Celine

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Environment Services

Having started a Geology degree in Brussels, Belgium, I decided to come to the University of Portsmouth to finish the degree and slightly alter it along the way. I graduated in 2005 with a first honours degree in Engineering Geology and Geotechnics and started working for Atkins shortly after. I did allow myself a three-month holiday before entering the professional world. It was the size and worldwide locations of this multi-national company, the exciting projects you see on the cover of civil engineering magazines, and the appealing training and development possibilities that made me choose Atkins.

I made a good choice in working in Swindon, a satellite office of Birmingham. This meant that the rest of my team was based in Birmingham and I was sitting alongside my clients, mostly civil engineers. I was assigned a great mentor who helped assess my skills and develop them to their strongest and sent me on training courses to learn the ones I lacked. From early on I was given a lot of responsibility. I was writing specifications for ground investigations, organising walkover surveys, supervising the works and discussing with clients to ensure we met their requirements. My projects range from massive resignalling projects to subsiding waterways and station regeneration. My first ground investigation supervision was for a station platform extension in Bristol during a freezing cold night time shift. During my last phone call for advice, a colleague had told me simply to have all the contract documents, take hot tea and be firm with the contractor. I had another colleague also working that night who was happy to coach me on the phone and in the end the works were a success and I learnt a great deal along the way.

I also have some design experience under my belt and carry out slope stability analysis and settlement calculations. There is always someone in the team to give me some tips and explanations about software or the best method to use when designing a slope or a foundation. Atkins has been very helpful in keeping the various satellite teams in contact with the main office and I have spent a few weeks working from Birmingham with all travel, hotel and food paid for! I have been lucky to have a couple of site works in Cornwall and the Malverns, as well as Cardiff, Somerset and Manchester, which has been great for touring the country.

It's nearly a year and a half since I started and I now review the contract documents written by junior members of my team, acting as checker on method statements. I do a fair amount of design and am heading meetings with contractors. I also do the cost estimating and price negotiating which demands quite a bit of persuasion skills and diplomacy. The latest spicy thing I was up to was an emergency call regarding a landslip on the railway which we were asked to advise on. I'm looking forward to the diversity of projects that will come my way in the future, along with the chance to pick up new skills and meet exciting people.

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