Nancy Li

Full transcript

Hi, everyone, and welcome back to Beyond the Blueprint, the podcast where we sit down with the professionals across engineering and technology to see what these careers really look like. I'm David, here with my co-founder, Joshua, and this is episode seven. Today, we're excited to welcome Ms. Li, an Integrity Tech Services Engineer at Phillips 66.

Ms. Li, thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate you taking the time. so i just want to start off at the very beginning honestly when you were the age of our listeners did you picture yourself becoming an engineer what were you into back then not really i didn't picture myself as an engineer um i would say i don't have any relative who works as an engineer so at that time i was thinking maybe i will be a teacher or maybe a doctor so I never thought about it when I was in high school.

That's really cool. So you studied mechanical engineering and ended up working on pipelines. For students who's never thought about that field, what does the work actually involve? Yeah, I got my master's degree in mechanical engineering but in the oil and gas industry and also in pipeline engineering industry, I would say there are professionals from different backgrounds.

For example, civil engineering, chemical engineering, petroleum engineering, and some other people from different backgrounds. They are all working in the same field. And what we do, for example, for pipeline, we started from design and also installation. and for my current work, it involves in integrity and maintenance of the pipeline.

Okay. My question is, what first made engineering click for you as something you wanted to do? I would say the first click maybe when I was in the college college and we had a school project, a course project, and we assembled a TV. It's not only the TV parts, but also we started to soldering all the electronic parts in the circuit board.

I guess that's the first time I think, oh, this is interesting because kind of we start from the scratch. Also, of course, we have some design, you know, paper and drawings we need to follow. But at the same time, we need to do the troubleshooting. If it didn't show up as expected, what we should do, what we can correct.

So maybe I think that's my first time to see, oh, this is interesting. I can bring my knowledge into the real world. Yeah. Okay, so you believe that hands-on work specifically is a huge motivator in your career?

Yes, yes, for me, that's true. Okay, so a lot of students think engineering is mostly math and solving problems on paper. So could you just walk us through what a real day at work is for you? For me it not only math and solving problems I would say also it involves a lot of reading You need to understand all the industrial standards policies You need to follow them to make sure the project is safe and it's safe for all the employees and for people who will use the pipeline in the future.

And also I would say there are a lot of communication work because I need to work with people from other departments and also even people from the other companies. We need to know what's the project we are going to do to understand others' expectation. So it's not only for math solving problem, but a lot of teamwork. That's cool.

My question is, what is a project you've worked on that you're proud of? and why did it matter to you? I think it's hard to say, okay, which project? I would say some projects, sometimes at the beginning, you may have, people may have a thought for it.

There are some numbers like what size of pipe, what's the length. That's really started from a very general idea of the project. And later you see people, okay, we started to work on it, to build model on the computer and have drawings on paper. And later you see the project got into construction and installation.

So I think you see it happen in the real world and start to run. I think that's the part that makes me feel, oh, it's part of, to be part of the project. Yeah. So like the process from building from grounds up to a complete finish is very satisfying in the end?

Yes. So engineering involves a lot of things going wrong before they go right. So can you please share a time something didn't work out and what you learned from it? I would say it depends on the work we do.

Sometimes we don't allow, you know, everything should be good because it's like the safety, it matters. That's the most important thing we want to like make it correct. So, but also I remember it's not something wrong, but something maybe not very good at beginning, you need to improve it. For example, before I worked in a company and we did analysis to install the offshore pipeline and during the project you need to consider a lot of environmental influence.

For example, for offshore engineering you need to understand what's the current, the wave, the wind, all these things, it will affect the project, how it goes. So sometimes, of course, we simulated everything in a software, but it's very conservative. Like there is a project and we do all the analysis and found it may not work under this environment, what we could do. Then we need to use a lot of engineering sense.

We know the project we know the environment and we also know the vessel how to install it So in this way sometimes it doesn work but we need to find a less conservative way to do all the calculations analysis to improve it So I think that's something like, it may not work at the beginning, but I think I learned from all this experience experience that it's not only for the software, what you get, but also you need to think, okay, why it doesn't work, how to improve it to make it work as an engineer. What part of your job would surprise students who imagine engineers just sit at a desk during calculations? doing calculations I think as I mentioned before you need to work with different people so it's not only about calculations it's all about the teamwork with people working together to get something done so it's not only calculations but also a lot of other skills you need to work to uh i think also important an important thing is that uh to be ready to learn new skills yeah so you think like skills like teamwork and communication are they like really are they like really important in your line of work as to like you know the overall success yes okay good i see i see there's a lot of value on communication and teamwork for engineering so that's good to know that we need to be able to talk well with other people if you want to get a project done so my question is for a student who's interested in engineering but isn't sure they're smart enough for it what would you tell them I would say when I was a high school student, I also think, oh, my math and my physics may not be good enough. So that's also why at the beginning I didn't think about, OK, I will become an engineer in the future.

But I would say like there's always something which seems to be very difficult. but that's why it is also valuable for the job. So I feel like as long as you have the ability and the willing to learn something new and try to solve problem and then you can try to be an engineer. Yeah.

My question is looking back, is there anything you wish you'd known or done differently when you were starting out? Like maybe any mistakes like when you were in school? I would say if I, for example, in school, I hoped I could learn, you know, because I I focused on mechanical engineering. If I have another opportunity, maybe I will try, you know, courses from different engineering disciplines I think it will help to broad my like to know it better how the all the projects works Yeah.

I'm actually curious about this because in my knowledge, mechanical engineering is like one of the most diverse, or like one of the most broad topic in engineering that you can take. So yeah, what's your view on this? Mechanical engineering, I think, yeah, it has different areas. Like for example, even when I was in my graduate study, I also learned something about the HVAC system.

Yeah, it's very broad, but when I started to work, when you get into a field, you feel like something you learned before may not be directly to apply to what you are doing right now. But I feel like if you get all the ability to learning and you have the confidence to overcome some difficulties, then, yeah, it will help a lot. Thank you. You've mentioned communication a lot, but is there any other skill or habit that's not necessarily a technical one that's helped you most in your career?

I guess maybe when you are struggling with something, you need to, I feel like there will always be something maybe you cannot solve. Or maybe it's a challenge for you. Then you have the willing, like the confidence to make through it i think that's also an important uh like aspect that you should uh there's always something like it's difficult to complete but you you are willing to finish it you hope to do it well yeah thank you that's very informational yeah i want to ask what do you find is the most enjoyable part of your job? The most enjoyable part of my job?

I think maybe we have some routine work every day, but there is also something like very different topics almost every day. Like for my job, sometimes we receive requests from different departments. maybe something I don't know before but I started to learn to help to solve it and there's also something new ahead of you so that's also I think that's the part I enjoy very nice so David do you have any more questions to ask yeah I think I'm out of questions thank you for everything I think you had some really great answers that I think would inspire a lot of young generations. Yes, thank you.

I think I learned a lot. I think I learned communication is very big in your job and maybe every job. So that's one thing I'll now work on, being able to communicate positively so I can get a task or job done. Yes.

You're welcome. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Thank you.