A Mine of Information when it comes to Engineering

From shovelling rocks to designing hospitals, Susan Cormican, Operations Director at Ethos Engineering tells us about her eventful career.

Why did you choose a career in engineering?

I was one of those people who had no idea what they wanted to do. I couldn’t see myself being a nurse or a teacher. I loved science in secondary school so I did physics and biology for Leaving Cert and picked a science course in Galway RTC, but the only obvious career from that seemed to be as a lab technician, which again I didn’t see myself doing. I attended a careers fair around that time and a university from the UK was talking about a course in Mining Engineering. At that time Tara Mines was up and running, there was talk of a new mine in Kilkenny and it sounded exciting. Fair play to my long suffering mother who said, “go ahead and try it”, so I did. I then went in to Mineral Engineering in my second year and qualified in that. It was predominantly men, 80 guys and 4 girls in first year. It was good fun though; our practicals involved blowing stuff up and driving trucks.

How did you progress to your current job?

When I finished university in 1992, there were no jobs anywhere so I worked in my sister’s pub for a while. Then I got a job with the company that was delivering an EIS for the mine in Kilkenny and once that contract was finished, the Project Manager from that, an electrical engineer, offered me a job with him. I spent 7 years there, the first few in Electrical Engineering, but we got so many requests to do Mechanical Engineering,  I did a Masters in Building Services and started doing Mechanical design and before I knew it I was a Building Services Engineer.

Was there a fear you were getting into a very male dominated industry?

It didn’t really bother me. The most intimidating time was when I was in college, because it was a mining college, they were deliberately trying to weed out people who weren’t up to the job. There was lot of nonsense that went on there and once I got through that, the male female ratio in industry was a piece of cake. College was challenging as a lot of the focus was literally to see if the women could do it. For example, they would say ‘how many people on the team. There’s five guys and a girl, so really it’s only 5 and a half’ You would  be put into situations where you would be using a rock drill or manually shovelling rocks. Being from the west of Ireland, I didn’t argue, just put my head down and did it. I suppose that taught me that hard work earns respect more than a lot of other things.  One of the girls dropped out but three of us made it to the end.

The Director General of Engineers Ireland, Caroline Spillane recently said there is a lack of gender diversity in engineering. Do you agree?

Totally and there’s lot of reasons for that. I did an open day with Engineers Ireland in Dublin Castle to try to get girls in secondary school to think about engineering as an option. I’ve done some talks in schools too. Two issues came up repeatedly; one is that girls are told they need honours maths. That’s completely untrue, I don’t have honours maths and I’m an engineer. The other one that I’ve heard from teachers is that parents push their sons a lot more, so even if you’re in a completely equitable household, the parents will, by default, push their sons that bit harder because they absolutely have to get a job. I think things are changing slowly though. Engineering is not rocket science; it’s about communicating a design. It is a male dominated industry but I have never had any discrimination from my peers. Whether women get promoted as fairly or not, that’s another wider discussion.

What projects are you particularly proud of?

The Cork School of Music is probably the most prestigious one from early on in my career. The swimming pool in Tallaght is another. I’ve done a fair few schools and lots of healthcare. I have worked on the maternity hospital in St Vincent’s and am currently working on the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dun Laoghaire and the Satellite Hospitals for the new children’s hospital. I suppose healthcare is my first love and my speciality. In that sector there are a lot of women around the table, the industry recognises that for instance you couldn’t possibly design a maternity hospital without a single woman on the team.

What’s your greatest achievement?

It’s the fact that I’ve had a few knockbacks over the years but just kept going. Ethos has appointed me as Operations Director of their healthcare team and that, to date, is probably the best career achievement.

Do you have an average day?

There isn’t one. If you like variety and you don’t want to be stuck full time in an office then engineering is the career for you. You’re in the office, meeting with the team, Finance, HR or you’re out meeting clients or having project meetings with architects or on site meeting construction teams. The hours can be long if you let them but I have a 12 year old daughter and if I’m late on a regular basis I hear about it. It’s very rare I’d be in the office after 6pm but that’s not to say I wouldn’t do some work at home. You have to manage it or you burn yourself out.

What’s your favourite thing about being an engineer?

The people are my favourite things. It’s about building a team and motivating them to work efficiently and effectively while enjoying their job. That’s the challenge for me.

What are your hobbies?

I play Gaelic football with the Kilmacud Crokes mother’s team so that’s great craic. That’s the one thing I try to stick to regularly.

What advice would you give to young women who are interested in engineering?

If you are the type of person who likes solving problems and likes people and variety, then engineering could be the career for you. Don’t be put off by people telling you you can’t get there if you don’t have honours Maths. It’s no different from any other career, once you get into the workforce, you have to work with a team. Don’t stick your head into a desk, get to know the people you work with and if you make friends, it doesn’t matter if they’re male or female. Ethos is a great dynamic, progressive company to work for and we’re trying to get more girls in here to make the workplace even better.