Street, Sheffield, S1 3JD

Imagination, curiosity and creativity has given us electricity, steam engines, cars, planes, medicine and mobile phones. Somebody had to dream of these things before they were made real. An imaginative child will become an imaginative adult, likely to create, to invent. Likely to change the world.

To celebrate National Women in Engineering Day we’re opening our doors and inviting you to join us for loads of activities that explore science, engineering and most of all imagination.

Amongst many other activities there will be sumo-fighting robots; a giant tetrahedron; exploding coca-cola and you can also watch our excellent academics duke it out to prove which engineering discipline is the best!

All activities and events are free!

Engineering Imagination - where will it take you?

Composite Materials with Professor Alma Hodzic

We've been a bit quiet of late at EngineeringUS - let's break that silence by listening to an interview that Professor Alma Hodzic from Mechanical Engineering gave all the way in Austria to FM4 Radio (ORF) about composite materials.

Professor Alma Hodzic

Listen here.

Abigail Hathway on the 'Hidden' Engineering Role: Building Services Engineer

Dr Abigail Hathway, Lecturer in Architectural Technologies, throws light on how important engineers are in bringing the buildings we inhabit to life and that more young people are needed to take up this vital role.

With buildings contributing over 40% of carbon dioxide emissions in this country it is essential we change the way we design and build. However, buildings are so much more than a shell and an energy meter. We spend on average 90% of our time in buildings; good light, good temperature and good ventilation can all contribute towards us having a good day. Get these wrong and our ability to think and learn can rapidly deteriorate, gets these badly wrong and we can get sick. To get these things right, to achieve the architect’s vision, to create a wonderful space and not screw up the planet in the process takes excellent engineers.

Yr4 AED trip

Unfortunately we don’t have enough talented young people wanting to enter this area of engineering (or knowing the route to take to do so), and particularly not females. It isn’t surprising when the role of the building services engineer is so unknown outside the profession. Do you think about how much engineering has gone into making you feel good in a building? It is after-all the engineering you can’t directly see and can merely feel.

The reason I applied for my Lectureship at Sheffield University was for the chance to deliver the degree programme in Architectural Engineering Design to engage more young people in this profession. This is one of a growing number of courses to provide the skills for graduates to engineer low impact buildings, and the only course in the country to be dual accredited by both the Institution of Civil Engineers and Mechanical Engineers. The degree programme spans the traditional disciplines of Structural Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Architecture in order to educate students with both hard engineering skills relevant to building performance alongside a social awareness and an understanding of Architectural design. This provides an understanding of the underlying physics of a building, enabling our graduates to help Architects achieve their vision with limited environmental impact. 

Do you think about how much engineering has gone into 

making you feel good in a building?

Students also learn about Architecture history and theory, studying alongside Architecture students. This is important because it means that when they graduate these students can communicate with Architects to understand their vision, and work alongside the architect to create a beautiful and well-functioning building. Maths and Physics is important for building design, but it isn’t the only component, the ability to communicate and work well in a broad team is also crucial.

Part of my role is running a one year Masters programme in Architectural Engineering Design. This is a conversion course allowing students from a variety of backgrounds to gain the skills in this area. Many of our students come from a Civil Engineering background who are keen to use their knowledge of maths and physics to create better buildings. Many of them tell me they wish they had known about this area when they were seventeen. We also have girls coming from outside of engineering, such as Architects looking to change career direction to a more technical field. We have had architects take our MSc who are now working out in industry carrying out complex energy modelling of buildings, then liaising with clients and architectures about achieving their visions for the building in a low impact way.

Dr Abigail Hathway

We run an undergraduate programme in Architectural Engineering Design too which spans all three departments of Civil and Structural, Mechanical Engineering and Architecture. Our graduates work in a variety of fields related to the engineering of buildings: mechanical engineering, sustainability consulting, structural engineering, project management and research. The passion the students show for their degree, and the final year students desire to help mentor younger students and make the course grow makes me very proud. It also shows it isn’t just me that finds this such an exciting and important area to work. The innovation they show in integrating the fabric and systems in a building to reduce the total impact is incredible and continually demonstrates to me why it is so important to develop new programmes crossing the traditional disciplines to educate young engineers in the skills needed for tomorrow. Now we just need to raise the awareness of this area of engineering to attract more young people into this profession.

Links

Royal Academy report on Building Engineering Physics

Website for Architectural Engineering Design

UG pages for Architectural Engineering Design

PG pages for Architectural Engineering Design