As there was a high demand for structural design engineers in the market at the time, I was approached by a recruitment agency who had a number of companies looking for employees. I had several meetings with the agency to ascertain my career goals and which companies would best meet the criteria.

My CV was forwarded to the relevant companies and I was called for interviews in due course. The interviews I attended were thorough both in assessing personal skills in communication and management, and also on technical issues. No written tests were required but detailed discussions and typical scheme designs and design results were called for. All of these skills would be achieved over the course of your career to date and questions were reasonable and relevant.

With job offers from two companies with similar packages offered, my final decision came down to the personal feel of the office at Michael Punch & Partners. The position fulfilled my career ideals and the atmosphere was welcoming and friendly with an environment I felt I could fit in to. This quality can often be overlooked in a company when choosing the right job but is imperative to have a good work life balance as such a large percentage of your life is spent  in the working environment.

The contract with the company was posted to me following the agreement of a start date. I signed the contract and returned it to Michael Punch & Partners where I continue my career to date.

A typical day begins at 8.30am and the first item for review is typically emails, faxes and post items to ascertain and prioritise the day's work ahead. Tasks throughout the day would include meetings with clients, contractors and other design team members, detailed design of structural elements, preparation of drawings to be completed in Autocad by drawing technicians and quality assurance within the office to ensure good work practices.

Engineering is often a challenging career both from a design and time perspective. Clients will always require good value for money so there is pressure to perform in the most efficient and practical way. Unlike many careers, the rewards for working as a structural engineer are very tangible. It is very gratifying to walk down the street and look at buildings and structures that you have personally designed.

An important part of being an engineer is keeping up with modern technology and advances in materials sciences. All engineers must take part in Continuing Professional Development to ensure their skills are up to date and to learn new skills particularly early on in your career. Thus there are days when an engineer will attend seminars, lectures and courses to achieve these goals.

My primary responsibilities are as a project engineer. This involves liaising with the client and design team to co-ordinate on all aspects of a project;

• Detailed structural design and preparation of drawings to be drawn up in Autocad by a drawing technician;
• Implementation of the quality assurance policy in the office to ensure good working practices;
• Delegation of tasks to fellow internal team members on larger projects;
• Reporting to the Project Sponsor and/or Director on all project items.

Employees at MPP (Michael Punch & Partners) also prepare CPD (Continuous Professional Development) activities in-house. For example, with the change over from BS (British Standards) codes of practice to the Eurocodes by 2010, teams within the MPP offices, one of which I was team leader of, have each taken sections of the new codes and prepared lectures outlining the important changes and new design procedures to be carried out. These lectures are then delivered to each of the MPP offices in Dublin, Limerick and Cork to share knowledge within the company, develop presentation skills and most importantly to keep up to date with these important changes in the industry.

As an engineer there are always new challenges as no two projects are ever identical. The application of engineering design principles are carried out on all structural elements and the initial scheme design phase will typically determine what material is to be used for the main structure i.e. steel, concrete, masonry, timber. This is a crucial decision making stage on any project and many options are typically explored to achieve the right balance between aesthetics, costs and practicality.

On a day to day basis, there is the challenge of working as efficiently as possible without any compromise on design or quality assurance issues. Meeting the high demands of clients in the current economic environment is an ongoing challenge and requires careful internal resourcing and management to ensure a quality job is complete on every project.