She’s Been Through It

What's really on your mind when the work week winds down?

In this week's Off the Clock, I'm sharing a mix of travel dreams, cozy fall favorites, wedding beauty opinions, and a few things I've been loving lately. From why Okinawa, Japan has remained at the top of my travel bucket list for years to the surprisingly simple trick that improved my homemade soup game, this episode feels like catching up with a friend.

We also get into concert memories, the country artists currently on repeat, Penn State volleyball season, and my ongoing Gilmore Girls rewatch, including the debate that refuses to die: Team Jess, Team Dean, or Team Logan?

In this episode: ✈️ Why Okinawa is still my dream destination 🍲 Butternut squash soup, sourdough bread, and cozy fall cooking 🎵 Concert memories and current country music favorites 💄 Wedding makeup and hair hot takes and choosing authenticity over trends 🏐 Penn State volleyball season thoughts and State College nostalgia 📺 Gilmore Girls rewatch conversations and favorite characters

Whether you're planning your next trip, embracing fall, navigating wedding decisions, or simply looking for a fun lifestyle podcast to unwind with, pull up a chair and join the conversation.

🎙️ New episodes every week 📸 Instagram: @shesbeenthroughsomeshit 🎥 YouTube: @shesbeenthroughsomesht

What if the next level of success isn't pushing harder, but recognizing which challenges are no longer yours to solve?

In this episode of Off the Clock, I share how failing a finance exam during my MBA became an unexpected turning point in my understanding of ambition, achievement, and self-worth.

For most of my life, I've been drawn to difficult things. From earning an engineering degree to building a technical career and pursuing an MBA while working full-time, I've often measured growth by the size of the challenge in front of me.

But one failed exam forced me to ask a difficult question:

Was I pursuing this goal because I genuinely wanted it, or because I felt obligated to prove I could do it?

We explore how perfectionism evolves as we grow older, why high achievers often confuse capability with desire, and how failure can provide valuable information instead of serving as evidence of our worth.

In This Episode

🎓 MBA Student Life

• Balancing graduate school, work, relationships, and personal responsibilities
• The finance course that challenged my assumptions about success
• Lessons learned in the final stages of an MBA journey

💡 Perfectionism & Personal Growth

• Why ambitious people struggle to walk away from difficult goals
• The difference between growth and self-punishment
• Letting go of achievement as a measure of self-worth

📈 Career & Leadership Development

• Lessons from engineering school and technical leadership
• Building confidence through setbacks
• How experiences with failure shape stronger decision-making

🔥 Failure & Resilience

• The engineering exam that nearly broke my confidence
• Why retaking a class changed the trajectory of my career
• Reframing failure as feedback instead of identity

This Episode Is For You If:

✅ You're pursuing an MBA or graduate degree

✅ You struggle with perfectionism

✅ You're a high achiever who constantly raises the bar

✅ You're navigating career growth or leadership challenges

✅ You're learning to separate self-worth from achievement

✅ You're questioning whether a goal still aligns with who you want to become

This conversation is a reminder that success isn't always about doing more, achieving more, or taking on the hardest path available.

Sometimes wisdom looks like choosing the path that's right for you.

Topics Covered: MBA student life, graduate school, perfectionism, personal growth, failure and resilience, career development, leadership growth, ambition, confidence building, self-worth, high achiever mindset, success mindset, lifelong learning, work-life balance, and professional development.

Take the hard hat off. You're Off the Clock.

You know me as the engineer. The workplace stories, career lessons, women-in-STEM conversations, and occasional corporate chaos.

But what happens when the laptop closes and the hard hat comes off?

In the very first Off the Clock bonus episode of She's Been Through Some Shit, we're talking about everything that has absolutely nothing to do with engineering and everything to do with the things I'm loving lately.

I'm sharing my honest review of Elin Hilderbrand's latest release, the TV shows currently occupying my evenings, and why I've fully entered my Ella Langley era. From comfort watches and workplace dramas to country music obsessions and hot takes on life's most important debates, this episode is a fun peek into who I am beyond my career.

We'll also play a rapid-fire round of This or That, tackling questions like:

☕ Coffee or tea? 🏨 Hotel or Airbnb? 🍷 Wine or cocktails? 🎬 Rom-com or thriller?

If you love book recommendations, TV show discussions, country music, lifestyle podcasts, and casual conversations that feel like catching up with a friend, you're in the right place.

In This Episode

✅ My review of Elin Hilderbrand's newest book

✅ What I'm currently watching, including New Girl, Ransom Canyon, and a workplace drama featuring a woman in finance

✅ Why Ella Langley has completely taken over my playlists

✅ Fun "This or That" lifestyle questions and hot takes

✅ The hobbies, entertainment, and interests that keep me busy outside of engineering

✅ A behind-the-scenes look at life beyond work

Topics Covered

• Book recommendations
• Elin Hilderbrand
• TV show recommendations
• New Girl
• Ransom Canyon
• Workplace dramas
• Country music
• Ella Langley
• Lifestyle podcast
• Women in STEM
• Work-life balance
• Entertainment reviews
• Pop culture
• Personal interests
• Off-the-clock life

This is the lighter side of the podcast. Less engineering, more books, binge-worthy shows, music discoveries, and the random opinions that don't always fit into career conversations.

📚 Got a book I should read?

📺 A show I need to watch?

🎵 A song I should add to my playlist?

Send me your recommendations. I'd love to hear them.

📸 Instagram: @shesbeenthroughsomeshit

💛 Enjoying the podcast? Follow the show so you never miss an episode. If you enjoy these conversations, leaving a rating and review is one of the best ways to support the podcast and help new listeners discover it. Thank you for being here!

A guy once called me "engineering hot."

Not just attractive. Attractive for an engineer.

Adjusted for major.

Rated on a curve.

At eighteen years old, entering Penn State's engineering program, I laughed it off. But beneath that comment was a message I had already started absorbing:

That women are supposed to choose between being smart and being attractive.

That confidence can be mistaken for flirting.

That visibility comes with consequences.

And that sometimes the easiest way to survive in a male-dominated environment is to become invisible.

In this episode, I'm sharing what it was like navigating engineering school, entering the workforce as a woman in STEM, and realizing how much energy I spent trying to manage other people's perceptions of me.

From hiding behind hoodies and avoiding attention to learning how to take up space without apologizing for it, this is a conversation about identity, confidence, workplace culture, and the subtle ways women learn to make themselves smaller.

We'll talk about the impossible double standards women face, the pressure to be taken seriously, and what happens when you stop editing yourself to make other people comfortable.

Most importantly, we'll talk about the freedom that comes from showing up as your full, authentic self.

In This Episode

✅ The "engineering hot" comment that stayed with me for years

✅ Growing up in a large engineering program at Penn State

✅ The stereotype that women can't be both intelligent and attractive

✅ Navigating engineering school as a woman in STEM

✅ Double standards, workplace perceptions, and professional identity

✅ Why I tried to become invisible at work

✅ How authenticity became more valuable than approval

✅ The surprising realization that hiding wasn't protecting me

✅ Confidence, self-worth, and learning to take up space

✅ Why women shouldn't have to shrink themselves to be taken seriously

Topics Covered

• Women in STEM
• Women in Engineering
• Workplace Confidence
• Career Development
• Professional Identity
• Gender Stereotypes
• Engineering School
• STEM Careers
• Authentic Leadership
• Workplace Culture
• Self-Worth
• Confidence Building
• Corporate Culture
• Personal Growth
• Female Engineers
• Taking Up Space
• Authenticity at Work
• Professional Women

If you've ever felt like you needed to make yourself smaller to fit in, this episode is for you.

Whether you're in engineering, tech, finance, healthcare, leadership, or any environment where you've felt pressure to edit parts of yourself, I hope this conversation reminds you of something important:

You don't need to choose between being competent and being yourself.

And if anyone ever calls you "engineering hot"?

You're hot.

Period.

📸 Instagram: @shesbeenthroughsomeshit

🎥 YouTube: She's Been Through Some Shit

💛 Enjoying the podcast? Follow the show so you never miss an episode. If this conversation resonated with you, leaving a rating and review helps more people discover the podcast and supports future episodes about career growth, confidence, workplace culture, and life as a woman in STEM. Thank you for being here.

I ended my engagement - and the truth behind that decision is more complicated, more emotional, and more empowering than I ever expected. This episode is the story of how I realized I couldn’t marry someone I felt obligated to stay with, and how the same clarity I use every day as a woman in engineering helped me finally advocate for myself in love.

For years, I convinced myself that stability meant compatibility. I told myself that being “the strong one,” “the logical one,” “the dependable one” meant I had to stay. I tried to fix the power imbalance, the emotional mismatch, the financial tension, the family dynamics, and the constant feeling that I owed him my future. I tried to engineer my way into a relationship that wasn’t built to last.

But engineering teaches you something powerful: when a system is failing, you don’t ignore the data. You don’t silence the alarms. You don’t pretend the imbalance isn’t real. You analyze, you evaluate, and you advocate for the solution that protects long‑term integrity - even when it’s uncomfortable.

That’s exactly what I had to do in my engagement.

In this episode, I’m sharing the moment everything became clear, the red flags I finally stopped rationalizing, and the self‑advocacy it took to walk away from a future I once thought was guaranteed. As a woman in STEM, I’ve had to speak up in rooms where my voice wasn’t always welcomed - and it turns out I needed that same confidence in my relationship.

And yes… I recorded this episode in full chaotic mode.

I hadn’t showered in 24 hours thanks to flight cancellations and airport connections.

I didn’t do my skincare on vacation and my skin was dry as hell.

I had no makeup on.

My hair part was annoying me.

My widow’s peak and cowlicks were doing whatever they wanted.

I’m not a vlogger.

I have no media training.

I’m literally an engineer with an MBA trying to figure out how to run a podcast.

And I still posted this - because everyone starts somewhere, and I don’t care. If you’re waiting to look perfect before you start, you’ll never start. If you’re waiting to feel ready before you speak up, you’ll stay stuck. If you’re waiting for permission to choose yourself, you’ll wait forever.

This episode is for anyone who has ever:

• stayed in a relationship out of guilt

• confused stability with compatibility

• felt obligated to be “the strong one”

• struggled to advocate for themselves at work or in love

• ignored red flags because they didn’t want to disappoint someone

• wanted to hear a real story from a real woman in STEM navigating life, career, and relationships

• needed a reminder that choosing yourself is not selfish - it’s necessary

If you’re a woman in engineering, a woman in STEM, or someone learning how to trust your voice, this episode will hit home. It’s messy, honest, emotional, and full of the clarity I wish I had years ago.

Hit follow to join me on this journey - more episodes are coming, and they’re only getting better from here.

#womeninengineering #womeninSTEM #engineeringlife #relationshiplessons #compatibilitymatters #selfadvocacy #choosingyourself #engagementstory #storytimepodcast #empoweredwomen #healingjourney #engineerwithanMBA #startsomewhere

Recording this from our Airbnb in Alaska after an already chaotic trip. We landed at 9:30 PM, got to bed around 11, then woke up at 4:30 AM to hike 9.5 miles with 3,500 feet of elevation gain. With rain coming later in the week, we figured: if today is the day, then today is the day. Sometimes you don’t wait for perfect conditions - you just go.

One of my favorite Alaska discoveries? You can rent bear spray… at a 24‑hour coffee drive‑through. Only here can you grab a latte and prep for a bear encounter. Bear spray is basically pepper spray with significantly more enthusiasm, and they even make practice versions, so you don’t learn how it works while a bear is charging at you. We practiced at home because you obviously can’t fly with the real thing.

Being here reminded me of another environment that felt hostile - except instead of bears, it was my first engineering internship.

I was nineteen. Almost every lunch break, I’d lock myself in a bathroom stall and cry - not because engineering was hard, but because the people were. On day one, my boss’s assistant, Trish, pulled me aside and said something I’ll never forget:

“Gary didn’t want to hire you. He wanted a man. He doesn’t think you’re going to amount to anything.”

Welcome to the company.

The office felt like a sitcom: poodles roaming around, a thirty‑year‑old coworker asking me out, and Gary - the owner - who believed yelling was a management strategy. He wasn’t subtle. If he had an opinion, you heard it. Usually loudly. Usually directed at women.

At nineteen, I thought maybe this was normal. Maybe every office felt like this. It took years to understand the difference between a workplace that challenges you and one that chips away at your confidence.

The bathroom became my safe place. I’d cry quietly, wipe my face, and walk back out pretending everything was fine. My dad drove me to work every morning and immediately disliked Gary. Every day I begged my parents to let me quit. Every day they said no. Later they told me they knew I was safe, the internship had an end date, and learning to work with difficult people would help me later. I didn’t appreciate that then. I do now.

The worst moment? The Excel incident. I was presenting graphs and data I understood well. Gary stopped me and said, “That’s wrong.” I explained why it wasn’t. He doubled down: “That’s not how Excel works.” When I calmly walked him through it again, he threw his hands up in front of the entire office and yelled:

“I’m not talking to her anymore! Christine doesn’t exist!”

Nobody looked surprised. That told me everything.

Near the end of the internship, Gary took us to tour a friend’s car garage. I wasn’t rude - I just wasn’t pretending to be fascinated. On the drive back he said, “You didn’t seem very grateful.” For what, exactly? After a summer of criticism, I wasn’t performing gratitude for someone who hadn’t treated me professionally.

Then came my last day. Gary called me into his office. I braced for one final lecture. Instead he said:

“You were the best intern I ever had.”

It didn’t erase the tears or the anxiety, but it taught me something: people often decide who you are before they meet you. Reality eventually rewrites their story.

That internship shaped how I lead today. People don’t forget how you make them feel. One bad manager does not get to decide whether you belong. One toxic workplace does not define your future. Sometimes the problem isn’t you. Sometimes it’s just Gary.

Youtube: @shesseensomeengineeringshit

IG: @shesbeenthroughsomeshit

Why does one MBA teammate always "forget" the assignment was due - every single week?

If you've ever sat in a group project (or a team meeting at work) wondering how you became the only adult in the room, this episode is for you. I'm breaking down three real stories from my MBA program - plus one from corporate America - that exposed a pattern I now call Weaponized Confidence: the art of looking capable while contributing almost nothing, and letting everyone else clean up the mess.

Inside this episode:

🎯 The MIA Mystery Man - the teammate who showed up to meetings live-streaming himself driving on the highway (yes, really), and the surprising lesson about grace vs. unpaid labor.

🎯 The Weaponized Confidence Olympics - what happens when "I didn't know" turns from an accident into a management strategy, and the moment my professor said the sentence every team lead dreams of hearing.

🎯 The Dream Team - the semester everything changed, and what a genuinely functional, high-trust team actually feels like (spoiler: it's rare, and it's not an accident).

🎯 When School Becomes Real Life - why the same dynamics from your MBA cohort show up in your career, and how "convenient incompetence" quietly trains you to keep rescuing people who don't want to grow.

This isn't a men-vs-women thing, and it's not a rant. It's a real look at leadership, accountability, teamwork, and why group projects might be the single best (and most frustrating) preparation for corporate America you'll ever get - long before your first performance review.

If you've ever asked yourself, "how am I the youngest person here but somehow the adult?" — you're going to feel very seen.

Perfect for fans of career advice podcasts, MBA and business school life, leadership and management lessons, corporate storytelling, workplace culture commentary, and real talk about teamwork, accountability, and burnout.

👉 Got a chaotic group project or workplace story? Leave a comment or call the podcast voicemail at (267) 281-3633 - your story might get featured in a future episode.

🔔 Follow the podcast so you don't miss next episode's topic: what happens when the person you're supposed to learn from becomes the person you end up managing.

At 23 years old, I thought the hardest part of starting my engineering career would be proving I belonged in the room. I didn’t expect the hardest part to be managing a 55‑year‑old colleague who was supposed to be mentoring me. This episode dives into the work trip that went from “normal professional travel” to “I cannot believe this is happening,” and the uncomfortable reality of being the youngest person in the room while someone else’s bad decisions become your unexpected responsibility.

This is a story about early‑career anxiety, gender dynamics, workplace chaos, emotional labor, and the moment you realize experience does not always equal professionalism. If you’re a woman in STEM, a young professional, or someone who has ever been forced into the “responsible adult” role because no one else stepped up, this episode will feel painfully familiar.

The trip begins with a simple work dinner - something that should’ve been routine. Instead, my colleague gets completely wasted and turns the evening into a confessional I never asked for. Marriage issues, regrets, personal frustrations… all unloaded onto a 23‑year‑old who was just trying to make a good impression. And when strangers in the hotel lobby comment on my appearance, he immediately agrees, making the moment even more uncomfortable. I escape to my room, hoping the next morning will reset everything.

Spoiler: it does not.

I show up at 7:30 AM sharp. He does not. After twenty minutes of waiting, the concierge calls his room. When he finally appears, it’s obvious he’s still drunk - glassy eyes, alcohol smell, miserable attitude. And suddenly I’m the one responsible for getting us to the shipyard. At 23. With no authority. No experience. And absolutely no idea how to handle a grown man who cannot handle himself.

Once we arrive, things escalate. He starts arguing with shipyard officers - loudly, aggressively, and incorrectly. I stand there, horrified, wondering how I became associated with this disaster. But I don’t report it. I don’t speak up. I don’t ask for help. Because when you’re young, you’re terrified of being labeled “difficult,” “dramatic,” or “unable to work with others.” You think staying quiet protects your career.

In reality, it just protects the person causing the problem.

Months later, someone casually asks, “Was he drunk on that last trip?” And instantly I know: everyone noticed. Of course they did. Because he was drunk. And I spiral - did I look irresponsible? Did people think I approved of his behavior? Did they think I should’ve done something?

But here’s the truth I learned too late: I wasn’t responsible for him. I wasn’t his babysitter. I wasn’t the adult in the room because I wanted to be - I became the adult because he stopped acting like one.

Why this episode matters:

This episode is for anyone who has ever:

• Been the youngest person in the room
• Dealt with an unprofessional coworker
• Carried emotional labor at work
• Felt pressured to stay quiet to “protect your career”
• Navigated gendered power dynamics
• Questioned whether you were overreacting
• Realized experience doesn’t equal maturity

If you’ve ever been forced into responsibility you didn’t sign up for, this story will hit home.

Call the podcast voicemail:

What’s the most unprofessional thing you’ve ever seen at work? What chaotic coworker story still lives rent‑free in your mind? What moment made you think, “I cannot believe this is happening”?

Leave a comment or call the podcast voicemail at (267) 281-3633and share your story. Your chaos might be featured in a future episode.

If you love stories about workplace chaos, women in engineering, early‑career survival, and the moments nobody prepares you for, follow the show so you never miss an episode.

Have you ever met someone at exactly the right moment in your life… only to realize later they were meant to teach you something?

Today’s episode is about the fastest relationship I ever fell into, red flags ignored, and the difference between chemistry & compatibility.

Welcome back to She’s Been Through Some Engineering Shit with your host, Christine, where we keep unlearning all the outdated career and life advice we never asked for but absorbed anyway.

This podcast is about debugging the systems we were handed - whether that’s workplace culture, career expectations, relationships, or the beliefs we carry about success. Today, we’re doing dating root cause analysis.

It was 2020 - world shut down, everyone isolated, and time felt completely made up. Then I met this guy.

He was funny and brought lightness into an incredibly heavy year. We connected fast. A few weeks later, I found out I had a six-week work trip to San Diego.

He said, “I don’t know if I can go that long without seeing you.”

Instead of thinking, “That’s sweet,” I apparently thought, “Perfect. Let’s fast-track this relationship.”

So I invited him to come with me.

Looking back, I was making a decision based on how safe and exciting it felt—not on how well I actually knew him. But at the time, I didn’t want to be alone in a strange city during one of the strangest moments in history.

He said yes.

For six weeks, we skipped straight to relationship mode. Morning coffee, beach days, hiking, disc golf, shared dinners, swimming—we built a tiny life together, and for a little while, 2020 almost felt normal.

But vacations aren’t real life.

When you travel with someone, you're seeing them in a bubble with fewer responsibilities, less stress, and more adventure. It's easy to mistake a great experience for long-term compatibility.

Once we got home, things changed.

He started smoking more, drinking more, and slowly became someone I barely recognized.

One night after dinner in South Philly, he stumbled into traffic after drinking. A car was coming, and I pulled him back.

That was the moment I realized I shouldn’t have to save the person I’m dating from their own choices.

The relationship didn’t end that night, but it changed how I saw it.

As engineers, we’re trained to look for patterns. One issue might be a fluke. Repeated issues point to a system problem.

Relationships work the same way.

Soon after, he told me he couldn’t spend as much time with me—right when I needed support the most. Then, when my birthday came around, he could only commit to maybe an hour or two.

That’s when I realized it wasn’t about my birthday.

It wasn’t about one dinner.

It wasn’t even about the drinking.

It was about effort.

When someone wants to build a life with you, you shouldn’t feel like you’re competing for leftover time.

A few days later, I ended the relationship. No dramatic fight—just the realization that what we had in San Diego couldn’t survive real life.

The biggest lesson?

Chemistry is not compatibility.

Someone can make you laugh, make you feel seen, and create incredible memories—and still not be the right person to build a future with.

Sometimes we have to stop asking, “How good does this feel right now?” and start asking, “Will this actually work long term?”

That lesson applies to all forms of relationships.

If you’ve ever ignored red flags, confused potential with reality, or learned a lesson about boundaries, you’re not alone.

If you have a STEM story, workplace lesson, career mistake, or a moment where you finally said, “Nope. Not today,” I’d love to hear it. Call or leave a voicemail at (267) 281-3633.

Catch you in the next episode, where we keep unlearning all the outdated career and life advice we never asked for but absorbed anyway.

Have you ever convinced yourself you were getting fired because your boss didn't reply to an email? Or assumed everyone at work knew something you didn't because of one awkward look, one unanswered message, or one mysterious meeting invite? If so, you're not alone. In this episode, we're talking about workplace anxiety, overthinking at work, imposter syndrome, career anxiety, work stress, and the fear of being the last to know. These are the kinds of thoughts that quietly creep in during the workday and suddenly take over, making ordinary moments feel like evidence that something is wrong.

I'm sharing a very real story about the spiral that never needed to happen. A look from a coworker. Silence from my manager. A meeting invite with no agenda. Before I knew it, my brain had created an entire storyline about hidden conversations, performance concerns, workplace conflict, and everyone knowing something I didn't. I replayed months of interactions, searched for clues, and convinced myself there was a problem that didn't actually exist. The truth? None of it was real. There were no secret meetings, no workplace drama, and no conversations happening behind my back. It was simply anxiety filling in the blanks.

If you've ever struggled with workplace anxiety, overthinking, imposter syndrome, self-doubt, professional confidence, or career stress, this episode will probably feel very familiar. We'll talk about why our brains naturally try to create certainty when communication feels unclear, why silence often feels louder than words, and how easy it is to mistake assumptions for facts. Whether you're new to your career or have years of experience, workplace anxiety doesn't always disappear with time. Sometimes it simply changes shape.

As a woman working in engineering, I also talk about how these experiences show up in STEM careers, engineering workplaces, technical industries, and professional environments where communication styles can be direct, limited, or open to interpretation. If you've ever questioned whether you belong, worried about making mistakes, felt left out of conversations, or battled imposter syndrome while building your career, I hope this conversation reminds you that you're far from the only person experiencing these thoughts.

This isn't one of those episodes that tells you to "just stop overthinking." Anyone who has experienced anxiety knows it doesn't work that way. Instead, I'm sharing the mindset shift that's helping me move through these moments with a little more peace: if someone has a problem with me, they need to tell me. If Monica has a problem with me, Monica needs to tell me. If John has a problem with me, John needs to tell me. I'm no longer willing to spend hours decoding facial expressions, interpreting silence, or assuming the worst when nobody has actually communicated that there's a problem.

We'll also talk about workplace communication, career confidence, emotional resilience, managing stress at work, trusting yourself, and why learning to separate facts from assumptions can completely change the way you experience your job. It's something I'm still practicing every day, and I wanted to share the journey honestly instead of pretending I've figured it all out.

This podcast isn't just about sharing my stories - it's about building a community where we can have honest conversations about adulthood, careers, engineering, women in STEM, workplace culture, mental health, confidence, friendships, personal growth, and everything that comes with trying to build a life you're proud of. I've officially opened a voicemail line where you can call in with your own stories, workplace experiences, career questions, awkward moments, engineering challenges, adulting struggles, or topics you'd love to hear discussed on future episodes. I listen to every voicemail, and I'll be answering listener questions and featuring stories in upcoming episodes.