How women at Vattenfall Heat UK are tackling the “big, bold and slightly terrifying” heat network industry

Vattenfall is one of Europe’s most experienced players in heat networks, with more than 100 years of experience. We have been in the UK for more than 15 years, making a key contribution towards enabling the UK to reach net zero. As part of our goal of working for fossil freedom, we’re delivering large scale, low carbon heat networks in in Bristol, London and Midlothian, on the outskirts of Edinburgh.

As part of the District Heating Diva’s conference, colleagues at Vattenfall Heat UK hosted a webinar, ‘Inspiring paths - career stories from women in heat networks’ with inspiring career stories and candid advice from Jenny Curtis, Managing Director; Bindi Patel, Head of Customer Experience and Communications; Courtney Macdougall, Commercial Manager; Mithila Nanda, Engineering Manager.

Whilst individual professional pathways and external influences naturally shaped the trajectory of their careers, the spirit of their journeys and shared experiences formed four key themes:

• Create conditions for growth – the right organisation will provide opportunities for you to learn and grow into new roles, diversifying your skill set. Both Jenny and Courtney referenced points in their Vattenfall careers where internal positions become vacant and whilst confident they could do 90% of the job description, found they needed an extra nudge by peers to grab the opportunity with both hands and jump two feet in.

• “I remember working with the recruitment consultant to write the job description and after a couple of months I got asked, ‘why not you?’, it didn’t even occur to me to go for the job. I thought I could do most of it, but wanted to be clear how the role would need to work for me…I’m Mum first, and Managing Director second.” – Jenny Curtis, Managing Director, Vattenfall Heat UK

• Remember you have a voice and that you have a reason to use it – whilst seeing improvement, female representation in the utilities sector remains low. There will often be times where you might be the only female, or in the minority of females in a room or on site. In those moments, remind yourself you are present for a reason and your contributions to the discussion are just as valuable.

  “I have worked across the value chain, from metering and billing, business development, engineering and now commercial, and early on my career when I was out on site visits, I often found myself the only women there and defaulted to muting my voice. I had to remind myself that there was a reason I was there” – Courtney Macdougall, Commercial Manager, Vattenfall Heat UK

• The correlational between ageism and sexism – having a spotlight on you can make you feel exposed, including how we view our age. Jenny acknowledged that she has experienced irrational doubt over her age more often than gender. However, there was overwhelming support that the heat networks industry is attracting and retaining talent of all ages, and this will continue to cultivate positive working environment.

  “I would love to have more grey hair and wisdom around the table - the maturity and depth of experience we have across Vattenfall in Europe is so valuable to us in Heat UK.” – Jenny Curtis, Managing Director, Vattenfall Heat UK

• Daily dose of imposter syndrome and how to stamp it out – there was unanimous agreement imposter syndrome is unavoidable and shows up more frequently than we’d hope. The group shared their top tips:

  o   Don’t be afraid to ask the question, you can’t and won’t ever know everything. You also don’t need to know everything!

  o   Give it a label - ask yourself “is it an issue or is it imposter syndrome?”

  o   Sometimes in your job you need to be a little bit scared, if you’re not scared the challenge isn’t big enough.

  o   Get comfortable in the uncomfortable – if you’re learning, you’re growing.

“Walking into mechanical engineering lectures at University was empowering, you quickly notice there’s not many women around and something about that didn’t make me intimidated.” – Mithila Nanda, Engineering Manager, Vattenfall Heat UK

Listen to the full webinar to hear their stories in full here – https://youtu.be/tBFV4dAz7QE.