It was a 1974 Ford Escort that led Suzanne Naylor to engineering.
When she started the overwhelming task of picking a study path, she had just purchased her sweet wheels and needed somewhere that had good parking – a problem familiar to most city dwellers.
Her closest campus was not only an easy drive, but it had free parking. Job done – all she had to do now was pick a degree.
Because she loved the environment and animals, Suzanne went through and circled all of the degrees that featured those two buzzwords.
At the end of that selection process was one unexpected choice: A Bachelor of Engineering Technology.
Up until then, Suzanne only had a vague picture of what an engineer was: hard hats, building sites, and male. But the course description ticked all her boxes, and meant she could ride her Ford Escort to classes in freedom.
She was sold.
And because she’d kept studying maths and science throughout high school, she went straight into the degree.
Fifteen years, and three children later, Suzanne, 34, is now Northern Networks Manager for Watercare.
Her job, and her team, covers getting water and wastewater to and from most of Auckland and she manages one of the biggest maintenance contracts in New Zealand.
When it comes to problem solving, it’s high stakes.
“You come to work and it’s like, ‘What’s going to happen today?’ You know the saying for the police, ‘get better work stories?’ I always say, ‘Engineering could smash that.’ We get the best stories.”
It’s not an exaggeration to say that everything that makes up our modern world was created by an engineer. And whether it’s a smartphone, an Airbus, an electric car, it’s not just about coming up with a solution.
It’s about having the vision to create something the world didn’t know it needed, and now can’t live without.
“Engineers have to be leaders,” Suzanne says. “And you have to have passion – you always want to learn more and push more and make things better. There’s also a combination of being both a really good team player but also having the ownership to work on your own thing. It’s quite an independent career, very much ‘you just do your thing and let me know if there’s a problem.’”
A lot of industries are now scrambling to keep up with the pace of change. But not engineering.
For one thing, they’re the people driving the change. And secondly, the creative streak that runs through engineers means they’re always looking for a different way to do things.
The concept of learning the rules so you can then break them is at the heart of every engineer, who refuses to rest on the laurels of their last good idea.
“The coolest thing I’ve realised about being an engineer is that you really do make a difference,” Suzanne says. “Every day you come to work and at some level, you make a positive difference to something. And that’s a really good feeling.”
Make the world by considering a career in engineering, visit maketheworld.nz
Words: Emma Clifton
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