Case studies: Engineer: Mark

After graduating, Mark secured an engineering role at Atkins, where he has worked for the last six years. He holds a BSc in Civil Engineering as well as an MSc in Structural Engineering...

I applied to Atkins through the graduate recruitment section of the website. I attended a graduate assessment centre, and I was subsequently offered a position as a graduate engineer.

Over the last six years, I have developed my engineering skills, as well as other commercial and people skills, and became a chartered engineer, through the ICE, in 2009.

Both my degree and Masters were relevant to my current job. My degree gave me a background into the civil engineering industry and allowed me to develop some basic skills which I use today. My Masters allowed me to develop some more specific skills to use in structural engineering.

A typical working day can vary depending on the type of project I am involved in at the time. The majority of my current workload is more technically based design and assessment. A small part of my current job is project management.

My role has developed from being predominantly project work based to a mixture of project work and project management. I am currently considering which career routes I would like to pursue in both the short and long term.

I undertake a lot of technical work as part of a project team. In the short term, I would like to undertake more project management, with a view to becoming involved in business management in the long term.

I enjoy working on a wide variety of projects and seeing my ideas being constructed. The most challenging parts of my job are developing my technical skills alongside project management, commercial and inter-personal/people management skills. There are a wide variety of projects that we are able to work on in this sector. Each project has its own specific requirement and constraints, requiring both individual thought and team work.

I would advise any students or graduates who want to get into the engineering sector to gain a wide variety of experience, possibly taking the opportunity to work in different locations.

AGCAS

Written by AGCAS editors

Date: 

September 2010

© Copyright AGCAS & Graduate Prospects Ltd | Disclaimer