From Aerospace Engineer to Airline Pilot: Grit and Passion
Marie Duraffourd is an aeronautic engineer, soon to be an airline pilot. She’s finishing up her training program and talked to us about her tortuous path to her dream job, and to never give up.
“I’ve been riding motorbikes since I’m 16. Everything about cars, bikes, karting was for me. I’ve volunteered for the Formula 1 track automobile club in Monaco. I’ve always loved what my father, a mechanic engineer, was doing. I guess my parents knew way before me that I was going to be a pilot or an engineer because even as a child, I was helping my dad tinkering, tools in hands, fixing motorbikes” Marie smiles peacefully.
Marie Duraffourd is soon to be officially an airline pilot. Now finishing her training months in the US and Europe, she’s finally reaching for a dream that she fought for since she was a kid.
First step: women engineer in aeronautic
After a preparatory class in physics, chemistry, and engineer sciences, Marie started engineer school. Going into an automobile specialty seemed obvious, with all her interests converging towards it. But after her first internship in a space-related company, she fell in love with the field and ask to change focus. It was granted.
From there, Marie went to do her internship at Airbus, in Madrid. “When I left, I didn’t speak a single word of Spanish, I didn’t know anyone there. It was an adventure. It was awesome” she grins.
The whole experience went very well, she got along with everyone. She asked to come back and was hired after the end of her diploma. She stayed in Madrid, at Airbus and then in another aeronautics company.
The path to the air
But her calling was elsewhere. “The first time I tried exams to become a pilot, to be a fighter pilot in the army, I was 17. But I wasn’t 100% on each eye, and that’s a requirement there, so I failed the medical part”.
Then, when she was in preparatory class, Marie tried another one, that she narrowly missed again. When she decided on engineer school, she kept in mind that she’ll be able to try other exams as she went, a longer but possible path towards the air.
“I’ve failed so many times. And then, something happened, life just clicked. I was at the end of a mission for my company. I’ve just missed two pilot exams in two weeks. I broke up with my boyfriend. It felt like it was all too much, I had to think” she remembers.
She took some holidays to travel with friends for a couple of months, she needed a break. And just then, the pilot school called, offering her an interview two days later. She prepared like crazy. Gave it everything she’d got. Almost immediately got the answer.
“It’s probably the biggest accomplishment of my life. When I got the call telling me I was in, I had to tell the person calling that I needed a minute, that I would call back, because I was just so happy I couldn’t understand what she was saying anymore. I couldn’t think.” Marie laughs.
Beating the odds
This path from aeronautics engineer to pilot is not an uncommon one. A lot of people dream of making that leap. But very few succeeded.
“Some can not get in because of the tests. Because of the medical tests, which are very furrow. Some people didn’t dare to try. It’s not a very stable environment, not a lot of job offers. You have to be really passionate about it”.
“I was told that I was a woman, and what if I wanted kids? Going back to study now was a terrible idea”
Marie didn’t talk about taking the exams with anyone except her family. She knew, because she tried before, that people would just try to discourage her. Telling her that very few succeed, that the selection is hard, only 5% make it.
“And I was told that I was a woman, and what if I wanted kids, going back to study now was a terrible idea. All of those society brainwash things” she remembers.
It’s a men’s world
The worse of the comments though was when she DID make it. “Of course some people were very happy for me. But a lot were jealous as well, even though they never tried themselves, it was easier to blame me. A lot of people don’t dare to take chances, and then they blame others when they succeed” Marie reflects.
She was told that she made it because she was a woman, good for the stats. She hated it. But Marie is used to being the only woman around.
“Never let one small defeat get you down. And never listen to bad advice”
“Throughout my education, I was often the only woman in the class. I was always in a men’s environment, and I’m very comfortable in it. I am nice, sweet, but I’m not a pushover. As long as you are comfortable in your own skin, guys are adorable. I was more often than not treated like a princess” she says, amused.
She advocates firmly for speaking about it all. Speaking about ambition, about the path forward. She advises women to reach out to other women.
“Women in aviation, in engineering, or anywhere else for that matter, we are here to help. I’ve worked voluntarily in an association working towards women in science. I’m always trying to answer people’s questions, to be encouraging. And most of all, if I had one piece of advice to give, it would be to never give up, because you’ll make it in the end. Never let one small defeat get you down. And never listen to bad advice”.
