So hello everyone. Welcome! Today I'm interviewing Alice from Australia.
She's a female engineer in environmental engineering doing her master's here at
ETH with me. So welcome!
Hi.
So if you guys like this video please make sure to like it and subscribe and comment any more
questions that you have below anything that I didn't touch on or any other
questions that you have for Alice.
So your project at ETH is it anything specific?
Yeah well I'm doing on a master's thesis
project and I'm really interested in studying the surface and groundwater
interactions. Especially in rivers and streams. I'm looking into a project which
is doing surface and groundwater modeling on an alpine river valley.
Which has been influenced by hydropower. So what I'm specifically focusing on with
my project is trying to get a good representation of the groundwater in
this system. So that this model can be used to try and develop environmental
flow releases. Like trying to be able to use the river water for hydropower but
also while protecting the environment
Wow that's awesome. I feel like you're super superwoman
Oh yeah! I'm trying not to be!
So you like it. And you're going to pursue it after your your master's degree?
What is the plan after your master's degree?
So after my masters degree I want to go back into industry again.
In Australia?
Ya so I've considered with engineering it's a really mobile degree. You can work in almost
any country with the same qualifications. Except the challenge for me
was I want to work in Europe but I'm not very good with languages. So that's my hurdle
It's not the career it's just my lack of languages. So I've decided to
move to New Zealand afterwards and try and get a job as a water resource
engineer New Zealand.
Oh that's so cool. I go kayaking in New Zealand and yeah there's a lot of rivers there that need saving
I hope so!
I'll come visit you yeah for sure when I come kayak.
So, a lot of languages here, in Europe? Or just in Switzerland? Because I know here
we need to speak German.
Yeah well I guess being from Australia I only speak English.
And we, me and my partner, looked into moving to countries. Especially we
looked into Germany except it just sounded really challenging to get a
professional job where you don't speak the native language fluently and we
considered moving to England but I just don't really like England.
We considered Canada, but you don't get paid as much.
Yeah that's true.
Was your mom correct about "engineering you'll always find a job?"
Yeah well I think she was just saying that compared
to other career choices like I was thinking of studying history or the arts
because I really like writing but then sometimes it's a bit difficult to get a
job in those um industries. I guess being a female in engineering also what I've
noticed there's a lot of doors open up see you you get like my workplace I used
to work at they have a gender equality policy where they try to encourage their
working towards having equal males and females in management positions in 20
years so I guess there's always an opportunity especially for women
People are trying really hard to increase women in engineering. So I guess yeah for me?
I've always had a job.
Do you have any specific advice for girls that want to
pursue this field in environmental engineering or engineering in general?
I guess my key advice is if you're just beginning University and you've chosen
to do engineering you should really stick it out until the
third or fourth year of the degree because the first two years they
generally be uhh
They suck.
Yeah they're really heavy maths and physics and computer science focus
And it's not until you get to the end of the
degree that you really get to specialize in the area that you're interested in
Yeah another piece of advice would be to try and learn computer coding as much as possible
It seems really daunting and I'm not
very good with computers but I work with computers every day
And it's a skill that you can learn and it's um something that can really help you in
your career because it is difficult and a lot of people don't like it so then
what I found I did computer modeling and I do a lot of coding with it. I've always
got a job because no one else wants to do it.
I think programming is the most probably the like most valuable skill set you
could have as an employee.
Ya especially these days.
But what I found is that engineering is really collaborative.
So we had a really good group in my bachelor's
degree and it was a really small year group we only had 15 students and
everyone worked together. And it's not very competitive that's what I found
Compared, I have friends who did studied law and accounting and finance and now
in their professional careers it seems really competitive so everyone's trying
to one-up you. People aren't always working together. Whereas in engineering
people seem to be generally a bit, umm, I wouldn't say lazy but they're not very
um, just the style of people. Lots of people don't take the initiative
lots of people, there could be a few introverts. It would be quite easy to progress up
different career paths if you were really a focused and had a lot of energy
Anything about women in stem that we haven't touched on what you'd like to touch on?
Well, maybe just the amount of women. Like what I found in some of my
classes at university. I had to study Java programming. I was one of three
women out of about 70 so it can be really overwhelming and it depends on what
type of engineering or STEM you're studying.
I know in electrical engineering there's hardly
my brother had no females in his class. Yes I guess it's all
changing but it's just just to be aware of it
because sometimes it can be a bit of a boys club.
In Australia we call it getting "ladsy"
Getting what?
Ladsy, like they're a lad.
Like sometimes it can feel a bit exclusive and if you're a woman they might treat you
differently or not include you. When I moved into environmental engineering it
was 50/50. So if you're doing more of the science-y based or environmental, it tends
to be a lot more women. But then when I moved in to work, I worked in the water
group which is mainly civil engineers. So mainly it's a 40 year old middle-aged men.
Everyone's really nice and encouraging I've never felt any form of discrimination
But just sometimes you miss having women. But then I think
it's really good also because at my work all of the women engineers we kind of
stuck together so we formed our own group. Which was the opposite.
So we were being exclusive because it was just females.
No, think it's just something you have to be aware of
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If you want to hear more from Alice then please click the link below to see the rest of her video
So thank you, Alice. Thank you so much for being here. I hope you
enjoyed doing the interview.
I really appreciate the opportunity to help
fellow women in engineering and STEM. I really hope this is being useful and if
you have any more questions just leave them in the comments I'd be to answer them.