Nicola Wilson joined Eurotherm, a subsidiary of Schneider Electric, as a project manager. Having successfully delivered her first project, Nicola was identified as a rising star within Eurotherm and promoted to Portfolio Development Leader within the R&D Department.
Nicola is hugely excited about her role. “Over the last 18 months, I've been working on a new venture for Eurotherm, called EOS (Eurotherm Online Services) and it was my responsibility to lead a team of experts to develop the SAAS solution and take it to market,” explains Nicola.
The EOS software is a significant market development for Schneider Electric and transforms the way companies plan, execute and track their calibration operations, driving significant efficiency savings and providing cloud based software to store certificates for auditing purposes. “Put simply, one of our Beta testers, has been trialling the software for quite some time. In the past it has taken this company 5 days to complete their calibration certificate, and with EOS it takes just 20 minutes,” explains Nicola. This opens up significant commercial opportunities for Schneider Electric, an organisation which is keen to reward and recognise its outstanding employees.
An exciting time to be at Schneider
“Since the launch I've been in conversation with Schneider Electric about moving to an externally focused role, identifying new clients and market opportunities. It’s a very exciting time to be at Schneider, and there are some great opportunities for career progression.”
The transition from STEM to business
At school, Nicola always had an aptitude for maths, and her interest in physics was uncovered by a particularly animated physics teacher, who encouraged and developed her passion for the subject. Nicola went on to study Physics at Leeds, and then completed her PhD in frustrated magnetism (experimental physics) at Warwick. “The challenge came once my PhD was completed. Demonstrating my value to prospective employers was tough. Whilst a PhD in STEM subjects should present strong career opportunities for women, it felt like there were some misconceptions which served as a barrier to my career development.” Nicola’s determination soon led to success and she embarked on a graduate engineer programme.
Coupled with a strong technical background, Nicola has excellent people skills, and developed a real passion for leading and motivating people. “I’m logical in my approach and able to identify the next challenges which need to be tackled, without overwhelming team members! I enjoy translating business priorities into project tasks, and communicating this to the team,” remarks Nicola.
Agile working
Eurotherm has recently implemented a business transformation process and adopted agile working methodologies to drive products and services to market. For Nicola, this is hugely important and has contributed to the success of Eurotherm’s EOS software. “Agile is new for Eurotherm. This approach enables us to be responsive and listen to stakeholders, and change tack where necessary. Agile enables you to reprioritise your backlog and deal with changing business priorities - which is vital in a dynamic market.”
Nicola’s career has thrived at Schneider Electric, a clear demonstration that when organisations reward and nurture top talent, great things can happen! Nicola offers some excellent advice for women in STEM looking to launch a career in engineering. “My three top tips would be to be persistent, be resilient and to be yourself. Don’t feel you have to change to fit into a preconceived world of engineering, there’s room to be yourself.”
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Disclosure: Where Women Work researches and publishes insightful evidence about how its paid member organizations support women's equality.