4 minute read
In her own words, Olympia Karadima, shares her story.
After my equivalent of Greek A levels, I got accepted at University for Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering – this wasn’t my first career path choice, but I decided to accept the challenge and it was an interesting experience. During this time, I was really struggling to find my goal and what I enjoyed. I knew I wanted to study something with applied mathematics and physics but hadn’t found my main area of interest yet.
One area I grew a strong interest in was electromagnetics – mainly because of the mathematics and physics behind it and my interest in that subject. At the time, one of my professors was working in electromagnetics for medical applications and this piqued my interested and I decided to take this area as a major. My interest in biomedical engineering really grew and that naturally led me to my master’s. I decided to do this in the UK because I wanted to experience a new academic environment and step out of my comfort zone.
It was during this time that I realised I wanted to do a PhD and settled on one in electrical engineering for medical applications at King’s College. The PhD was part of a European project that introduced me to a diverse and multi-national consortium. During this time I realised how much I enjoyed this area of science, the networking aspects as well as the science communication and strategic elements. After I finished my PhD I joined a private company as an engineer doing technical consultancy, but I soon realised that this wasn’t really the career path I 100% want to be in. I started to enjoy being more involved in the strategic decisions behind science and not being in the lab 24/7. I started looking for other roles and that brought me to NPL and I’m doing the perfect combination of what I wanted from the beginning. A combination of science while also being behind the scenes and setting up the strategy.
No single day is the same as my role doesn’t have a specific daily routine. My work is probably split into two main categories. One big part of my role is office based and working with scientists to understand what stage our research and products and services are currently at as well as key challenges and, of course, writing and managing bids and proposals.
Another part is when I’m out of the office at an event or conference. I could be meeting with a client and working on building relationships while representing NPL. This is a great opportunity for me to understand where industry currently is and what challenges their facing. I set out the vision and strategy for NPL within the UK space ecosystem and lead our key projects and proposals with UK Space Agency, European Space Agency and key UK space engineering customers. It is not just about managing projects and proposals; my job is about influencing the future of space engineering and technology. I focus on understanding key challenges in space engineering using my technical background and turning them into actionable strategies aligned with NPL’s vision for space innovation.
As I mentioned, I haven’t always known what career path I wanted to follow or where I’d like to end up. As a woman in engineering I have always struggled with some imposter syndrome, and it took quite a lot of reflection to understand exactly what I want to do and motivations behind my feelings. For example, when I realised that I didn’t want to be in the lab 24/7 I felt like I was failing as a scientist and as an engineer, but eventually I realised this wasn’t the case and I needed to follow what I was interested in. I’m very happy with the impact of the work I’m doing.
Throughout my career I have felt both supported by family and friends and faced some challenges. There are some unconscious barriers that I have just started to recognise and now I realise they have been there since day one.
Not understanding exactly what your careers choices are is another huge barrier. I faced this in both universities, in Greece and in the UK, as you don’t receive a holistic view of what you could do after university. In my mind, I would always be an engineer and that’s all. But that’s very far from the truth and I only found this out when I started working.
Another barrier is just being a woman working in a STEM subject, there are always stereotypes around this. It’s not always easy but if you’re able to create a circle that supports you, you can overcome this.
If anyone is in a similar situation to me, I’d recommend taking some time to actually think about what it is you want to do. Where do you envision yourself? This also isn’t a one off, reanalyse every couple of years! Perhaps consider finding a mentor or some inspiration for the areas you’re interested in. Networking is also one of the most important you can do in any profession.
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