International Women’s week - Smart Nano NI

During this week, we will share profiles of our women colleagues, from Consortium partners, bringing their perspectives on the importance of International Women’s Day, their career journey and what they have learned along the way. Our next conversation is with Beverley McConnell who is a Senior Research & Development Manager at Seagate Springtown site.  

What’s your career background?  

 I have worked at Seagate for 14 years, starting in 2007 as a design engineer focused on the next generation of read-write heads for Perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) technology. I transitioned to a Manager role in 2015 leading the PMR writer design group and I now head up the Heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) writer design team at the Springtown site, since 2017. This is a critical area of focus for Seagate who  are focused on delivering the next generation of recording heads for HAMR products.  

What does International Women’s Day mean to you?  

I consider myself lucky that I never encountered any negativity towards my course choices in the physical sciences or my end career path. I have always received plenty of encouragement.  I've heard many stories where girls have been swayed away from the path they wanted to follow as it was deemed unfamiliar for a female. I think celebrating great achievements by women on International women's day can help inspire those who do face these obstacles and show it is possible to keep on the path they choose.  

Which woman has most inspired you and why?  

There have been a few. One one who stands out for my career path was my high school physics teacher, Miss  Ni Riain - she brought life to the subject in a way no other teachers were able too. This helped me decide my subject and choices for University.  

If you could learn to do something new, what would it be and why?  

I love a bit of yoga - currently I'm working on some skills - first one is learning how to get my handstand!

What’s the best advice you ever got? 

Focus on what you can control, events happen, it's how you react that will dictate the outcome. 

Working through the pandemic has brought its unique challenges and opportunities - what are your hopes for the future?  

My main hope is that the pandemic has brought clarity to people over what is important in their life and they don't lose this as life gets back to a different level of normality.