From aspiring teacher to setting up an engineering consultancy: Becky Veal, Morson Projects | International Women's Day

What did you want to be when you were younger and what did you study at school?
So how did you actually get into engineering?

“When we went to see the careers lady, we literally were given a handful of potential careers that we could consider. None of those were what were deemed as male orientated careers. They were all focused around becoming a nurse, becoming a teacher. The options of becoming a mechanic, becoming an engineer, and getting into something a bit more industrial just, just weren’t there for us.”

Becky Veal is Associate Director for Engineering Delivery at Morson Projects. Despite aspiring to be a teacher, Becky initially felt the call of computer science, but when that avenue was closed to her she found herself working within engineering recruitment, starting a successful, if unexpected, career in the industry. As part of our PathFinders series, spoke to Becky about her career journey:

Watch her video inteview below:

What did you want to be when you were younger and what did you study at school?

When I was younger, I really wanted to be a teacher. I used to really enjoy bossing my brother around! I did my GCSEs, and I did my A-levels in English literature, computer science and history. I was fortunate enough to be one of the first people that got enrolled on computer science, and I thought, this is fantastic. I’m going to be able to have a fantastic career learning all about computers. And this is my career path for being a computer programmer. Unfortunately for me, the lady that taught the A-level broke her leg and we were left without a teacher. And so the grades that I anticipated to get, unfortunately, didn’t happen for me. And the job offer that I had lined up post my A-level results as a result of that to become a trainee programmer didn’t happen either. The opportunities in engineering weren’t really promoted when I was younger. It was a career which really wasn’t identified. I can remember going to my careers advice day through school and being told one of my options that would really suit me would be becoming a nurse. So engineering wasn’t really a factor for a career for me.

So how did you actually get into engineering?

I started my career in engineering as a technical administrator, working for a recruitment and engineering consultancy company based in Bath. They were an organisation that were heavily involved in the aerospace and defence industry, and I looked at design consultancy work and technical publications supporting clients like Leonardo Helicopters and GKN Aerospace. I was quickly propelled into the engineering industry. I went from being a technical administrator straight into a recruitment manager. Within the period of three months and quickly found myself traveling across to the Isle of Wight to go and visit GKN Aerospace to deliver a design and technical review meeting, which was a massive learning curve for me, but it gave me a great exposure to the engineering industry and decided that I really wanted to take the challenge and further my career within this industry.

I worked for an organization whereby we recruited for offload packages of work in our offices and quickly grew that team to over 200 people. As a result of that, I became a programmes director to support the packages of work and quickly evolved that around supporting a lot of client reviews, developing new business then decided that it was really time for a new challenge.

Read and watch Becky’s full story at our PathFinders hub.

PathFinders is a Morson original series uncovering squiggly career journeys, unexpected opportunities, professional pivots, work/life challenges & successes, to showcase that there is no such thing as a ‘typical career path’. Click here to view our series