Hello! 😊
My name is Adéline MARTIN* and I’ve been working as a Risk Prevention Engineer at Suez group for two years now, in waste management. Suez is a French water and waste management group. It is the world’s leading private water supplier and waste management company.
Across four company sites, I am responsible for:
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Verifying the application of safety rules to prevent accidents.
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Environmental management, which includes waste management, air and water emissions, consisting of daily monitoring to ensure that the natural environment is not degraded.
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Quality management, which involves deploying ISO management systems. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) establishes and publishes international standards. These standards are like rules that describe best practices. For example, in the case of environmental management, standards exist to reduce environmental impacts, limit waste, and adopt a more sustainable approach.
There aren’t many women on Suez sites themselves. However, in the safety, environment, and quality department where I work, we are 10 women and 18 men.
That’s me in the bottom right with the blue helmet! 👷🏻♀️
Suez is now committed to gender diversity and has set several goals to increase the number of women in the company:
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22% women in management positions
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+10% women in overall workforce
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50% of selected candidates in all manager recruitments will be women
In this predominantly male environment, it’s difficult at the beginning of your career to be recognized as a female manager by men in their fifties who struggle to accept being managed by women. But it helps you gain maturity!
Outside of work, I ride horses. It’s a sport I’ve been practicing since childhood and one that’s particularly close to my heart. I even bought my own horse as soon as I started working! 😁 He’s boarded twenty minutes away from work, and I regularly take care of him, 3 to 4 times a week. Together, we go on rides. I also take lessons to improve my skills, at a rate of one day per week that I wouldn’t miss for the world! On that day, I leave work early and make sure to either finish my tasks the day before or schedule them for the next day.
Before becoming a Risk Prevention Engineer at Suez, I had a rather atypical career path: After 9th grade, I first chose to join a vocational stream in the equestrian world, obtaining a CAP (Certificate of Professional Aptitude) and a BEP (Certificate of Professional Studies) in equine activities. Despite this passion for horseback riding, I wanted to have a more intellectual rather than manual job. Careers in the equestrian field are physical, and at 15, I realized that I preferred to keep horseback riding as a hobby in my life. That’s why I subsequently joined a vocational high school to acquire a professional baccalaureate in STAE (Sciences and Technologies of Agronomy and Environment). Once I had this degree, I entered a bachelor’s degree in Quality, Safety, and Industrial Environment Management. And finally, I worked my way up through all these streams until I obtained a Master’s degree in Risk Management at the IMR (Institute of Risk Management) in Bordeaux.
This change in career path wasn’t easy, as the bridges between different streams – particularly from vocational to technical and then to general – are rare, especially since few schools are willing to give this opportunity. The gaps between academic levels are significant, and it required a lot of work and several intermediate years to catch up.
If I have one piece of advice to give you: Stick to your convictions despite the obstacles! There will always be a school, a person to help you achieve your goals. Even if the path is long and there will be “detours”, you will get there if you are determined to achieve what you want!
Written by Marie H.
*pseudonym
