18 Member updates IET Connect – Relaunching your career IET member and WES Prize Winner Yasmin Ali describes how her membership – and access to the IET Benevolent Fund – helped her to return to work. After graduating from the University of Nottingham with a master’s in Chemical Engineering, I joined the home energy supplier EON on their Engineering and Leadership graduate scheme. My IET journey started after receiving a year’s free membership as part of the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) Prize, which I won in 2013. I enjoyed having the membership so have continued to renew it ever since! After spending seven years working for EON in various parts of the company, I was keen to work within the energy innovation side of the sector. That’s when I decided to leave my job and take some time off to pursue other avenues and look for new roles. During an IET event, I was chatting to a staff member who mentioned that IET Connect provides support to members and their families who are looking for work. I decided to get in touch and was really impressed with the free coaching programme that they offered me. The process was quite simple and quick; within a few weeks of getting in touch I had been assigned a career coach and we had already arranged our first meeting. The service was very helpful for structuring my thoughts and setting career goals. I also had some interviews arranged, so used the sessions to practise those. It took a little time after my career coaching ended, but I eventually found a role that satisfied what I was looking for. My new role is Energy Engineering Specialist in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. It’s the UK Government department responsible for energy, and I’m looking at issues like de-carbonising heat and what impact that will have on our electricity transmission and distribution systems. I am enjoying it so far, and it fits well with what I had in mind when I decided to leave my previous role. In hindsight, it was really helpful to have IET Connect’s support with taking that first step and properly defining what I wanted out of my next job. I am excited about this new direction my career has taken. IET Connect is here to support you and your loved ones in many ways – get in touch to find out more. Contact us via email contactus@ietconnect.org or phone +44 (0)20 7344 5498 (Monday – Friday 09.00 – 17.00 UK time). Yasmin Ali MIET, Energy Engineering Specialist at the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Member News March 2019