As International Women’s Day approaches, I’ve been reflecting on the benefits of networking with other women and having female mentors, both of which have opened up fantastic opportunities and helped me develop in recent years

I embraced the opportunity to become a member of The Women’s Utilities Network following a recommendation from a colleague. Their mentoring programme has been pivotal to my development and having access to a number of training courses aimed at women and a network of women from across utilities has been extremely impactful, making me feel supported like never before.

Most excitingly, the Women’s Utility Network advertised an opportunity to study a brand-new MBA programme offered at Strathclyde University, with a leaning towards Sustainable Energy Futures plus a further opportunity to undertake a Level 7 Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship. I pursued these opportunities, even though at the time, I had never even considered any further study.

Fast forward two years and many trips to study for days at a time up in Scotland and I’m nearing the end of my studies, with only my dissertation left to complete. This period of my life has been the most challenging (working full time whilst studying part-time is no mean feat), but also the most rewarding. The modules I have studied have really opened my eyes to new ways of thinking and doing, as well as giving me a clearer understanding of the challenges that businesses and wider industry are facing.

I was also recommended by a colleague to have a mentor, which wasn’t something I’d previously considered. I feel that for the majority of my career I’ve been fortunate that my hard work has been noticed, leading to opportunities that almost fell into my lap. However, before and during my studies I’ve come to realise just how instrumental mentoring and coaching have been to my development and career success. Having female mentors and coaches especially helped me to become more self-aware and navigate the pitfalls of imposter syndrome and being one of few females within a male oriented industry, with the challenges this traditionally brings. By default these women understood my challenges and have been pivotal to helping me navigate them.

Don’t get me wrong I have still had stages where I have struggled to fit everything in and stay true to my core values. However, what I have learned is that it can be done with a lot of hard work, patience, organisation and dedication.

My fellow MBA cohort members are all now good friends and we regularly check-in on each other, but also reach out to each other for support and advice – these people have been instrumental in my journey over the last two years, and I can’t wait to have the privilege of graduating with them later this year.

Thinking about the MBA cohort, women were initially in the minority, outnumbered two to one with five females and 10 males making up the original 15 students. However, over these past two years of study some of the cohort members have left the MBA programme for various reasons, meaning that our numbers have now dwindled to 9. But I am proud to say that those five women, including myself are all still on the course – demonstrating our resilience and now forming a small majority ! I will always remember a male MBA cohort member speaking to us over drinks one night after a joint session with students from another MBA programme – he told us that he was immensely proud of all of the women on our programme as we had been vocal throughout the day’s session sharing our learning, thoughts, ideas and viewpoints professionally and confidently despite the room being very heavily represented by men.

As I move forwards in my career, I will forever remember his comments and the friendships and support that the MBA has provided me with – knowing that whilst women still have a long way to go to achieve equality, we do have allies and we can achieve a great deal if we lean into our resilience and are strongest when we collaborate with each other.

On International Women’s Day I’d encourage all women to seek out and embrace opportunities to connect with other women in industry. In my experience these connections lead to surprising and more exciting opportunities to develop and grow.