KENYA’S FLORIDA DEEPENS HER ENGINEERING KNOWLEDGE ON SITE

Florida Simiyu, mechanical engineer at Zutari, reflects on her budding career – in her own words.

I pursued an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Nairobi and graduated with first class honours. My first job was as an assistant sales engineer at Davis and Shirtliff, then I moved to a new role at a geothermal development company as a reservoir engineer. The most exciting thing about my time in this role was that I was constantly learning and was exposed to a world of engineering that I had little knowledge about.

It was during this time that I got a scholarship from the New Zealand Aid programme to do a masters in energy at University of Auckland. The highlight during this period was exposure to different learning approaches that focused on research and promotion of innovation. I also enjoyed my time in a different country and culture, and along with the personal growth it brought.

I subsequently left reservoir and started a fresh career in the built environment at Atkins Consulting where I worked for seven years. One of the most challenging projects I worked on involved the construction of Olkaria 1 additional unit 6.

I joined Zutari in 2021 and have done some exciting projects for Diageo and University of Cape Town.

I have faced several challenges and will highlight a couple:

• With every new role/project there is an aspect of being a novice and sometimes life/career demands do not give you room or time to learn, so what has worked for me is to always ask colleagues who have gone ahead of me or have a better understanding of the subject matter for guidance.
• I did not expect the construction industry to be rough, fast paced and with a bit of bullying. Unfortunately, I experienced this early on when I started out as a mechanical engineer in built environment. My personality is gentle and accommodating, and this did not work well for me, and I had to learn to be assertive and firm. I say ‘firm’ because as much as I wanted to be more aggressive and louder – it is not who I am. Therefore, firm worked well in ensuring my voice was heard when working on projects with other teams.

As a young girl I enjoyed and performed well in sciences. I have defined my career as an engineer over a period of many years. I say this because my student years were focused on doing well in academics, while in my working life there was a time I didn’t know why I was doing what I was doing. But in the last seven years I have come to understand my path and why I like this profession. My work on projects and deeper learning and contribution on the subject happened while I was working on Olkaria 1 additional Unit 6.

My advice is to be your authentic self and find your way as you remain true to that. Engineering requires that you keep learning, even when you are more familiar with the field and work effortlessly, there is always something new to learn. There are either new products in the market, new software, or a better way of implementing your project.

Engineering keeps my mind active and alive; I find it exciting. I like learning – that is what I enjoy most about my career in engineering and I especially like projects because they always offer a unique environment to execute something that has not been done before. I do not like the mental load that the work involves. It is not something I experience all the time, but there are moments that life feels like it is at a complete stop because of deliverables. I believe in having a balanced life.

I could write a lot about HVAC&R evolving over the next ten years and the role of R&D in this, but I will mention a few: