Engineers are severely underrepresented in boardrooms and university leadership across the country. Here are five ways for mid-career engineers to push through to the next level.
Key points:
- Fewer than three per cent of corporate directors in Australia are from STEM backgrounds.
- Early-career engineers can boost their skills and experience by finding a mentor.
- Consider how to break boundaries on your next project to foster new ways of thinking.
At a recent panel brainstorming event co-hosted by Engineers Australia and Consult Australia, engineering leaders from across the corporate and tertiary education landscape examined why so relatively few engineers hold positions of influence on boards, and in governments and universities.
Consult Australia CEO Jonathan Cartledge first contextualised the problem facing the profession.
“Fewer than three per cent of corporate directors in Australia are from STEM backgrounds,” he said. “It is clear [to me from] working across the public sector, in politics and indeed across different industry forums, that there is an under-recognition of the role of engineers and an under-representation of engineers in positions of influence.
“We’re in an environment of increasing clarity [about] a deficit [of engineers] in our communities.”
The panellists then took to the stage to share insights gleaned from decades in the profession, including the importance of passion and embracing change, and why the conversation about the role of engineers needs to reach a much wider audience.
1. Be inquisitive always
Engineers should embrace new skills and be “game to do things that they don’t know how to do”, according to non-executive director Leeanne Bond HonFIEAust CPEng EngExec.
“What has steered me over many years is an inquisitive nature – wanting to find out what the problem is, what the value drivers are, and then come up with solutions, and to do that collaboratively,” she said.
This was a sentiment echoed by UNSW Dean of Engineering Julian Epps MIEAust, whose background in electrical engineering has given him a problem-solving mindset.
“I spent the early part of my career debugging circuits and debugging code,” he explained. “In the later part of my career … I’ve found myself more debugging systems and processes – and even people, or people’s motivations.”
ACTION POINT: Find a mentor to inspire new ways of thinking.
2. Pursue what you’re passionate about
“We have thousands and thousands of people in our workforces [who] are genuinely turning up for passion,” Eva Wood FIEAust CPEng EngExec, who is Vice President & General Manager for Australia New Zealand at Jacobs, told attendees. “And turning up not just for passion, but [with] a level of discretionary effort that they put in to solve really complex problems.
“The ability to get people to fundamentally [and] rapidly form teams, deliver really innovative solutions, then disband and then rapidly form again – I don’t think there’s really any other profession where that happens at such a rate of change and at such a pace.
“That is such a gift.”
ACTION POINT: Is there an opportunity at a different company you’ve always wanted to pursue? If so, go ahead and apply. Or pick up a hobby that lets you play in the space you’re most interested in.
3. Embrace generational change
Engineers should also consider innovative ways of approaching ongoing challenges, including issues of renewable energy generation, water security, infrastructure resilience in the face of climate change and – importantly – diversity.
“I’m a participant in an industry [engineering] that doesn’t have a great [diversity] scorecard,” James Glastonbury FIEAust CPEng EngExec, Chief Engineering & Innovation Officer at Aveng Group, said.
“This isn’t specific to the business I’m part of, it’s specific to the industry and probably applies more broadly. But the canvas of our solutions is a direct function of the diversity of thinking we can bring to the table. That includes at the board table … right across the organisation, down to project teams.”
ACTION POINT: The next time you’re in a planning discussion at work, play the devil’s advocate to see what other avenues your team hadn’t considered.
4. Challenge the status quo
In the experience of Madeleine McManus OAM FIEAust, boards can often consider an engineer’s role to be one of execution rather than ideation.
“I’ve been told throughout my career … that I don’t necessarily adhere to particular engineering paradigms,” McManus said.
“For me, the whole fabric of engineering and how we operate, how we’re challenged, how we think, how we’re educated, to challenge the status quo, to innovate, to create, to make positive impact for our community – is the absolute fabric of how we lead across all the realms that we operate in.”
This was also front-of-mind for Glastonbury.
“Problem solving … is at the heart of engineering,” he said. “We choose this path because we’re curious.
“I want to encourage … the engineers in the business that I’m part of to be curious, to be courageous. Yes, we need to follow some rules – but occasionally, we’ve got to really constructively challenge the rules as well.”
ACTION POINT: Don’t settle for the norm – consider how you can (within reason) break boundaries on your next project.
5. Broaden the conversation
Former Engineers Australia President Dr Marlene Kanga AO CPEng was in the audience, and chimed in with a pertinent call to action.
These discussions are vital, but engineers need to widen the scope to include more people.
“We should be talking not to ourselves like we are here, but we should [also] be talking outside,” she said.
Engineers Australia CEO Romilly Madew AO FTSE HonFIEAust EngExec agreed.
“This is a critical conversation,” she said. “Every single national priority … that all levels of government are focusing on need engineers.”
ACTION POINT: Consider who else you can bring to the table. Strike up a conversation with a friend or colleague in a non-engineering field and share with them a little about the work you do.
There are countless engineers leading change in the world. Nominations for the Engineers Australia Excellence Awards are now open.