By Charlie Barnes, EV Project Development Manager - Bus with SSE Enterprise
Charlie Barnes, Advance 2020 mentee
I have been a member of Women in Transport for a couple of years now, and highly recommend it to absolutely everyone. I’ve met so many friendly members and enjoy seeing the recurring faces; many of us are keen enough to frequently attend events so you get to know the crowd!
It was a friendly member of Women in Transport who advised me to apply for the Advance programme - he had been a mentor the previous year, and thoroughly enjoyed it. He kindly introduced me to his mentee at an event, and they both advised me on the benefits of the scheme as well as how to make my application stand out (places are limited due to its success!).
I’ve had several mentors over the years, and so it was a relationship dynamic I was familiar with. However most of them I had found within my own company - in some ways this was a benefit, as many strategies, departments and colleagues were already familiar to both parties. But then I didn’t get the benefits of an outsider's viewpoint. The Advance programme seemed like a fantastic opportunity to broaden my network and get some fresh perspectives on the challenges I was facing.
So how did it go? Well, I’m just going to put it out there (and I’d like to think my mentor would agree); we just clicked. He is such an engaging and energetic person, it’s infectious so I caught it right away. We started by setting the ground rules - open and honest, nothing shared outside of the room. I’m naturally quite an open and forthcoming person so from our first session we touched on how my passionate feminism can be off putting for some (feminist is a divisive word), my worries about how I’m perceived (do I come across as professional, knowledgeable? Or young and naïve?) and my determination to find a stimulating new job.
Every time we met, we’d touch on a huge range of subjects and invariably get distracted by some interesting thought piece (How will new electric vehicle technology eventually trickle down to the second hand bus market? What proportion of home/office work will the post-COVID job have?). But my mentor would always diligently bring us back to the key focus of the meeting, and my overriding goals of the scheme. So we always felt like we were making progress and moving forwards, as well as sharing food for thought.
I have undergone a powerful journey in the last year, and am grateful to my mentor as well as the many friends and colleagues that encouraged me along the way. My mentor helped me in my journey to become more self assured, by developing my self promotion and understanding how I can leverage my strengths to get whatever job I was passionate about. He was keen to understand how his industry contacts could be used to benefit my career, and this allowed me to network with confidence. Part of my journey was applying for several jobs that I never would have been bold enough to previously, and then successfully accepting a fantastic new role that will take my career to new heights!
I recently acknowledged this and thanked my mentor for all of his help, and he responded that I did all the hard work, he simply supported me. Which I suppose is mentoring in a nutshell, and exactly what Advance promised to deliver.
Applications for Advance 2021 are open from 1 October 2020 until 15 October, find out more and apply here. Advance is generously sponsored by TXM Recruit, Xanta Rail and Network for Skills.
Women in Transport is a non-profit network with a mission of advancing women working in transport. Annual membership of Women in Transport is £60 per year providing access to professional development, mentoring and networking opportunities. We very much welcome guest blogs from our members - a great way to share the incredible diversity of opportunity in transport, raise your profile and connect with our community.
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