It’s International Women in Engineering Day yesterday (June 23, 2021) and I couldn’t be happier. First off, let me introduce myself. I’m Sara al Mandhari, I’m from Oman and I’m an electrical engineer. Given this auspicious day, I wanted to share my engineering journey with all of you in the hope of inspiring and motivating you.
My first step into the world of electrical engineering began in 2013 while I was at Sultan Qaboos University. I was enrolled in a general engineering degree and was deciding which major I should pick. Although I loved chemical engineering in high school and was leaning towards the same degree, the professors I worked with made me see things in a whole new light.
Even though chemical engineering was my first choice, the faculty pointed out that my mindset, problem-solving skills, and logic-based reasoning made me a stronger candidate for a degree in electrical engineering. This was a quite a departure from what Omani women were choosing to study at the time.
Civil and architecture engineering were much more popular for young women to pursue, so my decision to become an electrical engineer was met with a little resistance from family, especially my grandmother who saw electrical engineering as a ‘man’s job’. However, I wanted to follow my dreams and that’s exactly what I did.
It wasn’t easy in the beginning but today I handle inside sales for electrical equipment and provide on-site technical and digital solutions to customers around the gulf. I really love my job and my work brings me so much joy. It’s the perfect combination of my technical and social skills, and it also gives me the unique chance to negotiate, which I thoroughly enjoy. Obviously, at the start of my career there were some heads turning because it was quite rare to have a female electric engineering salesperson, especially one from Oman. However, in time customers and channel partners were a lot more encouraging and pleased to see women like me take on traditionally male-dominated roles in engineering.
Now if you were to ask me my advice for young, budding women engineers given my personal experience, I’d say to focus on what you want, work very hard and fight for what you believe in and you will get what you want. Given the uncertainty in the current economic climate, I feel strongly that every young woman needs to take up the challenge and always follow their dreams regardless of the hurdles they face. Remember, if we as women believe we can do it, the universe will always support us to achieve our dreams and goals. There’s no doubt about that.
Fortunately for us women, more and more companies are now seeing the huge value women can bring to the field of engineering. In fact, when I was in university there were only five ladies in the engineering program when I started in 2013. I was the only woman in many of my engineering classes, however when I graduated in 2018 I saw so many more women enrolled, which made me so incredibly happy and hopeful for the future.
Slowly but surely, I also saw progress in the workplace and began noticing women regularly working in on-site offices and even on the field in on-site projects across Oman. The tides were changing.
I’m very lucky to work for my employer because it’s a company that values and promotes gender equality. In fact, Schneider is the first multi-national company to achieve commitment by all its country leaders to the Women's Empowerment Principles, and that makes me so proud to work for a company like this.
It’s very important for me to work for an organization that values the role and contribution of woman in the workplace. At Schneider there is no difference in opportunities for males or females; everyone gets an equal chance and is encouraged to grow, learn, and excel in their jobs. I want to see more young Omani women take up the opportunity to enter engineering: they will succeed professionally; they will transform the workplace and they will continue to break through cultural barriers.
[Sara al Mandhari is Schneider Electric’s first female inside sales representative in Oman]
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