What motivated you to become an engineer?

I’ve always been interested in design and how things work. My dad is a mechanic, and at school a few of my friends’ dads were engineers. At a young age a friend and I made a go-kart out of a lawnmower engine, planks and pram wheels with our dads’ help. My first car was £35 from a breakers yard which I fully repaired back to a road worth condition. I think that being around things like engines and moving parts from a young age definitely helped to spark my interest in engineering.

 

What have been the highlights of being on the graduate scheme with Crossrail?

In terms of learning, being on the graduate scheme at Crossrail has been massive. I turned up with a basic knowledge of civil engineering. It’s been a heavy learning curve getting on track with infrastructure, and also the railway and everything that goes around it. Part of being a competent engineer is having cross-discipline experience, and this industry is heavily electrical and civil.

I’ve been on the system-wide main works contract, which is essentially the contractor that fits out the entirety of the tunnels – everything from the track, the overhead line, the tunnel ventilation at each end of the station, bracketry for cables… Basically, everything in the tunnels is theirs.

The highlights of the scheme so far for me are doing the field work; being on the ground as part of the delivery team.

Why did you become a member of the Institution?

Joining the Institution is the best way to show that you have weight in saying you’re a competent engineer; you can’t say you’re a competent engineer without having a governing body behind you. Having done a masters, I decided to work towards chartership. In this industry, when a contractor tenders for a contract, they have to say how many competent engineers they have, and being chartered is one of those requirements.

Where do you want your career to take you?

I’ve always wanted to keep myself open; I don’t want to specify yet, so I’ve still been going to oil and gas talks and conferences at the Institution. This helps me keep up to date with new innovations and the pushings forward of technology and engineering.