Who says that Mechanical Engineering is not for ladies?  I spent about 5 months (16 February – 10 July 1998) working in Nokia R&D (UK).  I was in the mechanical department with about 50 mechanical engineers, all male. That was quite an experience!  Initially, I was worried that I would face discrimination from my colleagues because of my race and gender.  However, I was pleasantly surprised as the people in my company were very friendly, nice, and helpful towards me.

Nokia R&D (UK) is situated in Camberley, Surrey, south-west of central London.  I was fortunate that my workplace was only a 5-minute walk from my accommodation.  I did not have to worry about transportation.  The office was conveniently situated in the town centre with the train station just across the road.  Who could ask for more?  Nokia is a very good company to work in and I really enjoyed myself.

I was first given the task of conducting a survey on the whole Mechanical Line in Nokia (Camberley) to assess the competency of the mechanical engineers.  This was an excellent opportunity to get to know all the mechanical engineers on-site although it was not exactly an engineering job.  I completed the work within about 2 weeks and I presented the work that I did to all the Line Managers.  In view of the work that I did, I went to Nokia in Copenhagen for 2 days to conduct the same survey.  The exciting thing was that I travelled on Business Class, all expenses paid for – airfare, travel food and hotel accommodation!

Usually, the IA students would be given a certain project for the whole placement.  However, I was given various tasks in the company which enhanced my knowledge of the whole design process from the conceptual design phase to the testing phase, to the problem-solving phase and, finally, to the production phase.  In the beginning, I joined the research team to find ways to produce ‘tough’ phones.  I had to do a teardown of different products and come up with new designs to ensure that the phone was waterproof.  Then, I carried out testing of phones with the Reliability Group, followed by working with one of the Project Teams to improve the designs of the phone, and being responsible for the logistics of the Team’s mechanical parts.  Finally, I aided another Project Team, which was in the stage of production, ‘tying-up’ all the ‘loose-ends’ to bring the project to a close.

I did other things beside working.  I had a 5-day week so I travelled most weekends all around UK to many parts of England (Peterborough, Cambridge, London, Calne, Bath, Swindon, Gateshead, Newcastle, North Tyneside, Durham, Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Southport, Exeter, Torquay, Bracknell, Leamington Spa and Colchester), Northern Ireland (Whitehead, Newtonwards, Belfast and Antrim) and Wales (Swansea, Caerphilly and Cardiff).  I am a Baha’i (my religion) and there are Baha’is all around UK; so, I would spend weekends with various Baha’i communities and give singing performances in their homes to which they would invite their friends.  I am not particularly fond of sightseeing so I spent most of my time meeting new people, making friends and spending time with them.  I even compiled a few photo-albums of my travels with photographs of the about 300 people from may different races and backgrounds!

On the whole, I feel that I gained a lot from this overseas attachment – working and meeting all kinds of people, being independent, and learning how to adapt to a different culture and society.  It was a valuable experience that no money can buy, so I would encourage everybody to take up the challenge and opt to go overseas for IA.  There is nothing to lose!