Megan Graaf Wants Us All to Encourage Girls To GO BEYOND and Get Into Maths and Science This Women’s Month

Megan Graaf is a Supply Chains Solutions Architect at Vector Logistics. She began her career journey with Vector Logistics in 2015, having completed her thesis for her final-year Industrial Engineering degree on a topic that was relevant for us. After that, she worked as a Junior Supply Chain Analyst in 2016 and later through her capability and tenacity was promoted to Supply Chain Analyst in 2018.  Megan’s knowledge and business understanding saw her being promoted yet again in 2020 into her current role, focusing on Supply Chain Optimisation and Strategy.

Over the last five and a half years at Vector Logistics, Megan has seen her fair share of both challenging and rewarding projects. In 2019 she was one of the key members of the Supply Chain team, responsible for the take-on of the Imperial CPG business.  Whilst a taxing project that was often difficult to navigate –  it was her proudest period yet. “Everyone in the whole business stepped up together and made it a success, even though the timelines and expectations were the most demanding we had ever experienced,” she explained.

As a woman in a predominantly male-dominated field, Megan is proud of her journey this Women’s Month because she’s been able to challenge stereotypes. “Women are often underestimated, it is great to be able to prove people wrong, and to see other women doing it too!” she said. She explained that being a woman has frequently put her in some uncomfortable situations at work. “I have often been one of the few women in the warehouse or on a construction site and have felt out of place there because of my gender.” But she habitually reminds herself that she is more than capable. “There is no reason why women cannot participate more in these types of industries,” she added.

Megan’s wish this Women’s Month is that more girls will be encouraged to get into stereotypically ‘male-dominated’ fields. “More and more females should nurture the idea of equal opportunities, so that they will be willing to fight for it for themselves and the into the future,” she urged.

But Megan’s journey as a woman in engineering didn’t come from nothing. Megan’s support network has been a source of inspiration for her. She says her mom, her friends, and her colleagues have taught her strength, patience, compassion, and countless other things that have helped her in her career. “They help me push myself to do the best I can at work, and also achieve whatever personal goals I have,” she explained. Her father was very supportive of her going into engineering, being an engineer himself.

For girls wanting to get into Engineering, Megan’s advice is this: “Take every opportunity that you can to understand how all the parts of the business work, how systems are setup and especially how the processes work, and most importantly how it all comes together in the operational execution steps. Ask many questions. Learn from the experience that your colleagues have from the business, both in your own team and others. It is also worth working shifts on the warehouse or ‘shop’ floor, as this is where you get invaluable experience of the operations and also a better understanding about the ‘people’ aspect of a business.”