When I look back on my life, it’s clear that I have always had an interest in construction. I remember my mum buying a set of plastic building blocks from the op shop when I was a little girl and those being one of my favourite toys to play with. My mother was a school teacher and my father a beekeeper so there was always a really strong focus on education and also a strong theme of practicality and learning how everything worked around us. This theme has continued throughout my life; I love to know the practicalities of how things work and I have always loved being involved in projects where I can see the physical results of my efforts.
At school I leaned towards maths and science, in particular taking calculus, chemistry and physics through to my final year. I was (and still am!) passionate about the environment and making beautiful buildings, so I moved to Wellington and chose to study Building Science with a major in Sustainable Systems Engineering.
It took me six months to find work after university and when I did it was in an area that I wouldn’t necessarily have chosen for myself. My first job was project coordinator for an electrical contractor in Wellington, on a major project replacing the electrical overhead lines for the passenger trains. It ended up being one of the best career moves I’ve ever made. My aptitude for project management combined with a manager who saw my potential created an incredible opportunity and I progressed from project coordinator to construction manager of the civil subcontractors within a very short period. This paved the way for my next role and when the project finished and it was time to move on, I started working for an engineering consultancy on a full time secondment with KiwiRail, cementing my career in the rail industry.
After a few years working in Wellington my desire to travel took over and I made the move to the UK and then Canada, living overseas for five years. I was able to see the world while expanding my rail and project management knowledge and experience by working on projects that were larger in scale and complexity than anything I had worked on before. After five years overseas, the time came for me to move home, and I moved back to New Zealand and joined Mott MacDonald in the Wellington office.
In moving back to New Zealand and looking for work, it was really important for me to find the right fit in terms of company culture. When I interviewed with Mott MacDonald it was over Microsoft Teams and we had a technology malfunction which meant they could see me but I couldn’t see any of my interviewers, which was quite an awkward interview! Nevertheless, Mott MacDonald felt like the right choice for me. My manager, Victoria, and her manager (advisory sector lead for New Zealand) Aimee were a big part of why I took the role and remain a big part of why I love working for Mott MacDonald. Being the construction industry, culturally or gender diverse managers are rare. I had never had a female manager before working at Mott MacDonald and I was excited to work with strong female leaders.
Throughout my career in the construction industry, I have experienced challenges because of my gender and in some instances, I have been treated differently to my male colleagues. One of the reasons I think women face these challenges is because of a lack of representation. In my University class there were a total of 60 students, 10 of whom were women. Going into my first job, I was in a small office and I was the only woman who wasn’t involved as an administrator or an accountant. I was the only woman on site, consistently, including other contractors and the client. I think it’s important to have diversity across positions of management and throughout the construction industry in general because there’s nothing like being able to relate to your leaders and feel represented.
I find working at Mott MacDonald there are so many women to be inspired by and so many men in positions of management supporting and actively working towards making this the norm. I love working with and for women who are so competent, so good at their jobs and so well respected across the business. It’s inspirational to see women in positions that I would one day aspire to be in. I have had some great male managers, but since starting at Mott MacDonald and working with these amazing women, I feel more hopeful and positive for the future of gender equality in the construction and engineering industry.
If you are a woman who wants to enter the construction or engineering industry, my advice is to network. It’s harder for women to network with each other in this industry because there are few of us, but that’s also why it’s so important. Find constructive ways of trying to bring about change and lead by example. The numbers of women in the industry are growing and this is changing things for the better.
