I decided to study engineering as I didn’t know what I wanted to do and everyone said it would give me transferable skills. As I obtained a degree in Mechanical Engineering with Advanced Design and Innovation (Masters – 5 year sandwich) at the University of Bath, I discovered I really enjoyed it and that it was the career I wanted to pursue.
I was delighted to land a place on Royal IHC’s graduate programme. It featured a number of rotations, and my first was in the Access department, where I worked on some standard and some non-standard access systems, and an unusual access arrangement in one location that required to be both extendable and fold out to avoid clashes with the tower when not in use.
Next, I spent time in the R&D department. Although I was always planning to specialise in Hydraulics, my R&D rotation proved extremely useful as it ranged from working on the development of a new subsea plough arrangement to carrying out the hydraulic design for the plough.
Finally, I joined the Hydraulics department, where the first project I worked on was the design of a Subsea Plough hydraulic system. I carried through the project from initial design through to helping commission the plough at the Port.
Working with people who are experienced in the field has really helped me to improve, and I know the rest of my department will answer any questions and explain the reasons too. It's also good to get to see the projects go from initial hand sketches and workings through to being able to walk around the finished article. I've been given lots of opportunities to complete Hydraulics training courses to further my knowledge of design justifications.
Now in a permanent role at Royal IHC, my work currently varies a lot depending on what projects there are. I’m able to pick up packages of work for our other UK sites, including a couple of hydraulic systems for upgrades being completed by Grey Street office. I enjoy the variability and uniqueness of these projects especially as the harsh environments the equipment works in adds extra challenges to the designs. Working out the logic of how to recover a plough if it gets stuck 1500m subsea with no power is an interesting challenge!
