Shannon, Traffic Engineer

Shannon (Age 26)

Traffic Engineer

As part of our 'Women in the Built Environment' campaign, we will be showcasing a series of successful women over a variety of posts each Monday. Today, we talked to Shannon who is a Traffic Engineer for BWB.

" As a child, I was always interested in building and understanding the mechanisms of everyday objects. At school, I took particular interest in Maths, Sciences and creative subjects, which understandably supported my future choices. 

After leaving Secondary school I had no clue what direction I wanted to go forward with, and so continued to study A-levels at College (Maths, Physics, Economics and English Language). However, I did not enjoy my studies as I found they were overly complex and involved unvaried teaching methods, this led to boredom and eventually poor attendance.

Upon completion of the first year, I decided to stop my A-level studies and study something with clear direction and obvious career opportunities. I went on to study a National Diploma in Construction (which I thoroughly enjoyed), met a group of like-minded people, engaged with the teaching methods and achieved Distinction-Distinction-Merit! From this point, I knew what industry my future was heading toward; however, I was still unsure what field to continue.

My lecturer advised me to do Civil Engineering but me, being an 18-year-old teenager, decided to ignore his advice and continue studies in Architecture. I moved to Bournemouth, went to an Arts Institute and had the time of my life… outside of my lectures. In my lectures, I was struggling to form bonds with the other students in my class. I did, however, make excellent friends with other creative students at the Institute whom I had more in common with.

I completed two years of my Architecture degree and was no longer enjoying either aspect of living away from home. It’s so much fun being a student but sometimes living conditions can be unfavorable. I moved back home in Nottingham and started looking for a job within the construction industry with prospects. I got the position of ‘Trainee Technician’ at BWB Consulting and they assured me support in completing any training I wished to complete. So, I excitedly started at BWB in September 2012 and in June 2013 I had a baby (a little girl).

My life completely changed and I became more determined to be a good role model for my daughter. I wanted to achieve great things and provide her with everything. When she was just 3-months old I started on my 4-year part-time Civil Engineering Degree at Nottingham Trent University - I was on maternity leave at the time! However, years 2 to 4 involved juggling working 3 days at BWB, going to university on 1 day, looking after my daughter on the other day and completing coursework and revision in the evening and weekends between bedtimes, nursery, illnesses etc. It was very demanding, for a good proportion I even went to university on one day over the weekend just to keep up! I was exhausted and at times I thought I couldn’t do it!

But I did it and I am about to graduate with a 2:1 in Civil Engineering. I couldn’t be more proud of myself, as are all my family. I know that in the future my daughter will know she can do anything she wants and won’t let anything hold her back. I will encourage her to not let gender stereotypes hold her back from her aspirations and that women should feel empowered by emerging equal opportunities.

Although men and women are becoming much more equal in the workplace, my journey has not been without some elements of sexism and poor levels of understanding.

On a couple of occasions, male students would make snide comments about women doing Civil Engineering or would not group with us for group projects. But we rose to the challenge by forming a girl group and we regularly got better grades. In addition to this, when I returned from maternity leave there were a few issues settling back into work patterns as most of my colleagues were male and weren’t familiar with the type of flexibility required by a new mother. Fortunately, we all quickly got the hang of it and I felt well supported.

In the workplace, there are definitely lower levels of female associates/directors and this is likely linked to women putting careers on hold to think about a family, and the increased commitments associated with this. So, to reach these positions women have to exert themselves even harder.

I have found that people make assumptions about me because of the way I appear. I am a young woman, with alternative fashion sense who had a baby at 22! I love seeing the look on people’s faces when I tell them I am a Civil Engineer!


If Shannon's story has inspired you, and you are a female Post-16 or college student passionate about a career in property, construction, architecture or civil engineering, please book onto our 'Women in the Built Environment' event. This is an incredible opportunity to get a head start and network with industry professionals. You can find more information about this here