The following story from Romania is an extract from the booklet 'Women in the Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Industry."
NINA STAN
I can say, without being accused of lack of modesty, that I am a good engineer. I like what I do, I like the RAC sector, I like the challenges. I am a responsible person you can rely on. Already, I have said it all: I am a woman in the RAC sector - a field dominated by men.
Yes, it is a male-dominated area because it is about a clean technique, a very specialized one, even, where you have to combine different types of technical knowledge. It is an area where women do not venture. There were countless times in my discussions with clients when I was treated in the beginning as a kind of secretary to the men, until the moment I opened my mouth and was actually involved in the discussion. Since that moment, the distrust has completely disappeared and the approach has changed, usually to admiration. At least that is how I perceive it.
Often, answering the phone number displayed on our website www.frigmania.ro, I would be asked to transfer the call to a colleague (that is, a man) to discuss a technical problem. After some initial amusement, I would have a very technical discussion and I do not think the callers were disappointed. There are prejudices and stereotypes around, but by being ourselves and striking at them, we can overcome them.
It really amuses me when I see a preconceived approach because I know I will overcome it in a few seconds. I plan on how to deal with the problem, but I know I have to be prepared if it goes wrong.
I have been lucky enough to work in several areas of the economy, following the RAC field where it has taken me.
I have been working in the RAC field since 1989. Until 1997 I worked in a milk industrialization company, and I managed to maintain five large refrigeration systems with ammonia refrigerant. I accumulated other management functions within the company too. I was involved in the operation of some old refrigerated appliances, designed according to the rules I learned in school. For me, working with these facilities represented putting into practice the principles learned in school, and entering the heart of a refrigeration plant taught me things I did not learn at school. That’s where I first came into contact with ammonia, the refrigerant closest to my heart. Sounds very bizarre, right? Who ever heard of that? But that is the way it has been. Now that ammonia is less used in the RAC field, I have been asked to engage in various activities: decommissioning ammonia installations, using my expertise in ammonia refrigeration plant, and dealing with ammonia discharge in some plants. I would not have had those skills without that start-up period in 1997-2012, when I worked in a company specializing in the design, execution, installation, commissioning, and service of ammonia, HFC and even CO2 refrigeration installations as a designer, project manager, and technical director.
- “Now that ammonia is less used in the RAC field, I have been asked to engage in various activities: decommissioning ammonia installations, using my expertise in ammonia refrigeration plant, and dealing with ammonia discharge in some plants.”
There too I learned a lot, building on what I had learned until then. Importantly, I knew what a customer wanted from a provider of such services, as until then I had been a client myself. I can say that this dual status of recipient and service provider gave me a substantial advantage in what I went on to do later.
In 2014,after another job at a small refrigeration equipment company (showcases and freezers), I decided to start my own business, of course in the same field: RAC. We built the specialized website www.frigmania.ro, which I originally saw as a doorway to a new company in this field. Subsequently the site started to develop, and in parallel to that, the company now makes cold rooms, commercial and industrial refrigeration plants, and refrigeration containers, and provides maintenance and service. I am directly involved in designing, the stabilization of technical solutions in various projects, diagnostic care and management.
My achievements, however remarkable, still require a lot of effort:
- Building the specialized site www.frigmania.ro that is growing from year to year, although ours is a very narrow sector;
- Creating a team around me, in which the person responsible for the technical management of the site is also a RAC woman;
- Doing work that cannot be performed by ordinary firms, involving technical expertise in ammonia installations; optimization of technological processes using cold; design of industrial installations, etc.
