Her Story
About Shannon
As a structural steel inspector, I'm a life safety officer working on commercial buildings and very large residential buildings. The responsibility that comes with my job means I'm not only signing off on big projects and making sure they're right per the code, but I'm advocating for the life safety of the people who are going to be in these buildings. These are schools, tornado shelters, and huge apartment dorms for colleges, so there's lives on the line. Because I live in Oklahoma, even the bigger buildings that aren't necessarily super high occupancy have to deal with a lot of weather-related issues because of tornadoes, so there's always a lot of stress in these kinds of buildings. I work a hybrid job, so if I'm not out in the field doing an inspection, I'm at my desk. If I have an inspection in the morning, I check my email, then make my drive out to site, which can be anywhere from 15 minutes down the road to 3 hours. I get on site, talk to the contractor, find out what they need and where they need it, then do my walkthrough with my iPad that has all our prints and code access. I take lots of pictures, communicate with the contractor if I find anything wrong or if everything was good, then come back to my desk, bill for my time, fill out a timesheet, and write a full in-depth report that gets sent to the contractor, the engineer for the project, the person that owns the project, and my management. There's a lot of eyes all of the time doing what we do. I'm very fortunate to work with a crew of guys who don't treat me any differently for being as young as I am or for being a woman. I'm given just as much responsibility, and that's the company culture.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Shannon
01What do you attribute your success to?
I think watching my mom and just being able to provide for yourself and not having to rely on a man for anything has been huge for me. I watched my mom, you know, she was a wonderful stay-at-home mom, but she never had the freedoms that I had as someone who makes her own money and travels for work. I attribute that all to just wanting to be self-sufficient and keep your freedom. As a woman, I feel like it's very important to be self-supported and independent, and so I think that's a lot of what it is for me personally. And it's beyond that too, it's not just her. I think you should be fully self-sufficient, and it really puts a strain on relationships and careers sometimes if you can't support yourself and be at least some level of independent. When you carry that attitude, it carries through both personally and professionally. If you find yourself in a room where you're being treated poorly or you feel that you're not being listened to or you're being disrespected, if you have the resources to get up and leave and walk away from that and not have to beg and plead for somebody to do something correctly or treat you right or give you what you need, that will speak volumes for how people treat you too.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
My biggest piece of advice is to never be afraid to take up space. Something about this industry is that man or woman, but especially being the only female in the room 90% of the time and also being the youngest, no one else is gonna make room for you except for you. The only person that's going to advocate for you more often than not is going to be yourself. The only one that's going to speak up for your needs is going to be yourself. There's nothing better you can do than to not be afraid to speak up, to take up space. You don't need anyone to make you feel welcome in that room. You have to make yourself feel welcome. Make space for yourself. Feel like you belong because you made room for you to be there. If you're in that room and you're the youngest at the table, it's probably for a reason.
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