MINTIES: MINT Engineers Regulars' Table

The MINT-Ingenieurinnen Stammtisch is aimed at all women in the engineering field at the university, whether student or employee. A meeting takes place every two weeks and at least once a month we invite former female students of Nordhausen University of Applied Sciences. The alumni talk to us about their studies at the university and about their career path so far. From recent graduates to old hands in the professional world, everyone is there.

Your basic studies are quite dry and you can't really imagine whether your studies are really something for you? Or are you about to graduate and are serious about the topic for your thesis? Would you like to exchange ideas with other female engineers in this still male-dominated field? The Stammtisch offers exchange opportunities and contacts for all these topics. The alumni will give you first suggestions where you can apply for an internship or thesis later on.

The normal exchange about the general everyday life may not be missing of course also with our regulars' table and does not come too briefly beside the Alumni meetings.

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Come, do MINT!

E-mail: minths-nordhausen.de

Freddy at the online MINTIES

The first online MINTIES evening was attended by Frederike Nielsen, aka Freddy, the Santa Claus/elf, who graduated in 2018 with a bachelor's degree in Renewable Energy Technology (RET). Her bachelor thesis dealt with the potentials of power-to-gas plants in Germany. During her studies at HS NDH, Freddy impressed us with her acting skills from her first professional training: as the best presenter, she remained in our memories - if there were ever any Christmas parties again, she would come back for a revival, she promised us.

After her bachelor thesis, her career path took a dramatic turn. After round about 60 applications without an invitation to even one interview, neither she nor her job recruiter knew a reason. One guess was the forbidden question about wanting to have children as a woman in her late 20s, as well as the switch from acting to engineering, which unsettled recruiters. After a long job search and several short-term jobs that were more or less related to her career aspirations, she finally landed at a safety engineering company. Her tasks were to set up the measuring equipment and then to test the system. Even after a longer period of technical leave, she did not find it difficult to familiarize herself with electrical engineering, for example. She answered a question from the audience: "You don't forget the basics. Thanks to her open, inquisitive manner, the old hands at the company were happy to explain background information about the system technology to her. What we learn from it: Who, how, what? Why, why, why? If you don't ask, you stay stupid!

As much as she liked the position at this company, it had little to do with her personal sustainable orientation, which is why she continued to look around. As soon as the right job came along, she moved to a new company, where her application was accepted straight away: She has now been with GTK Schwerin for a year. Here she was finally able to develop holistic concepts with renewable energies. In her main project she is creating a concept for a community near Schwerin. This would like to become 100% renewable with electrolysis as its main component. Electrolysis is existential for Power to Gas, for which she already had the necessary know-how through her bachelor thesis. On the side she is working out exploratory expertises for wind power plants, heat and mobility concepts. When asked, she explained a few of the bullshit arguments used by opponents of wind power for entertainment purposes. One thing she would like to give to current students after her experience with concept designs: Soft skills in simulation software are always valuable, if only because it greatly reduces the time it takes to learn similar programs. Compared to the safety systems company, the young company GTK Schwerin has a much higher percentage of women in engineering jobs (and not exclusively in administration), at 50%. Their experience was that some "old white men" as bosses held on to the stereotype of a man's job longer than a modern team - like in the current company - with an open group leader who is ready for change.