A Conversation with Emily
What is your current job? Please list the title and briefly describe what it involves
I am a Reliability Engineer with the Royal Canadian Mint. I work in the Technical Services department alongside our mechanics, machinists and electricians to make sure that the equipment in our plant is functioning reliability. This involves a wide variety of tasks such as investigating equipment breakdowns, ensuring that the proper spare parts are available to our technicians, and developing programs to identify and repair component failures before they result in downtime for our equipment.
What made you want to pursue a career in engineering?
I was lucky enough to grow up in a family engineers; my grandfather, my uncle and both of my parents are all mechanical engineers. My parents’ work projects were common discussions at our dinner table and one of my early memories is sitting at my grandfather’s drafting table designing and drawing up my dream horse barn. Because of these experiences, from a very early age I got to see the challenges and variety that a career in engineering could provide and the wide range of applications that an engineering background can have.
What’s your favourite part of your job?
My favourite part of my job is getting to answer the question “how can we do this better?”. I love having the opportunity to identify issues, figure out how we can fix them and implement the solution. Seeing how the results make a difference in our department is the best part of this experience. This is problem solving in its truest form and often the most challenging issues are related more to people and processes than to our equipment itself.
How do you celebrate National Engineering Month?
I attended a great presentation this month on International Women’s Day about “An Engineer’s Foray into International Business”. I found it so interesting to hear about a career path so different from my own. However, there were also certain themes that seem to apply to all engineers, no matter where we end up that tie us all together, such as problem solving, innovation and communication.
What advice do you have for young women who hope to pursue a career in your field?
Get exposed to the field and find an area of engineering that you love. There are so many different applications for an engineering background. Take every opportunity that you can to experience different ones. You can do this through high school and university co-op programs, internships, shadowing an engineer on the job, open houses, or great articles on engineers such as this 30 in 30 campaign. Once you find a field you love, going to work will be a new adventure every day.
Emily’s BiographyEmily completed her B.A.Sc at the University of Ottawa in Mechanical Engineering, and her M.Eng also at the University of Ottawa in Engineering Management. During undergraduate studies, she worked with OC Transpo and the Royal Canadian Mint as part of the co-operative education program. She now works as a Reliability Engineer at the Royal Canadian Mint. A native of Owen Sound, Ontario, she now lives on a small hobby farm outside Ottawa, Ontario. While not at work, you’ll find her outside with her dog and horse.
