Ben Hanley, is chair of the Opening up Photonics steering committee and in this role, he interviewed Sophia Fox, an experienced Optical Engineer at EDR Medeso, about her journey from struggling with maths to a flourishing international career in Photonics!
In part 3 of our interview with Sophia we discuss how she overcame challenges in her career to date and how having good people around helps her get out and experience life.
Can you think about the challenges that you feel you’ve overcome in your career to this point?
Coming out of my PhD I found I was quite drained mentally and financially and my confidence was low. It took me quite a few years to build up the confidence again, to handle high pressure situations. I think just with perseverance and taking each day as it comes, bit by bit and also meeting some amazing people, my confidence grew. So for example at X Display the people there were amazing – they actively tried to build my confidence up, being around good people, that changed my mindset. Now, for example, I can jump into a call without dread or anxiety. I’ve got a much healthier mindset for that, which the PhD did not help.
I guess the other challenge is just finding out what works for me and sticking to my guns more. Before, I would change what works best for me to appease other people. I now know what I know and what I need to work to the best of my ability and I stick to that. If that’s not acceptable, then I have the confidence to move on instead of trying to be something I’m not. So that was another challenge.
You talked about surrounding yourself with good people. Maybe you could tell me about any of those good people that you found.
Certainly, during my PhD I wouldn’t have completed it if it hadn’t been for a retired professor who took pity on me. We would have meetings to do analytical calculations, things like this to help me develop my understanding. He really kept me going. I had a fellow female PhD colleague with the same supervisor who was going through the same difficulties; we supported each other by sharing our rants and working together to complete our PhDs and put that chapter behind us.
At X Display there was an amazing team – I think they saw something in me that I just didn’t at the time.
I had a year placement during my degree with a company called Perenco. I worked offshore a bit on Gas platforms in the Southern North Sea and then would work in the office. The guys offshore were an amazing bunch, really friendly and everyone was really respectful, I had a great, time and my sense of humour developed from those guys.
In my current job, I have worked with far more women and the culture is different, especially with the Nordics. It’s been a real eye opener working with women who have to be quite assertive in situations, for example, seeing how they deal with customers and how they interact and I’m trying to learn from them. Everyone at my current workplace is also extremely supportive and I’m very grateful to them.
So, what’s the best advice that you feel you’ve been given?
I’ve been told a lot to stop apologising, and this is fantastic advice that I need to keep working on.
You have worked in different places. How have the moves you’ve made in terms of geographic location and having to get comfortable with a new setup and new surroundings helped you?
It’s a bit weird, I quite like change. I started off in Norwich, my hometown. I left there at 17 to Bath then I was in Bath for quite a long time. Almost 10 years but I think I moved student housing about 8-10 times during my degree and PhD so I was already used to a nomadic lifestyle jumping from house to house.
I then made the massive 20 mile move to Chippenham. After Wave Optics, I moved to Ireland in Cork and then France. Then I was based in Bournemouth with Porotech but by then I worked mostly remotely with frequent commute to Cambridge. Now with EDR Medeso I travel a lot to Finland, Sweden and Norway and I’m hoping I can get to visit Lithuania and Poland. I have also travelled to conferences in Japan, China, Slovakia, Spain and USA. Unfortunately I do hate flying.
