Naomi Richardson

"I chose to study Aeronautical Engineering because of my experience as an air cadet, so I had an interest in aviation. Loughborough University was the first university I looked at and found that I compared all other universities that I visited to Loughborough, so it was an obvious choice to study here. I have always been inquisitive about how things are made, how they work, and enjoyed STEM subjects throughout my early education.

I chose to do a placement year as I wanted to gain experience relevant to my degree as my previous summer placements were mechanical engineering roles, rather than aerospace-specific. Because of this, I completed my placement at Rolls-Royce plc, working in Defence Aerospace. I was assigned my first role in Critical Parts Lifting, however, I chose my second rotation in Optimised Maintenance as I wanted to gain experience in Service Engineering which isn’t covered during my degree.

I am the Chair of Loughborough University Women’s Engineering Society which I am particularly passionate about. We regularly run events to encourage young people to consider careers in engineering, such as STEM activities in schools. This is as well as providing support to both women and men studying engineering, through site visits, careers fairs and networking events.

My current career ambition is to complete a graduate scheme as a manufacturing engineer within the defence sector, which my degree and placement experience will be ideal for. I would also like to achieve chartership status as soon as reasonably possible, which I believe the skills I have learnt during my degree will help with immensely.

Finally, I would love to promote STEM careers to young people by running events in schools which will hopefully increase diversity within engineering. The main challenge I have faced is people (often my peers) questioning my capability as an engineer as they believe that routes into engineering are made easier for women since companies are supposedly striving to meet quotas, and therefore allow less competent female engineers into roles. This is not true, and it is incredibly frustrating that people are so willing to belittle my aptitude for engineering. This is a misconception I am passionately working to disprove and would like to see these beliefs cease to exist within the engineering industry in the near future.

A career in engineering has an incredible amount of potential, as there is so much variation within engineering roles and the industry itself. It requires hard work but most importantly confidence in your own abilities, which is a great personal skill to develop. Overall, careers in engineering are incredibly rewarding and offer great prospects for both professional and personal development, so I would highly recommend considering it!"