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In Engineering & Careers

Why Miss Universe 2021 is a Game Changer for Women in STEM

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glamourous woman red lipstick

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…

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In Engineering & Careers

Why should I do an Engineering Apprenticeship?

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winning the best project award for my dissertation

This week is National Apprenticeship Week in the UK, which is a government-led celebration of all things apprenticeships aiming to showcase this career option. I will mostly be talking about engineering higher apprenticeships as this is where my experience lies, but a lot of the discussion will be relevant to apprenticeships in all fields and levels (particularly STEM careers). I am going to take you through my personal experience of apprenticeships, discuss the careers options that are available and ultimately explain why I think an apprenticeship is the best way into a career in engineering. Tip: You can search #NAW2021 for great apprenticeship content across all social media platforms. Firstly, I would be interested to find out what your route was into your career, regardless of what your career is or if you’re still on the route to this career. There are so many different routes that you could possibly…

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In Practical Lifestyle

The Female Engineer’s Guide on How to Prepare your Van for Winter Hibernation

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As we are heading firmly into the winter in the UK, the campsites are closing and the roads are starting to be covered in grit. Both of these are bad news for us campervan owners, as it generally signals the end of the season…if you can call it that this year! For my latest ‘How To’ guide, I am going to take you through a few steps that you can do to prepare your van for a winter off the road, to ensure that you don’t have any issues once we come back out of hibernation in the spring. Personally, as I also use my van for transporting mountain bikes, collecting Christmas trees and various other activities, I don’t fully take my van off the road over winter. I know many people who just use them as full campers and won’t use them at all over winter, and my first…

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In Practical Lifestyle

Introducing “The Female Engineer’s Guides To…”

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After a really enjoyable and positive first couple of months as a blogger, I am branching out to expand on an area which I hope will prove super useful for my readers. I am starting a series of “How To” guides on a range of topics, which I hope will provide help and guidance to my readers. Some of these will be technical and instructional to work through, but some will purely be me sharing my advice around a certain topic such as how to get into roller derby… I absolutely love travelling and exploring new places, but didn’t want to start a travel blog as there are so many out there. However, I am going to start incorporating travel into my blog as it is a huge passion of mine and I love sharing my advice and recommendations on destinations around the world. I’ve been fortunate enough to get…

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In Engineering & Careers

National Coding Week – Why You Should Join the Tech Revolution!

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So this week it’s National Coding week ??‍? This is an area of STEM that is relatively new to me, but I am really interested in it now I am delving more into it all. I have to admit my first exposure to the world of coding was hearing Karlie Kloss speaking about her “Kode with Klossy” initiative on Tim Ferriss’ podcast last year (https://www.kodewithklossy.com/). This is a free coding camp in the USA for girls aged 13-18 which is a huge driver in terms of changing children’s perceptions of coding and jobs in tech. For those who aren’t familiar with Karlie, she is a fashion model so she’s bringing a bit of glamour to the world of coding, but also opening up this discipline to her followers who might not typically have been exposed to the tech world. Over my period of furloughment I was successfully selected by the…

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In Engineering & Careers

How to Change Brake Discs & Pads on a Van

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Yesterday we completed a job that we’ve been putting off for a while due to not having the time and resources to be able to do it, so I am going to talk you through how to change brake discs and pads (on a van!). My van scraped through its MOT last year on the condition of the brakes, so I bought some new parts in the EuroCarParts January sale. If you know you need to service/repair your vehicle at some point, sign up to their mailing list and buy your parts when they have a sale! They do them fairly often, so if you can get away with waiting you can save a load of money. I got all new discs and pads for 50% of the retail price by waiting for one of their regular sales. We knew it was going to be a tough job so we…

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In Engineering & Careers

Mental Health in Engineering

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In this section of my blog I’m going to talk about the various tips and tricks I’ve picked up to manage a range of challenging scenarios, from dealing with a 100 mile daily commute to contending with imposter syndrome. This is something I’m going to continually add to as I think it’s a really important subject and the advice I have received over the years has really helped me. I will be sharing advice on physical and mental wellbeing, mindfulness and different support networks that are available for everyone to access in times of need. I hope that I can help people with aspects of their situation that they are struggling with, as I would like to be able to do what I can to improve people’s general wellbeing and try to remove the stigma from opening up about personal emotions. Mental health is a topic that is still a…

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In Engineering & Careers

Why Should I Become a Professionally Registered Engineer?

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I have been a member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers since February 2017 as an ‘Engineering Technician’ and I am currently putting the final edits together for my ‘Incorporated Engineer’ application. I am also a member of the Women’s Engineering Society, which I joined in August 2019 to build up my personal network of female engineers. I’m going to talk through why I think you should become a professionally registered engineer. I think that joining a professional engineering institution is a really important part of being a well-rounded engineer, as it means you are showing your commitment to your chosen career path. It also allows you access to so many incredible resources and events, which enables you to develop into a highly skilled engineer. As part of professional membership, you gain access to industry news and journals, lectures and seminars, training courses and mentoring just to name a few…

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In Practical Lifestyle

Navigating Covid-19 ~ Welcome to the Female Engineer Blog!

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me wearing a face covering

Hello and welcome to my new blog! I know we are all sick of reading about it, but my first blog post can’t ignore the current global situation that we are all finding ourselves in. It is disruptive and distressing for so many people, with hundreds out of work or facing uncertain futures. This current situation is what has driven me to start writing a blog, as I have been able to spend some time reflecting on what I enjoy spending my time doing and what I am good at. I am often asked for advice and guidance on how to get into engineering and the various paths and job roles that people can pursue, so I thought I would start compiling this information in one place. I will also give an insight into the daily life of being a female engineer, sharing the trials and tribulations of this career…

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