Using Career Manager to apply for IEng
Rachel Evans is a Senior Systems Engineer for BAE Systems Naval Ships where she works across 3 different time zones and manages multiple stakeholders from customers to delivery teams.
Rachel has worked at BAE for the last 4 years, originally starting on a Systems Engineering summer internship. Rachel settled in quickly and applied for a graduate position in the same role.
However, a career in engineering was something that Rachel had to discover as she looked for something that could combine her love of maths and ability to solve problems.
“When I left school, I wasn’t sure what type of career I wanted so chose to study Maths – something I was good at and enjoyed at school in the hope that it would keep the door open for future opportunities as I developed myself and learnt more about what career opportunities were out there.
I took different modules at university that covered a range of topics, but my favourite classes were always applied mathematics that solved real world problems.”
The graduate programme gave Rachel the opportunity to complete multiple placements across different department teams which allowed her to “gain experience working across the engineering lifecycle”.
Applying Knowledge and Seeking Help
With a successful career in engineering underway, Rachel turned her attention to how she could demonstrate her skills and competency and she quickly identified Incorporated Engineer (IEng) Professional Registration as a way to do so.
“As I didn’t have an engineering degree but was working as an engineer, I wanted to gain an Engineering qualification to validate the skills and competency I had developed through working.”
Rachel also believed that obtaining IEng would benefit her career as she looked at the next steps and where she wanted to go. With this goal in mind, she set to work on looking at previous roles and training courses she had completed to inform the application she was putting together. Rachel also utilised a Professional Registration Advisor (PRA) and the free IET Webinars.
“I was provided with a PRA who was valuable for providing an insight into whether my application was suitable. I also had a session with a member of the IET who advised me on what level of registration to apply for and gave me confidence to pursue this, plus I attended a Professional Registration session ran by the IET through BAE.”
Using Career Manager
One of the main tools that Rachel used for her IEng application was Career Manager, the IET’s digital gateway to Professional Registration and Continuing Professional Development (CPD).
“Career Manager is very user friendly and allowed me to complete my application at my own pace saving progress as went along. It tracked the status of the application and held everything in one place.”
With one eye on Professional Registration from the beginning of her career, Rachel had been using Career Manager to record her CPD since joining the IET, something she found helpful when going through the application process.
“Carrying out and recording CPD allows me to continue to broaden my engineering knowledge, grow my network and develop myself. Career Manager is also useful to keep a log of tasks and training you are involved in so that when you go to complete the application you have the information ready in front of you rather than racking your brain.”
Rachel enjoyed the way the application was set out and broken down into bitesize sections in a logical way which benefitted her style of learning and thinking. After going through the assessment and interview process Rachel was successfully awarded IEng.
Feeling the benefit of Professional Registration
Having achieved her goal of IEng Rachel immediately started to think about how she could make the most of her IET Membership and take advantage of the various benefits.
“I wanted to join an organisation that welcomed a range of engineering disciplines from a variety of backgrounds. As a maths graduate working as a system engineer, I didn’t want to be a silo into a particular field and felt the IET provided that flexibility.”
Looking to make the most of her Membership Rachel regularly reads E+T magazine as well as attending IET events and webinars that discuss subjects and topics she is interested in including the James Webb Telescope and the Mars Lander.
“I have a love for all things space, so the other webinars were a chance to learn more on the topics and hear from experienced professionals.”
Now Rachel is turning her attention towards Chartership whilst continuing to record her development and enjoy the benefits of IET membership. However, she is not forgetting the boost that achieving IEng gave her.
“Becoming professionally registered has given me the confidence to trust my engineering judgement and contribute my ideas.”