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To celebrate Women in Engineering Day this year, we speak to two of our female engineers on their career choices, their work experience in a traditionally male-dominated space, and what they enjoy most about engineering.

While it may be so that women have been underrepresented in STEM fields, it is inspiring to see that in recent times, there have been more female engineers rising up through STEM industries. This is something we celebrate whole-heartedly at Imrandd.

We chat to Yee Chin Tang and Stephanie Okoye about their experiences.

What do you do at Imrandd?

Yee Chin: “I am a Project Lead working with a diverse group of talented engineers. Imrandd help maintain and monitor the asset integrity of our clients, and my team work to target specific integrity issues. We help to spot trends and weak points from historical inspection data, and come up with innovative solutions to these problems”.

Stephanie: “I am a Senior Corrosion Engineer, involved in different integrity management projects for the company”.

What gets you excited to come to work every day?

Yee Chin: “Everyday sets a different challenge!”

Stephanie: “I’m very passionate about my work and I enjoy the technical and engineering challenges it brings to my day to day life. Corrosion Engineering is a creative, fun and rewarding role which requires a lot of responsibilities and is multi-disciplinary”.

Why did you choose to become an engineer? What were the major factors in your decision?

Yee Chin: “Engineering was an obvious choice for me, largely due to how my siblings and I grew up! My dad is no engineer, but I call him the ‘Engineer of Engineers’. He provided the inspiration by involving us in his different projects, where we would problem solve, sketching calculations and costs of materials on paper salvaged from packaging, until the end product materialised. I unfortunately do not have a workshop for my children, but we use materials that we have in the house such as water bottles and other packaging, which offers a lot of options if you are imaginative! Beyond the workshop, I am fascinated by how engineering makes our lives easier, faster and safer. This is my motive and what really makes me proud to be an engineer”.

Stephanie: “Like I said earlier, I’m passionate about my work. I enjoy what I do. There is no shortage of the challenging problems in engineering which makes it very interesting to me. There is no single answer to any problem. This forces you to invent a solution and convince others that your solution is the best. Engineering helps your intellectual development, which is invaluable throughout your lifetime. It develops your ability to think logically and solve problems. Finally, engineering is a lucrative career and graduates from engineering receive the highest starting salary of any discipline”.

In ten words or fewer, why do you love engineering?

Yee Chin: “Continuous engineering advancements place no limit on what’s possible!”

Stephanie: “I love engineering because it is a very rewarding, intriguing, exploring, inventing, discovering and full of creativity”.

What has been the highlight of working at Imrandd?

Yee Chin: “During my career, I often belonged to a female minority group. At Imrandd, I started as the only woman, but now I am pleased that over 30% of our workforce are women”.

Stephanie: “A highlight is the completion of the Risk Based Inspection Assessment for a number of assets for a main client. This project brought about solutions and an improvement plan to safely manage risks and ascertain the integrity of the assets. Keeping both people and the environment safe makes it very rewarding. I also enjoyed working with other engineering disciplines (production chemistry, inspection, and integrity engineers) which involved sharing experiences across the field of integrity management. I believe you need to work with other engineering disciplines to have all the answers”.

What is the most important piece of advice you would give to a woman thinking of starting a career in engineering?

Yee Chin: “Believe in yourself and showcase your creativity!”

Stephanie: “Be sure that it is the right career for you. Enjoying what you do will ensure you benefit from a rewarding career!”