23 JUN 2020

International Women in Engineering Day: Rachelle Meijer, Operations Engineer

This year for International Women in Engineering Day (23 June 2020), we want to showcase the amazing journey our engineers have taken. We truly have a diverse bunch of women engineers in Contact who come from all walks of life. The international theme is “Shape the World,” so we asked our engineers some questions about what got them into their field in the first place.

What is the photo of?

This is me with my new Christmas present and was super excited to go out and play. From a young age, I was always out and about exploring and playing, including building forts and bunkers for waterfights out of anything we could find. 

What inspired you to become an engineer?

Dad is a builder by trade and I used to spend school holidays at the building sites "helping" (sweeping and picking up the nails mostly). I always loved puzzles of any sort and figuring out how things worked and it turns out you can get a job doing exactly that! I only figured that out in year 13 however had completed all the subjects to apply for engineering anyway which was great so I feel like I kind of fell into Engineering.

What surprises you most about your job?

The thing that surprises me most about my job is the diversity of what I do. Every day is different from sitting in meetings to getting into the equipment to inspect and figure out how to repair breakdowns. Inspiration for solutions can come from anywhere from TV to going for a walk with the dog!! You also never stop learning.

What are you most proud of having achieved in your role?

There is no one achievement I can put my finger on that I am the most proud of. However I feel a great sense of accomplishment and pride when taking the lead on a breakdown and everyone pulls together as a team to find a solution to get the plant operational again safely and completed right the first time.

By Rachelle Meijer
Operations Engineer