Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
‘WE NEED MORE WOMEN TO TAKE ENGINEER JOBS’
AS the world prepares to celebrate women who work in engineering and encourage more to take it up as a career, we speak to Mimi Nwosu, 28, from Croydon, South London, who is an industry trailblazer.
What do you do?
I am a civil engineer at Heathrow Airport, working within the technical services team.
My role, which I started in March, includes managing and improving everything from airport buildings, terminals and runways to pavements and the site’s large road network.
I provide specialist engineering expertise in building structures and concrete.
I am there to support the development and maintenance teams to ensure that everything is designed and constructed fit for purpose, and then maintained.
Why and when did you decide to become an engineer?
I started my A-levels with high hopes of becoming a medical professional but I didn’t get the grades I needed.
I went through the university clearing process and ended up studying a science course that I had zero interest in.
After a few months I had become so frustrated that I considered dropping out of university life completely.
One day a friend invited me to join one of his lectures. The topic was bridge design and construction methods. I was hooked.
After 15 minutes of conversation with the lecturer I decided to transfer to the University of Portsmouth and study civil engineering. I took a snap decision that day and it will be one that I will never regret.
How did you make your engineering ambitions a reality?
Like most things in life it takes hard work, resilience and dedication to make your dreams a reality.
I needed to come out of my comfort zone to unlock my full potential. It was a challenging time when I first started working because I didn’t want to make mistakes.
I wanted people to like me and I put so much pressure on myself to be a “perfect” engineer, but this doesn’t exist, of course.
Engineers learn every day. I think it’s important as engineers that we are vocal about our work in society.
People are very aware of the products and infrastructure we provide but not how we go about creating it.
Because of this, I started to document my journey into engineering and construction on social media.
I fell in love with knowledge sharing about construction materials and practices and creating content to inspire other people.
I worked with Born to Engineer, a group that promotes engineering (borntoengineer.com) to create the video Myths vs Reality: Engineering Edition. The film went viral on social media and achieved over 100,000 views.
The video debunked preconceived notions about a career in engineering and the industry.
You can see it at youtube.com/ watch?v=exw655be174
Why should other women consider following in your footsteps?
To reach true diversity in the engineering designs and products that are created, we need more inclusion within the industry.
Engineering needs women. There are a vast variety of roles out there, and all of them can be done by women.