Minimol Korulla - Head - Strategic Projects and Initiatives, Maccaferri ISEAP

Maccaferri gave me the opportunity to learn and adapt to global cultures through my association with engineering experts from different countries.
Minimol Korulla, Head - Strategic Projects and Initiatives, Maccaferri ISEAP

My encounter with the subject of Geotech started unexpectedly when I was at school.

I was born in a village in Kerala which was surrounded by a river and every monsoon the roads would become flooded. Better bridges began to be built from the 1970s, connecting us to the outside world. My encounter with the subject of Geotech started unexpectedly when I was at school. I used to get very curious on seeing the piling for embankment construction over soft clay near my house. My family saw my passion to learn and work and were very accommodative.

After graduation, I married a naval officer, and we started staying in coastal cities. I decided to do post-graduation in Geotech engineering at CET Trivandrum after scoring in GATE. It was initially difficult to continue my studies in the challenging field of construction, as I was away from my baby for a year.

When I joined Maccaferri in 2001, it was a turning point in my professional life.

At Maccaferri, I learnt about global cultures through my association with engineering experts from various countries and got opportunities to represent the company in BIS and represent India in ISO technical committees. I could work with veterans in committees and Maccaferri’s top management. I became the head of World Design Center of Global Maccaferri and groomed young engineers to become world specialists.

I got the rare opportunity to be the design director of landmark projects and to undertake responsibilities such as disaster management, slope stability, and ground improvement. I also became the subgroup chair of an authoring group for making some guidelines.

I was often torn between my domestic and professional responsibilities.

I was 39-years-old and had reached a senior position where I had huge responsibilities, but at the same time my infant baby required my quality time, so I was required to undertake my responsibilities double-fold. I also had to upskill by doing MBA in ISB. I spent 12 years in Delhi and 13 years in Mumbai, more than in my hometown, Kerala. Now I have entered another phase, having moved to Kerala, where I work in hybrid mode. I am blessed to have a lovely family who cheer me on and encourage me to continue in my efforts to explore new roles in my profession. I am finding success in my professional life only due to hard work, continuous learning, and by maintaining good relations with industry colleagues, irrespective of whatever encouragement or discouragement I receive.

I think I always had the basic sense of how to stabilize a slope and to improve the ground by using locally available materials after making some modifications in them.

My domain expertise is in geotechnical engineering, more specifically in the field of slope stabilization and ground improvement. A post-graduation in geotechnical engineering further reinforced my skill and knowledge. Despite having devoted so many years in the field, and even if I do a small slope stability design and implementation, I feel the same excitement as I did as a young engineer when I first designed such a slope and monitored it after implementation.

I have been associated with complex projects in Uttarakhand and in Himachal Pradesh as design head / director from preparation of the basic design report to post construction monitoring.

Only a woman with a very strong determination can survive the pressures of a job that demands continuous travelling, field related work, and late working hours.

For men, family support is always there, and also from friends and colleagues, while women face discouragement and have to therefore exert themselves 200% more. It is unfortunate that, even today, most of the women, though successful in their careers, have to deal with discouraging or disparaging remarks, if they want to move ahead in their career. At the same time, they are expected to effectively manage responsibilities both on the home front and at the office.

In Indian culture, a woman is engaged in a lot of domestic activities and has numerous responsibilities. In fact, her brain is programmed from her childhood that she will have to make many sacrifices for the sake of her family. Such over expectations create guilt feelings that often become barriers to a woman’s professional growth, irrespective of how talented or educated she is.

Unfortunately, in India, successive generations have yet not conceived the idea of equal sharing of domestic responsibilities between men and women in the household. However, this is slowly changing, more so in the urban educated youth living and working in metropolitan cities. But I think that establishing equal responsibilities for men and women at home and at work in India will take another 20 years, especially so in small towns and villages.

Family support is the most precious gift for a married woman professional in the construction field, more so if she is also a mother. Women engineers working at project sites usually have long stressful working hours. When family members have an understanding and an empathetic approach, it will surely boost her confidence and refresh her for the next day at work.

So, for emerging women civil engineers and professionals, I would say that they should keep on enhancing their skill set and upgrading their knowledge, because for women, knowledge is the most reliable power and strength.