Gaby Vicarey

Hi everyone, my name is Gaby and I’m an assistant engineering geologist in the Leeds geotechnical team at WSP. I have an undergraduate degree in Physical Geography and Geology and a master’s degree in Engineering Geology.

I previously worked at a contracting firm for 2 years, working on large scale ground investigations. My role included logging soil and rock to British standards and overseeing drilling operations. I have been working for WSP for 2.5 years, I have worked on a variety of projects mostly in Yorkshire, including earthworks construction, foundation design, ground investigation, monitoring and rock slope stability.

These projects have included:

• Writing and preparing desk studies, specifications, phase 1 and 2 and ground investigation reports;
• Overseeing site works (construction, ground investigation and soil/rock nailing) including scheduling testing and onsite technical support, and;
• Producing technical drawings and computer modelling. 

I have also had the opportunity to be level 1 IRATA trained for slope stability projects, this allows me to use rope access techniques to geotechnically assess slopes and rock faces and oversee stability works. An interesting thing to talk about and (when safe) to get pictures for the gram!

Why should you join my team?

I have found WSP a great company to work for, during my graduate programme I felt very supported and welcomed.

I started in October 2019 about 5 months before the pandemic, so not a lot of time to become 100% situated with all the processes and policies of the company and my new role. However, during furlough and lockdowns the company and my team were really supportive and kept in touch with regular calls/quizzes and competitions.

The Leeds geotechnical team is currently 9 people strong with a mixture of engineering grades (graduate to associate), backgrounds (geology, geotech and civils) and experience (small to large scale national and international projects). We are quite close as a team regularly working together on projects and having after work social events, including bowling, darts, mini golf and volunteering.

We also are active in attending/taking part in industry lead events, mostly lectures and conferences from the British Geotechnical Association (BGA), British Geological Society (BGS) and the Institute of Civil Engineers (ICE).