Ep 84 – Listeners’ Choice: Disrupting a Typical Career Saga for Women Engineers 

Episode Transcript

Along your career path you might find yourself in a scenario that women engineers commonly experience. It’s a career saga that we talked about way back in Episode 3. And it’s a favorite topic of my listeners. 

So I’m bringing it back today as a Listeners’ Choice episode. I hope you enjoy it and learn something new this time around.

You’re gonna relate to this topic: the all-too-common career saga experienced by women engineers. 

I’ll share with you a familiar scenario for engineering careers. And you’re gonna recognize certain parts of it. You’ll see yourself following this scenario in some way.

You’re a competent, innovative engineer with impeccable skills and abilities. But that by itself doesn’t guarantee you’ll reach your career potential. 

As you’ll see, other things can derail you. Things that you’re not expecting and don’t even know to watch for.

A Typical Career Saga for Women Engineers

You’re moving along on your career path. It seems to you as if everything is going as planned.  Until it isn’t. Here’s the scenario. Each stage goes something like this:

1. Starting Out:  You’re launched into an exciting engineering career and you’re looking forward to the possibilities. 

But you don’t really have a career vision. You’re still learning what this engineering role is all about. And you’re focused on doing your job well.

2. Early Career:  You’re working hard, learning a lot, and becoming a contributor. You start imagining your future engineering career. 

But it’s vague because you can’t quite envision yourself in higher-level positions. They seem so unattainable. And no one there looks like you.

3. Early-Mid Career:  You’re catching your stride and accomplishing technical goals. 

But you’re getting disillusioned about where you’ll go next in the organization. There are few role models. So you start doubting your abilities for more challenging work.

4. Mid Career:  You’re now a valued contributor. 

But you’re wondering what your next career step should be. Your colleagues are starting to pass you up. They’re getting promoted. And finding new roles as leaders in the organization. 

Your salary is growing. But not as fast as theirs.

5. Mid-Late Career:  You’re successfully accomplishing all the work you can at your level. 

But you’re reaching a plateau, and you can’t figure out how to move past it. You feel you’re supposed to be farther along in your career than you are.

6. Late Career:  You’re one of the most experienced engineers in the organization. 

But you realize there are important career steps that you completely missed. There are mistakes you’ve made. And opportunities you never knew about. At this point, you believe, you’ll never catch up.

Wow. Not exactly the scenario you were expecting, is it?

At first each stage sounds positive. You’re moving forward and contributing. But then there’s a little something missing. 

All through this scenario, you’re working hard, learning and contributing. No doubt you’re reaching milestones, satisfying customers and accomplishing the mission. But you’re still coming up short career-wise. 

So, what’s happening here?

There are many factors that contribute to this trend. We’ve talked about several of them in the podcast. 

In general, women in engineering often don’t get the career guidance they need. They don’t get the encouragement to dream big. 

Then they get toward late career and wonder why they’re not achieving what they hoped.

3 Ways Women Engineers Can Interrupt the All-Too-Common Career Saga

Fortunately there are ways to disrupt this scenario. Here are 3 ways women engineers can break up this all-too-common career saga:

1. Be Aware. Pay attention to your career so you’ll notice the snags as they happen and before they roadblock you. As soon as you’re getting a little off track identify what you need so you can take action.

2. Counteract Early Signs of Roadblocks. Once you’re aware of potential roadblocks, take steps to remove them. For example:

• Visioning gives you purpose and direction and allows you to proactively plan career moves.
• Mentorship reinforces your strengths and abilities and advises on leveraging opportunities.
• Raising risk tolerance enables you to build confidence in taking on more challenging roles.
• Self-advocacy lets people know about your great work and talents.
• Strategic collaboration and networking help with visibility and bring opportunities.

3. Put You and Your Career First. Your career is more important than your job, and the care and feedingof it will avoid potential snags along the way.  

And having the right balance of commitment between yourself and the organization maintains your motivation and helps you reach your career potential.

Clearing the Sightline to Your Dream Engineering Career

Let’s rewrite the career scenario for women in engineering. Let’s create a smoother career journey for you. One where you can avoid – or at least anticipate – any hindrances and roadblocks. 

So the sightline to your dream career is clear. And your career potential is within reach.

I want to help you prevent the all-too-common career saga from happening. Follow the guidance in this and many other episodes of Her Engineering Career Podcast.

And if you want further help in reaching your career potential, sign up for a strategy session with me. There are many ways we can ensure your career scenario avoids those subtle snags that can derail you. 

Next time on Her Engineering Career Podcast we’ll explore an approach to problem solving that works for engineering as well as it does for everyday life. I hope you’ll join me for Episode 85.