Finding a career with purpose

As part of a panel with other brilliant women from STEM including (Navdip Kaur Kalsi, Microsoft) and (Emma Peel, Honda), I was asked to talk about my career. And my immediate reaction was: Why me?

What have I done that is interesting enough to share? What story do I have that could possibly inspire someone else? And, perhaps most honestly, why do I deserve this space to tell it?

I still don’t have a perfect answer. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realised that perhaps that uncertainty is part of the story.

My career has not followed a conventional path. I am not an engineer. I did not set out with a plan to work in HVAC&R, let alone to lead an organisation representing the industry. I entered the industry almost by accident, and looking back, I would not change how events unfolded.

 There are three things that signpost my journey and make it meaningful to me.

The first is the industry itself.  HVAC&R was not an industry I understood when I first entered it. Over time, however, I came to appreciate just how fundamental it is to the way we live.

 We often think about heating, cooling and refrigeration as equipment and technology. However, behind the systems are much bigger questions such as, how healthy are the buildings in which we spend our lives? How do we improve indoor air quality? How do we reduce energy use and emissions? How do we manage the transition to more sustainable technologies?

Over time, I realised that this is not simply an industry about keeping people comfortable. It is an industry operating at the intersection of health, sustainability, technology, buildings and people.

That makes it an extraordinarily important industry to be part of, particularly as climate change impacts emerge.

 The second significant point is I work in an industry where women remain significantly under-represented.

Being different can make you question whether you belong, particularly early in your career.

 I have also learned, though, that difference can be valuable. You don’t have to bring an identical perspective as everyone else in the room. Some of the best outcomes are the result of people asking different questions, seeing different possibilities and challenging assumptions.

For an industry facing significant change and challenges, we need that diversity of thinking.

We need more people to see HVAC&R and the broader building services sector as an industry in which they can build a meaningful career – regardless of their gender, background or the pathway they took to get here.

And that brings me to the third thing that makes my career journey unusual.

I am not an engineer. That might seem surprising given the position I hold as CEO of an engineering and technical trades professional association. But looking in from outside the disciplines has shaped the way I see the industry.

I have enormous respect for the technical expertise that sits at the heart of HVAC&R, that said, I recognise that solving the industry’s biggest challenges requires other skills and knowledge also.

We need engineers and scientists. We need tradespeople and technicians. We need educators, communicators, policymakers, business leaders and advocates. We need people who can connect different disciplines and help translate knowledge into action.

That has been an important lesson for me, seeing that there is no single correct pathway into this industry, and not should there be only one.

There were also people who encouraged me and challenged me. People who trusted me with opportunities before I was completely confident that I was ready for them.

I have come to understand that careers are rarely built alone. Sometimes a mentor doesn’t give you the answer. Sometimes they simply give you the confidence to ask a bigger question.

Sometimes leadership is not about knowing what to do. It is about being willing to learn from the people around you.

 And sometimes the person who changes the direction of your career is simply someone who says, “I think you can do this. Give it a go.”

Which is why I think differently about the question I started with: What story do I have to tell?

Perhaps a career story doesn’t have to be extraordinary. Perhaps it is enough to be honest.

My story is I found my way into an industry I never planned to join and found a sense of purpose in work I initially knew very little about. I have had the privilege of working alongside people with extraordinary technical knowledge and dedication. And somehow, along the way, I found myself in a position where I can help shape the future of that industry.

This is a story worth telling, because there will be someone reading this who is wondering whether they belong in STEM, construction, engineering or the building services industry.

Someone who doesn’t have the traditional background. Someone who isn’t sure they are technical enough, experienced enough or confident enough. Someone whose career doesn’t look like the career they thought they were supposed to have.

To that person, I would say this:

You don’t have to have the perfect plan.
You don’t have to know exactly where you will end up.
And you don’t have to become someone else to belong.

---