23 Jan, 2024

What is your role and what does it involve?

At the moment I'm Data Management Assistant, so my role is to gather information from all the sites to create logs, create photo files and use that for the final report.

How long have you been working with us?

Total it’s been close to five years now!

Can you describe your career journey so far?

So originally when I came to London, I studied photography and then I decided to do Earth Sciences back at university. I did a Geological degree and then I did a master's in Environmental Sustainability and then I got involved with Geotechnics. So, from graduate engineer to logger going on site and then going to the production side of things including and lab as well, way before all of that. Yeah, very much a mix of things.

What do you think have been your biggest achievements so far in your career?

Achieving doing my master's, you know, it was hard, especially because I was working full time at the same time, so that was quite hard. Especially as well when you're a bit older and all the going back to university can be hard.

What is your favourite part of your job?

It's probably the people you know, I think I'm quite people oriented. So, I like to deal with people and interact. So probably that's my favorite part of job.

What advice would you give to someone taking their first steps in the industry?

Oh, I would say I guess that you cant feel hopeless. I think sometimes it's quite hard to do the first step and might seem impossible but you know, persevere and eventually once you get a first step into the industry, you're set. But just persevere and don't be too hard on yourself.

What do you think are the biggest changes and challenges within the industry going forward? 

The economic side of things, you know obviously the world is not in a great place in terms of economy.  So, that might have an impact in our industry as well, less manufacturing, less building stuff if the economy is not healthy. So, I would say that's probably one of the great ones, maybe be a little bit more sustainable and environmental awareness as well. That’s another challenge I would say, that and how the economy is doing.

What do you like to do outside of work?

I don't have much time, you know, because I have a dog and a wife! So, mainly it's walking the dog these days. We like to listen to a lot of good music as well and watch good films. I kind of go in and out of practicing martial arts and traditionally I used to do quite a bit of photography but lately I haven't because it's hard to find the time.

What is a surprising fact that people might not know about you?

In 2000 when I came to the UK I had a plane crash landing in Bournemouth. So, my flight got caught in a storm and we kind of crashed as we landed. The front wheel came off and we kind of had to jump out of the emergency exit. So, I kind of had a bit of an actual plane crash! Now every time I go on a plane I'm very rational, I think well that's not going to happen twice!