From Cleaning Offices to Designing EV Charging Stations

Greta Bekerytė began out cleansing workplaces and ended up designing electronics for EV charging stations. It’s superb what you may accomplish in your profession once you comply with your goals.

It wasn’t simple. Bekerytė moved from her native Lithuania to Norway in 2010 to make the most of the nation’s free college tuition, however first she had to discover a method to assist herself. She took the cleansing job, and scrimped and saved to pay for Norwegian studying and writing courses, a requirement to attend a college. It took her 4 years, however she was lastly in a position to afford the tutoring for the language programs, which price hundreds of U.S. {dollars}.

She went on to earn a bachelor’s diploma in industrial automation and circuit design, adopted by a grasp’s in robotics and sign processing, each from Norway’s University of Stavanger.

Today she works as a {hardware} engineer at Zaptec, which makes electric-vehicle charging stations and can also be based mostly in Stavanger. For her contributions to the sector, in 2022 she was chosen as one of many Top Women in EV by the organizers of the EV Summit, a number one international e-mobility occasion.

Bekerytė credit her success to following her coronary heart. “Do what you love,” she says. “Then you will be able to go through all the challenges that come up, and you will have the dedication and drive to actually become what you want to become.”

A specialist at coronary heart

Growing up in Šiauliai, Lithuania, Bekerytė appeared destined to change into an engineer. She remembers that when she was about 5 years outdated, a buddy of her mom’s, who labored as {an electrical} engineer at an organization that constructed energy transformers, handed her some outdated schematics from her job to use as drawing paper.

Bekerytė remembers being impressed that somebody might perceive these unusual symbols. Instead of drawing, she pretended she was working at an workplace as an engineer who understood the schematics.

“I remember thinking, ‘Wow, are there really people who understand what this is?’” she says. “So I was interested in that kind of thing quite early.”

Bekerytė’s father, who labored in development and in addition fastened vehicles, was one other main affect. He was a DIY fanatic keen to strive his hand at absolutely anything, from electronics to plumbing. She was at all times interested by his tasks and remembers him instructing her to solder on the tender age of seven.

While Bekerytė excelled in math and science, she additionally was focused on music and artwork. By the time she graduated highschool, she had mapped out three potential profession paths: an orchestra conductor, an architect, or an engineer. All she knew for sure was that she wished to excel in no matter she pursued.

“I always knew I wanted to be a specialist: a person that others would go to because they knew something really well,” she says.

That would prove to be more difficult than anticipated.

A courageous transfer

Bekerytė graduated from highschool in 2010, the identical yr Lithuania drastically elevated its tuition for state universities. Not wanting to financially burden her mother and father, Bekerytė determined to relocate along with her boyfriend to Norway, the place they’d pursue levels and discover work. That path, nonetheless, was harder than they anticipated.

Higher training is free in Norway, however the international job market in 2010 was nonetheless within the doldrums following the 2008 monetary disaster. Despite diligently on the lookout for jobs for six months, they’d no success and determined to transfer again to Lithuania.

“Don’t listen to others, just listen to yourself. Find that thing that you are really interested in and go for it.”

“We didn’t have any money for rent or food,” Bekerytė remembers. “We decided that on Saturday we would buy ferry tickets, but on Friday I got called for a job interview.”

She was employed to clear workplaces, and her boyfriend discovered a job washing the within of oil tankers. Since each jobs have been sporadic, it took 4 years to save sufficient cash to pay for the language courses.

Making an impression at an engineering contest

After finishing the one-year language course on the University of Stavanger in 2016, Bekerytė enrolled within the college’s bachelor’s diploma program in industrial automation and circuit design.

The course was demanding, notably since she was nonetheless working half time. Out of 48 college students who started this system, solely 10 accomplished it. She determined to proceed on on the college and pursue a grasp’s diploma in robotics and sign processing.

Toward the tip of her research in 2019, she obtained her massive break. She utilized for an engineering competitors run by the Norwegian international energy engineering agency Aker Solutions, additionally in Stavanger. Bekerytė’s workforce was tasked with enhancing the operations at an oil-rig development plant utilizing Internet of Things units. Her workforce didn’t win, however the firm was so impressed along with her that it provided her a job as a security automation techniques engineer. The job concerned designing signaling techniques on subsea oil wells. She began two weeks after graduating.

Greta Bekerytė works on the Zaptec Go electric-vehicle charging station. It weighs 1.3 kilograms and fees up to 22 kilowatts. Zaptec

The expertise {hardware} engineers want

In 2021 she was contacted by Zaptec for the place of a {hardware} engineer who would assist design its electric-vehicle charging stations. She accepted the supply.

Few corporations have roles involving hands-on {hardware} growth, she says, one thing she beloved doing at school. The job entails constructing units within the lab and operating testing and verification packages.

“It is my dream job,” she says.

A {hardware} engineer requires a deep understanding of electronics and powerful mathematical expertise, plus data of laptop structure and low-level programming, she says.

Another, typically underappreciated facet of the job, is having good communication expertise, Bekerytė says. “You frequently have to interface with nontechnical teams like marketing,” she explains. “That means you need to be able to explain technical details in ways that nonexperts can understand.”

Breaking via the EV glass ceiling

Although she’s nonetheless studying, being named one of many high girls in EV has given Bekerytė industry-wide recognition for her work.

The award got here as a shock, Bekerytė says, as a result of she was nominated by a colleague with out her data. But she was flattered and glad to discover that there was an award recognizing girls in a male-dominated area.

She says her colleagues jokingly name her a unicorn as a result of girls working within the EV {industry} are so uncommon. She thinks offering visibility to girls is essential to overcome stereotypes about who can and may work within the area.

For essentially the most half, she says she’s confronted few limitations due to her gender. But there have been occasions when she has felt she had to struggle to achieve the respect of others.

“Sometimes I’ve felt that I need to prove myself a little bit more than others do,” she says.

But for those who do what you like, Bekerytė says, all limitations are surmountable. She admits her journey to turning into an engineer was robust, and the one factor that obtained her via was her deep curiosity for the topic.

“Don’t listen to others, just listen to yourself,” she says. “Find that thing that you are really interested in and go for it.”