Background: Portsmouth University – General Civil Engineering
As a recent graduate my focus has been on learning. Most of what I’ve been doing day-to-day, even when working on live projects, is learning. A lot of it has been stuff I’ve done once before, gone over it, thought I understood it, then the next day I’ve come back and have realised I’d learnt something new!
I’ve made progress with the support of senior engineers around me and graduates who are a year ahead of me. I am changing to a better way of thinking which I can use going forward. I refer to the Eurocodes on daily basis. I was shown this at university, but not how to take something we have done and analyse in detail against the Eurocode. The Graduate Engineering Programme develops more technical learning and more applicable learning to structural engineering.
Coming from a university which is on the coast the graduate programme was attractive because it was in a busy central London location.
Robert Bird Group was highly rated on the teaching of engineers and supporting their progression to become Chartered Engineers. This aligned with where I want to take my career path and was the best graduate scheme I found.
I found the hardest thing was switching from full time remote university learning – I was at university through COVID – to full time in the office. This took me some adjusting, but we were offered hybrid working to help us through.
I’ve found it helpful and important to write down my notes carefully, whether it is project related or my own to-do list. I’ve had to learn to be very clear in my note-taking so others can pick up if they need too. Reaching my first major work deadline and delivering while being under pressure was a relief and a great achievement for me!
The projects I’ve enjoyed working on the most have been the Cricklewood Data Centre and the White City project, which is still in the early stages. Whilst I’ve only contributed minor parts on both, I have very much enjoyed the experience of learning new things and gaining an understanding of what my career path could be. Separately I made a site visit to a One Leadenhall where I got to gain a better understanding of how the work we do comes together during the project.
Don’t get complacent with your job search or applying, you never know where you will end up! And don’t be afraid to ask if there is something on your mind. I found it useful having a part time job at university, even though it wasn’t working near my career as it gave me motivation to pursue a job I was interested in. It was also beneficial in other ways as it got me into the rhythm of work life.
