engineering
Victoria Barbour-Smith (DH 2012) WHAT CAREER DID YOU SEE YOURSELF IN WHEN YOU WERE 16? As my best
WORDS OF ADVICE: Grab every
subjects at school were Maths and Physics, someone suggested I look into engineering as a possible career and so I decided that it would be amazing to be an aerospace engineer or to work with a Formula 1 team.
opportunity that comes your way, and be organised. Never let someone make you believe that you’re not good enough. There have been times when the maledominated world of engineering felt impenetrable but I’m not going to give up. I’ve found that a lot of enthusiasm and a desire to learn can get you a long way.
A LEVELS: Pre-U Maths, Further Maths and Politics. UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE: General Engineering at University of Cambridge CAREER PATH: I chose Cambridge because you can study General Engineering
for two years before you decide on a specialism. At the start, I was certain that I would head for aerospace engineering but during the summer holidays, I went on an eight-week placement to Ecuador to work with a charity called TECHO, which builds transitional housing for rural developing communities. By the time I returned to the UK, I knew that I wanted to be a structural engineer. I then set about finding work experience and secured a placement at the Arup Group, a global civil and structural engineering firm in Edinburgh to which I was extremely fortunate to return for an internship the following summer. CURRENT OCCUPATION: After graduating, Arup offered me a post as a Graduate
Engineer in the Bridges Department based in London working on a number of different projects to ensure that I gained enough experience to become a Chartered Engineer. The projects ranged from big projects such as Crossrail to small projects such as checking national rail bridges for signs of deterioration. At some point, I hope to be able to work in one of Arup’s offices in China to put to use the Mandarin that I learnt with Mrs Healey at School. Looking further into the future, I also hope that one day, I might be the engineer responsible for a large infrastructure project on the scale of the Forth Replacement Crossing.
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“I hope to be able to work in one of Arup’s offices in China to put to use the Mandarin that I learnt with Mrs Healey at School.”