Apparently, a media company wanted to do a feature on women in engineering; and my company, being a leading employer of female engineers in the region, had been asked to select a few of its female employees to take part in televised interviews. I instantly perked up when I heard the word ‘televised’. I’d never been on television before; and if this feature went through the numerous hoops and red tape, it would be aired on the evening news the following Monday.

I felt a growing wave of excitement as I nodded calmly in consent to what the marketing director was saying. I assured him that I’d be at work the following Monday and that I’d be happy to take part in these interviews. During the entire conversation, I tried my best to appear calm and collected while my mind had already started spinning – thinking about what outfit to wear, what earrings to put on, and so on. By agreeing to participate in these interviews, I felt like he was doing me a favour and not vice-versa.

As I left work with a spring in my step, I fought against my initial instinct to share this exciting news with family and close friends. After all, there might be just enough red tape to prevent this whole thing from happening or there just might be a change in plans. In short, I didn’t want to be faced with the awkward situation where I’d have to explain to my expectant family and friends why they did not see me on the news.

Throughout the rest of the week, I resolved to keep this information to myself while praying that everything would happen according to plan. I fantasized about what I would look like, what I would sound like and most of all, I hoped not to make any faux pas during my television debut. As I got ready for work the following Monday – fussing over my hair and outfit – I could feel the butterflies in my stomach. Considering the challenging year I’d been through, this kind of excitement was very much welcome. I rehearsed a few key points which I planned to mention during the interview while driving to work. A couple of hours after getting to work, I was informed that it was my turn to be interviewed. The interview was much longer than I expected but I eventually found out that only snippets of it were used in the final feature.

At the end of the day, I eagerly shared the exciting news to my family members and close friends. Immediately I got back home that evening, I rushed to switch on my television box which had been gathering dust for the past six months. While the television box booted up and updated, I fished out my tripod from the pile of junk behind my couch. I then clamped my mobile phone into position and moved the tripod around as I tried to find the perfect position at which to carry out the recording. After carrying out a test recording in high definition and adjusting the sound, I was all set up.

I waited eagerly for the news to begin, holding my breath in anticipation. The first thing which caught my attention was the sound of my voice; it was clear and concise. I watched transfixed as my face came into focus. I was mesmerized, and I couldn’t believe how good we all looked on television. I began to wonder if some serious editing had been done to make us look great. In a couple of minutes, it was all over and the news anchor was moving on to another segment. I exhaled and went over to my phone to have a look at my recording. There was nothing there!

I began to panic as I realised that, in my excitement to watch the interview, I had forgotten to switch on the video recording on my phone. After a few minutes of brainstorming, I remembered that my television box had a rewind feature. This allowed me to rewind the news and record it on my phone. As I shared this video with family and friends, I was amazed by the positive response it received. Initially I was simply excited to appear on television and I didn’t realise the impact that such an interview would have on other people, especially women. I got lots of feedback from women who felt inspired by the interviews. I also got stopped by strangers who happened to have been watching the evening news on that day and were equally inspired by these interviews. It was an incredibly rewarding experience and I’m very grateful to have been presented with such an opportunity to inspire other women to take on careers in engineering.

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