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CivE Bricky

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Let's start with:

What led to you choosing a field that isn't particularly popular among women?

For me:

Dad was an electrical engineer and both my parents encouraged pretty much any interest. I liked just about every high school class (but foreign language) and all of Dad's countless hobbies and did well in math and science so figured I'd go techy. Choosing a major was a really tough choice that took me years -- I found doing civil const mgmt (for a municipality) lets me dabble in accounting, marketing, business management, journalism, history, psychology, programming, politics, english, etc. along with yes, some engineering....and I like that mix. You?

 
bouncingboobs.gif


I'm glad to see we have enough ladies around here to have their own XX chromosome thread. The women of EB.com rock, and they put up with our antics so that's even better.

 
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bouncingboobs.gif

I'm glad to see we have enough ladies around here to have their own XX chromosome thread. The women of EB.com rock, and they put up with our antics so that's even better.
Now I will be stuck at work for hours...

 
Where's the urinals???? Oh carp! I must be in the Women's Room again!!!!

 
I'm going to ignore VT's attempt to interrupt our conversation.

I graduated high school in 1975. I loved math and had taken computer programming classes in high school. My guidance counselor told me that if I was a boy, I would be encouraged to go into engineering, but since I was a girl, they didn't recommend that. I started college in Computer Science. After a year, I changed majors. Over 30 years later, it still feels like a good decision.

 
Why thank you, lovely gentlemen, for all of your input here :D

Let's see....how did I end up in the electrical engineering world...

As a young kid, I loved taking stuff apart to see how it worked. Ruined many appliances because I wasn't so good at re-assembling. Luckily my dad is very patient! He was a band director and had the keys to everything at school, and i'd beg him to open up the mechanical rooms so I could marvel at all the boilers and chillers and stuff. I was so curious about all the big noisy machinery. Weird, I know. But, I loved my Barbies and sewing and girly stuff, so had some balance.

Fast forward - loved drafting in high school, wanted to be an architect. Did 2 years at UW as an architecture major, then realized I'm no good at designing pretty buildings and got a tech school CAD degree instead. Worked as an AutoCAD chick for an MEP consuting firm, mostly doing electrical drafting. I started to ask questions about how it all worked, so one of the old EE's took me under his wing and gradually taught me to design electrical power distribution stuff.

It spurred me to finish my university degree (changed major to BSEE!) and kept working and learning electrical power stuff. Now, I'm 1 yr from finishing my BSEE (part-time school, it's taking forever), have been working in the electrical power industry for 12 years and I love it. I'm sitting for the electrical PE exam in October (in CA, you can sit for PE if you have your EIT + 8 yrs experience).

So that's it. Who's next, ladies? I love this topic! (Guys, I'd totally post a picture of my boobs for you but my digital cam has dead batteries. And I'd get kicked off of engboards.com Terribly sorry :p )

 
Well, I always enjoyed science and math in school. When I was about 14 I decided that I really, really wanted to make the military my career. Specifically, I wanted to go to the Naval Academy and then I would enjoy a long and fruitful career as a naval officer. I was a Sea Cadet throughout my teen years and on one of my summer training weeks I went to Annapolis for a week. There, I got to shadow some midshipmen in the Naval Architecture/Marine Engineering department and it was tons of fun to see what they were learning about (really, to build models and test them in the big water tank). I decided that majoring in that subject would be apropos for someone who planned to make a career out of the Navy. Most of high school was geared towards getting into a federal service academy. I was accepted to the Naval Academy and Coast Guard Academy early in my senior year. I got the required nomination for Annapolis from my congressman. I passed the physical fitness tests and the medical exam. Unfortunately USCGA was a no-go due to one eye being slightly outside the limits when they did the vision test, and they didn't give waivers at all. USNA was fine and gave me a waiver, no problem. So for most of my senior year, I was 100% expecting to go to Annapolis shortly after graduation. Then in early May all hell broke loose when that year's graduating class of midshipmen had an unusually large number of graduates who could not be commissioned in the Navy (read: had gotten a free education with no resulting service commitment) because they had come in on vision waivers and their eyesight had worsened significantly in that time. The decision was made by the academy to revoke all of the vision waivers in that category for the incoming class - including mine. So less than 2 months before I was to report for I-Day, I was told that I wasn't going to be part of that class. As one might expect, I was heartbroken. Not only did I not achieve my goal, but I had no idea how I could study naval architecture and marine engineering since it's such a specialized field. The academy strongly encouraged me to go to a college with NROTC or to go to school and then go to OCS (the vision waiver wouldn't have been an issue in either case). The admissions department even told me to go to another university and re-apply for USNA for the next year, once the vision flap blew over. My vision was never bad enough that I couldn't have gone into the military, it just wasn't OK for Annapolis that one year.

Thankfully my parents had insisted I apply to UConn just in case. I had never even gone on a college visit, because we had all expected me to go to the Naval Academy. I found myself in May of my senior year suddenly having my plans and dreams turned on end. I went up to UConn and visited with the undergraduate dean (the only non-PhD professor in the school of engineering) who was a retired Navy nuclear officer. He suggested mechanical engineering (his department) because it would allow me to study fluid mechanics and propulsion. He even helped me line up some scholarships from the ME department, and I figured it'd be an OK way to spend some time. So I became a mechanical engineering major very much by chance.

I graduated from UConn 4 years later with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. By the time I was a few months into a my freshman year, thoughts of applying for the next year at USNA were completely off the table. I ended up absolutely loving UConn and I truly believe I wound up in the right place for me. When I actually had to take classes in fluids, I did OK in them but didn't enjoy it as much as I'd expected - no career in naval architecture for me! And when I graduated I went to work in the elevator industry rather than take the Navy up on their very kind offer to commission me and send me to nuclear power school. By then Mr. Bug and I were talking about marriage and I just wasn't up for that sort of life anymore.

Ironically I wound up in classes at UConn with two guys from Connecticut who also would have been in my class at Annapolis and also got fouled up by the vision waiver mess. Both were engineering majors (one civil, one mechanical) and both lived in the very small 80-person engineering dorm with me. Both are still my friends today! All three of us were pretty devastated but all three of us ended up believing that life ended up the way it was supposed to end up. Both of the guys met their eventual wives at UConn and if I had gone to Annapolis I never would have reconnected with the high school friend who later became my husband. Things really do happen for a reason, I think.

So I fell into mechanical engineering almost by accident, and ended up loving it.

 
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Watch out VT. I'm gonna send Fabio after you:
That picture must have been taken before he tried to beat a bird to death with his face.

(Guys, I'd totally post a picture of my boobs for you but my digital cam has dead batteries. And I'd get kicked off of engboards.com Terribly sorry :p )
:GotPics:

 
Katiebug's story reminds me that things really do happen for a reason. I left college after 3 years, intending to go back, but never did. I have been asked a LOT of times if I regret not finishing. I always say that my life turned out good and I don't regret any decisions. I ended up working in engineering and after the required experience period got my PE. Life works out.

 
I see this thread is now hazed into the board....

Kevo - you're allowed (you'd be lurking anyway....)

Dleg - I haven't been around long, but early indications are that you're a good engineer--improvise!

Fluvial gets the "I understand women" award of the hour....

Now...on with the target audience

Hi Mary, Sparks, Katie --

This is already interesting--seeing some themes develop. I wrote about high school -- I should continue.

I considered West Point - tested very well and got the congressional recommendation, but ultimately didn't apply - couldn't quite imagine committing the next 10 years of my life in one fell swoop. (And good thing I didn't)

I applied to 6 colleges out of high school and to my astonishment got into all of them - because 3-4 of them often appear on top ten lists for US engineering colleges. I went to the one that "Well if they let me in there, I'd be crazy not to go..." (as class of '83) I was probably smart enough to be middle of the pack there - but I didn't have the personal and study skills to thrive. I also stumbled around not sure what I wanted to do and had a new major every semester (often while exploring another on the side).

It became obvious that that college and were a mismatch and I had some things to sort out....I tried an semi-arty semester as a visiting student at another college, and enjoyed it but learned I still wanted the technical bent. Eventually I decided the thing to do was transfer, and finish my sorting out at a less expensive place and decided to get a Community College degree just to clean up my disorganized group of credits to date. While I did that, I lived at home and worked full-time for an engineer/surveyor--and liked it. I graduated and transferred to a different one of my original choice colleges...now as class of '88 as a mech e. It still wasn't right (but I got to meet Mr. Bricky) and I got a summer job where I work now....that turned into a permanent job.....skipping ahead....

I had my employer pay for most of the remainder of my degree at a rate of a class or two a year - now firmly civil - while working full time. I got married, had my first child, graduated in 98, then had my second child all spaced about 2 years apart. I literally didn't have the weekend or two to study for the FE when I was a student and working....I knew I'd regret it, but didn't see another option. (If I hadn't had so many stale classes at that point, I might have winged it.)

Mr. Bricky did the startup thing and took a turn with the lead for a while...which was fine with me. I got back to it with a year long FE review class and the FE exam in April 07 - (passed 1st time!) and then took until Oct 07 to write up my PE application and took the PE in April 08 and Oct 08 with minimal studying (prioritized family over studying) and came close to passing, but didn't pull it off. I regrouped a bit and now I've got my fingers crossed that this credential will be mine after the weekend and serve as the ticket to a new chapter...

 
Fluvial gets the "I understand women" award of the hour....
There's good reason for that. ;)

My dad was a Civil Engineering professor at University of MS. He taught there for 25 years. I was the third of five kids, and the only one to end up in engineering. When I was in HS we took a version of the ASVAB, and my results showed that I had a good aptitude for physics. I decided then to major in Civil.

When I first started university, I was still young (17) so I didn't do very well. I ended up dropping out for a couple of years and then returning. I eventually got a BSCE in May of 1987. During that time I had gotten married and my first child was born in 1985. Since my husband and I wanted a second child, I enrolled in graduate school and recieved my Masters in December of 1988. I started that last semester of graduate school with a six-week-old baby and a 2-year old toddler. I don't remember much of anything that fall. Heh.

Anyway I started my career with a large firm here in Jackson MS in the spring of '89. I have been in the hydrology and hydraulics field from day one, and I love it. I worked there for almost 9 years, came up here (suburbs) to work for our City for four years, then struck out on my own in 2000 and I'm still swimming nine years later.

It's more and more common to see ladies in the field of engineering, and I'm thrilled to see that. I have had a couple of "firsts" under my belt (first president of the MS section of ASCE for example) and I'm proud to have had the opportunity to pave the way for other ladies.

I'm enjoying reading everyone else's stories too.

 
I'm going to chalk it up to the fact that girls of my generation really were encouraged to be anything they wanted to be. In the mix of my Barbies, I also had Legos and science kits and all kinds of things.

I was often in honors classes and I thought it was super cool to be smart. When I went to college, I wanted to be a scientist and was a geology major. However, I had a ton of friends in engineering and dated an EE. I think I felt like it was the biggest challenge of my life to conquer engineering...so I switched.

It was the hardest thing and I think my GPA reflects it, but I'm glad I made it through and I'm proud to be an engineer.

 
There's good reason for that. ;)
It's more and more common to see ladies in the field of engineering, and I'm thrilled to see that. I have had a couple of "firsts" under my belt (first president of the MS section of ASCE for example) and I'm proud to have had the opportunity to pave the way for other ladies.
Oopsssss sorry Fluvial - that's exactly why I started this thread.

ANNOUNCEMENT:[SIZE=10pt] the first "I understand women" award of the hour is still available.[/SIZE]

I was president of my local chapter of ASCE a few years back - about to take office as president again....I'd love to do it as PE

 
So that's it. Who's next, ladies? I love this topic! (Guys, I'd totally post a picture of my boobs for you but my digital cam has dead batteries. And I'd get kicked off of engboards.com Terribly sorry tongue.gif )
What?!? This isn't PPI. We'd make you a mod on the spot.

 
There's good reason for that. ;) Since my husband and I wanted a second child, I enrolled in graduate school
Hmm. I would have thought you had the requisite education to produce a second child after the first one was conceived.

Sorry, don't kick me out of the ladies room. That just sounded funny to me.

Plus it does show that I am reading carefully.

 
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