Steph Thom, Technical Director Offshore Wind, isn’t afraid to take the road less travelled - from smashing the glass ceiling to embracing the shift to renewables. Steph shares the five principles that have guided her path.
1. I don’t leave anything up to chance.
I have always managed my own destiny. At school I loved languages and science, so I was drawn towards this industry. I remember having a really interesting chemistry teacher, who reminded me of Mr Beaker in the Muppets! His experiments inspired me but I didn’t want to be in a lab – I’m a practical person and prefer hands-on experience. I decided to study process and chemical engineering, and I was one of only three women on the course. I joined Total right after I graduated, spending eight years in process engineering before the merger between Totalfina and Elf. I like to have a three to five-year plan for my professional and personal life, and the merger provided an opportune moment to take a long-term view of my career.
2. You can’t be faulted for being forthright.
During the merger I went to see my senior manager to ask him about opportunities in the expat route. I think that approach was well viewed by management, who put me forward for a role as lead engineer in the brand-new process department in Paris. That was a step change in my career, and I also had a one-year-old son, so it was a very exciting and challenging time. I have always been clear with managers about my personal rules for work and family life, and they have been very supportive of the boundaries I set. Not everyone is comfortable sharing their personal lives, but I’m quite open, and that clarity has served me well.
3. Family time is not my time to give away.
I have moved around a lot, working in Paris, Leeds, Nigeria, Houston and the Gulf of Mexico. I also spent 18 months offshore at Alwyn. It’s important for operational managers to have that on-site experience. I found that working two weeks on and two weeks off taught me how to ‘leave the office in the office’. During working hours I will make myself 150% available, but after that it’s not my time to give. I had four children over the course of my career and throughout all that travel we always ensured they had a strong family unit. As a result, they are all very driven and independent, but they still have a strong sense of their Scottish roots.
4 Travel is enriching – but it’s great to come home.
I returned to the UK in 2013 as the St Fergus Terminal Manager, the first female Terminal Manager for Total in the UK. St Fergus was actually the first place I worked as a young graduate engineer, so to come back as manager was really rewarding. I saw so many familiar faces – people who had been technicians when I left and were now supervisors and managers. It felt like coming full circle professionally.
5 Change is good.
I may be back home but I don’t have any plans to slow down. I like to be challenged, and moving into Offshore Wind feels like an exciting new adventure. TotalEnergies has 100 years’ experience in oil and gas, and I have 30+ years of my own, so it would be a wasted opportunity not to carry that across into the renewables industry. I’m learning something new every day, and in many ways it feels like being part of a startup business. I have no regrets.