There are times in everyone’s professional career that leave you with shattered self-confidence, and the empty feeling that you don’t know what you’re doing. This could come after an idea pitch that wasn’t successful, making a mistake in some data analysis or working for a narcissist. The last scenario is where I was at in my last role, and it took me a good few months to build back up to believing in myself as a decent engineer again. I thought this would be a good topic to write about, as it’s something that you could apply to all sorts of areas of your life, even if your particular loss of confidence isn’t in your career. It’s crazy the hold that a situation like this can have over you – your brain can really be your enemy and it can be hard to realise you’re self-sabotaging. 1) Trawl back through…
Wow, I had certainly not intended on taking such a long break from blogging! Somehow over 12 months has gone past in the absolute blink of an eye… There has generally been pretty good reasons for my absence though, all of which I will cover in this “hello again” post! I even started this in January, and then somehow it’s April and nearly Easter… 2022 was a crazy year, where I started a new (awesome) job in a totally new industry for me, and have absolutely found myself again. There will be much more on this to come 🙂 Aside from professionally getting my mojo back, I very much resumed my usual lifestyle of fitting in as many gigs and adventures as possible… Oh, and I got married! I’ll start on that topic, mainly because it explains the biggest reason for my absence. We decided to have a planned elopement…
Last year I had the privilege to be interviewed by Alex Eliseev for the IMechE’s Professional Engineering Magazine. We had a super fun chat about my career, right back to where my interest in motorcycles came from and the journey I’ve been on in my life so far. I just thought I’d share this article for a really well written piece on me! Link to the article: https://www.imeche.org/news/news-article/engineering-extremes-motorbikes-rock-music-and-engineering I hope you enjoy reading this, please leave me any comments if you’ve got any questions! I also wanted to thank Alex and the Professional Engineering magazine again for covering my story. Emilie The Female Engineer
How does it make you feel if you make a mistake? Shame? Guilt? Sadness? Chances are, you will try and push these emotions away and just move on with your life. With some mistakes, this is pretty easy to do as they’re more likely to be minor (picking the slowest lane in a queue). However, some mistakes we make are life changers, as is the way that we deal with those. Sitting with a mistake, processing what’s happened and owning it can unlock a very different future for you. This is a topic that I’ve been thinking about A LOT over the last 9 months. I quit a job that I loved at JCB to take a risk on the apparently exciting opportunity that was presented to me at Ruroc. I thought making the move back into the motorcycle industry was what I wanted, and working for a dynamic up-and-coming…
This week marks 10 years since my Dad passed away. 10 years of learning how to cope with losing someone so important in my life, and understanding what grief actually feels like. If you’re fortunate enough to not have experienced the loss of someone close to you, you might not spend too much time thinking about what grieving really is. And if you have, you might be spending your time wondering whether what you’re feeling is “normal”. My Favourite Photo of my Dad and I Now before I get into this, I am no expert, but I have done a lot of reading and learning over the last decade. I’m going to talk about the things that have helped me, the ways that I deal with living with grief, and hopefully some reassurance that whatever you’re feeling, you’re not alone. Misconceptions about Grief The first common misconception about grief is…
Well, here I am with not quite the content I’d planned to come back with, but a bit of an October update for you. I’ve put off writing a new blog post for far too long, just because I didn’t have the mental capacity to write about something that I felt would be useful. I didn’t just want to do another general ‘this is what I’ve been up to’ type post, but I also figured that I’m well overdue a new post so here we are! I’m also in a better place now to start writing some more content, so I think this is a good way to get back into it and say hello to everyone again! So, why the radio silence I hear you ask? My new job at Ruroc is the dominant factor in my lack of writing…I will be open with you guys, sometimes opportunities aren’t…
Yesterday was the day that motorcycle racing fans have been dreading for the last few years….Valentino Rossi announced his retirement from Moto GP. He has been the icon of Moto GP for 25 years, capturing the hearts and imagination of fans worldwide to an extent that I don’t think has ever been seen before, or will be seen again. He has been a true ambassador of the sport, and has given so much more back into motorcycle racing over his years in the paddock. He is one of very few motorcycle racers to have become a household name, I’m sure a lot of you reading this know who he is but potentially not many other bike racers. Why? Because he has been captivating to watch throughout his career, both on and off-track. He has always oozed a love for motorcycles, and I think this is one of the main reasons that…
I have taken some time away from writing blog posts because if I’m honest, I wasn’t enjoying engineering, I wasn’t happy in my job or in myself, and I couldn’t write whilst in that headspace. I’ve never wanted this platform to be negative because there is far too much of that in the online world, I created this blog to inspire, encourage and motivate people. While I felt I couldn’t offer that, I decided not to try and force any content because it wouldn’t be true to myself. I know a lot of people that I have spoken to over the last few weeks have been finding themselves in a similar funk, especially with their jobs. For me, it has been a reflection on the fact that nothing else in my life (feels like) is within my control at the moment. That means that, being the type A personality that…
Whilst Miss Universe and beauty pageants aren’t my usual area of interest and discussion, this year’s competition has certainly caught my attention. Last Sunday, Andrea Meza (Miss Mexico) was crowned the 69th Miss Universe in Hollywood, Florida. Why is this important? Because she is a software engineer, which has the potential to be an absolute game changer for women in STEM. For so long we have all been fighting against stereotypes and trying to change misconceptions about engineers, so having an engineer win Miss Universe should be a huge step in the right direction! Andrea Meza, the software engineer named Miss Universe 2021 Photo Credit: Tracy Nguyen/Miss Universe via AP The best part about this year’s competition was, alongside Miss Mexico, there were three other finalists who are also women in STEM jobs! Whilst this only represented 5% of the contestants…the fact that these women are forging trailblazing paths and…
After my blog overhaul and relaunch, I thought it would be an ideal time to dive into my career journey from a motorcycle mechanic through to my current role as a mechanical engineer… My route into engineering wasn’t the most straight-forward, and I am a real advocate for being brave and switching careers if you find you aren’t in a field that is the right fit for you. There are so many jobs out there and you spend so much of your life working, I really believe that you can find a career which is fulfilling and that you love waking up for everyday. I’m going to split this into years and stages of my career, to try and give a real overview of how and why I’ve got to where I have got to up until this point. Hopefully this will be a useful motivation bump if you’re trying…