The Modern Engineer

By Luke Howells

A Familiar Journey

I’ve been in the Construction Industry for 15 years, leaving secondary education and entering into a modern apprenticeship, working up to a senior role.

My role as a Civil Engineer has been ever changing as I’ve progressed through my career. 

The tasks I undertook as part of the design team were heavily influenced by the design office I was in and the team members around me.

I have worked for large consultancies and Local Authorities throughout my career, but no matter who my employer the roles were very similar.
 

The role of a Civil Engineer is broad by definition, the breadth of what we cover is vast and this is reflected in the projects we work on. The Modern Engineer, unlike Engineers past, seem to have a greater undertaking across the whole project.

 
My career started on the bottom rung of the ladder, working as a Trainee Technician in a global consultancy, earning my way up.

From here it seemed as if each person had a specific role to perform within the design team, and when I started this may have been the case but as I progressed through the company I began to see roles merge together and tasks overlap. The definition still remained between specialisms such as Highway Design and Structures but roles in each team stretched over multiple tasks and design.
 
As my role began to develop and my skill set grew, I continually had to return to the tasks previously undertaken in my junior role.
Despite a continuing influx of new staff and development, the constant need for a greater team output meant any new responsibility didn’t push aside my existing undertakings.
I’m not trying to portray myself as a martyr, far from it. This was a situation that reflected the majority of the design office.
Time and cost influences dominated the office, multitasking across the project became a familiar undertaking.

With the majority of Clients deciding to take the design in-house as an attempt to combat escalating costs, I made the move to a Local Authority where the job role seemed to blur the lines even further. I really felt as a ‘Jack of all trades’.
 
To some degree, the majority of projects proved more effective undertaken by a single engineer. Taking the initial Client brief through prelim and detailed design, onto construction supervision and handover.

Project progression and management was now the sole responsibility of one person. From a client’s perspective this meant one point of contact for all queries, for better or worse this quickly became an everyday occurence. 

To help with the situation Engineers within the office would trade off  more specialised tasks in return for assistance in other areas of the project. 
A sole engineer managing multiple tasks across multiple projects, whilst trying to provide enough work to develop junior staff was an all too common sight.
 
A sole engineer managing multiple tasks across multiple projects, whilst trying to provide enough work to develop junior staff was an all too common sight.

Don’t get me wrong I’m not complaining or trying to put myself on a pedestal, this was just the ‘norm’ and a familiar story from my colleagues and engineering friends.

With ever growing Client demands both time and cost are critical, this can only continue for so long! A change is definitely needed and I don’t think it will be long before it does.
Upon leaving the Local Authority earlier this year a shift was beginning to appear, this time the reverse of previous events, in order to seek better value for money, projects were being outsourced back to external consultants. Trying to beat the trend some of my colleagues changed back to external employment but they found, as I had, that although the employer has changed the responsibilities, the job role remained the same.

The role of a Civil Engineer may always remain a mystery to those on the outside, but those of us who have lived it, it’s an exciting challenge across all fronts.  Tackling changing financial circumstances, continual development of materials and techniques, being a ‘jack’ of all trades really does stand you in good stead and something I wouldn’t change.

My new role now allows me to help develop the Engineers of the future, some of who will follow a similar path to myself.

I am who I am today because of the trials and successes my career has given me. I am and always will be a Civil Engineer.

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