She has had a very busy couple of months involving a career change to set up the new Continuous Improvement Department at the Sizewell B nuclear power station and a move for the whole family from Gloucestershire to Suffolk.

Dig a little deeper though and you will find out that over the past few years Hannah has been very active in MentorSET, both as a mentor and a mentee. So, could this be the secret of her success – the fact that she has been willing to accept help as a mentee, and then be able to give something back, as a mentor?

Hannah would definitely recommend MentorSET, “Its about confidence,” she says, “having the opportunity to discuss work with an outside person and so having an different perspective gives you a new way of looking at problems and work in general, and increases your confidence.”

Hannah first heard of MentorSET through a leaflet in an Institute of Physics Magazine in 2004. After returning from her first maternity leave Hannah was surprised to find out just what an impact it had had on her career. She felt that she had lost visibility and did not feel as involved as before – something that was not helped by having two changes of manager in a short space of time. However Hannah made the very sensible decision to try having a mentor to see if that would help. MentorSET assigned Hannah a mentor in the nuclear industry who had children herself and had ‘been there and done that’, so to speak. They usually meet up face to face, every two or three months and she has helped Hannah a great deal. Her career is now going from strength to strength and she has become a mentor to someone else.

Hannah has been a mentor for just over a year now, to a young physicist in another industry who tells Hannah that she is really making a difference. They have met several times but there is more email contact with this relationship. “It’s for you, so its up to you to make it what you want. My mentor helped me tremendously and I am there to help my mentee,” she says. MentorSET is very much a person focused scheme, the mentoring style is mentee-lead and informal, so its really up to those involved to make it work. If a pairing is successful it can be of huge benefit to both the mentor and mentee with both gaining a new perspective on problems and issues.

Hannah’s managers at British Energy have endorsed her involvement with MentorSET and are very supportive because they can see the positive effects that Hannah’s mentoring relationships have brought to her work.

MentorSET is a national mentoring scheme for women working in science, engineering and technology (SET) or wishing to return to careers in SET. MentorSET is for professional women in industry, academia and other working environments and in all areas of the United Kingdom. For further information on how to become a mentor or mentee please contact Jan West, the MentorSET Manager at manager@mentorset.org.uk