‘ICE Fellowship isn’t just something for the end of your career’

I’ve been a civil engineer for 25 years and the spur for me to become an ICE Fellow was seeing a friend apply.

I thought that if she could do it, so could I.

Before, I’d thought that becoming a Fellow was just something that old men pursued in their later years.

It’s important to realise that ICE Fellowship isn’t just something for the end of your career.

Following your ambition

I’m a civil engineer and a project manager. I lead a team that delivers a wide range of infrastructure projects – sport, leisure, education and transportation – throughout their whole lifecycles.

My career began in water and wastewater, and I’m also experienced in harbour design.

I came into the industry as a graduate and was chartered after three years.

I was ambitious and got an award for being the youngest chartered civil engineer in Northern Ireland that year.

Many people achieve chartered status and then just stop there. But I believe that ICE Fellowship is something that everyone should consider as the natural next step in their career.

Building networks is important

A lot of people aren’t too sure what the process is for applying but it’s quite straightforward.

I did a few of the online seminars and spoke to existing ICE Fellows in my company.

There weren’t many, though, and they were all male.

I work in an enterprise with 150 staff and the civil engineering community in Northern Ireland is closely connected.

So, for companies like ours, outside networks are very important.

Collective nurturing

It becomes about collective nurturing.

The ICE Connects: Women in Fellowship campaign isn’t about excluding men.

We need male allies in all that we do, and we need to do something about the under-supply in civil engineering.

At the same time, we must also address the reluctance to be seen as a female engineer and be regarded as ‘just’ an engineer.

We women are here, we’re doing a very good job, and that needs to be celebrated.

Changing how the world looks at civil engineering

We still need to achieve a better understanding of what civil engineering is. Too many people don’t know what we do. That contributes to the under-supply.

By contrast, if you look at courses such as law and medicine there’s an over-supply and there aren’t enough jobs in these fields.

We must show young girls that there’s a career, and not just a job, in civil engineering.

It’s not all muddy boots. It’s about everything you see in the built environment.

How did you get to school or work today? What happens when you turn on a tap?

Digitalisation is really pushing the industry on. We’ve all gone down the BIM route and now it’s all about net zero and sustainability.

Those weren’t at the forefront of projects when I started, but they’re now key attributes and deliverables.

Addressing reluctance

To become an ICE Fellow, you only have to meet one of the listed attributes.

Women, when compared to many men, will too often doubt that they’re good enough to apply.

It can be the case that a man will look at something, think that he’s got 70% of what’s needed, and go for it.

A woman will likely not apply if she’s not got 100% and has proven it convincingly.

It’s about having that encouragement there, and those networks of people that you can call up and ask for advice.

Even if you’re not yet ready, you can look at which attributes you want to pursue and start preparing.

It’s better to do that than get to a point and realise that you should have started years ago.

Being an ICE Fellow enables me to elevate others

Everybody has a different role to play in civil engineering, but within companies, ICE Fellows are typically going to be among the senior leaders.

Since becoming an ICE Fellow, I’ve been involved with the ICE Connects initiative here in Northern Ireland.

We don’t just have a smaller group of ICE Fellows locally; we also have a smaller group of female engineers.

Nevertheless, we’ve been successful in bringing through four female Fellows in just the last couple of years, which is great.

Engineering is the way to go

Women have an important role to play in helping to address the shortfall of professionals in civil engineering.

We need to get the message across that if you’re looking at STEM, engineering is the way to go. That’s why we’re doing different things at the top and bottom.

As well as the push for more ICE Fellows, for instance, we’re also promoting apprenticeships.

This is something that was piloted in Northern Ireland in 2016 and we’ve just seen our first apprenticeships graduate.

It’s another path into the industry for those who don’t necessarily want to go down the purely academic route.

And we’ll hopefully see some of these apprentices become Fellows in due course!

Learn more about becoming a Fellow