MEng (Hons) Structural Engineering with Fire Safety, 2011
What path has your career taken since graduation?
I started off working for a company based in Aberdeen, which specialised in providing fire safety services to the oil and gas industry. I worked on a wide variety of subject matter topics including passive and active fire protection, fire and gas detection, blast mitigation and modelling fires and also gas leaks. I then moved to a company in Grangemouth after five years and transferred into the petrochemical and built environment sector. This allowed me to work in the role I now am, which is a fire safety engineer in the built environment (i.e. construction) with OFR Fire and Risk Consultants.
What is your current role and what does your work involve?
I am a fire safety engineer with OFR Fire and Risk Consultants, so my principal role is assisting others in making sure buildings are designed in line with the building regulations for fire safety (Part B in England; Section 2 in Scotland). This involves a very wide variety of tasks from carrying out evacuation time calculations to modelling the fire dynamics of a fire in a particular space, to reviewing the details of a fire resisting wall.
Due to my level of experience, I am also responsible for several junior staff in helping them plan their work and providing general mentoring of their professional progression. I work on a large range of projects, including, but not limited to: residential buildings, hotels, offices, power stations, telecommunication facilities (datacentres) and also the ESO ELT project. What I find most rewarding about my work is no two days are the same, because fire safety engineering involves so many different things, I am never bored as each day holds something new!
What experiences do you feel helped you get to your current position?
My current position and my current ability has definitely been enhanced by the unorthodox route I have taken. Most fire safety engineers go into the profession directly after graduating from university. Spending five years in a different industry and slightly different job role, has definitely benefited me for the long term due to having a different perspective from a lot of my peers. In addition, my degree is integral to the work I have done since university and especially now.
How have you used the skills and/or knowledge developed during your degree in your career?
Well, my current role is a fire safety engineer, so my masters degree is directly relevant to what I do now. The things I learnt during my degree, and also the way to think about problems in general has stuck with me throughout my working career. It has been invaluable to my progress since I graduated.
What do you think was the most valuable aspect of your time at Edinburgh in preparation for your career?
The breadth of learning you are allowed to do at Edinburgh really. I was able to study a relatively wide variety of subjects (including general engineering in first year), which I think provides engineers with a brilliant mindset for industry. This is because, even though we specialise into different job types, you still work with all types of engineers on large projects. Therefore, having studied some subjects that others do (even if to a fundamental level only), this gives you more understanding of their viewpoint on issues etc.
What advice would you give to students who are interested in your area of work?
I think firstly, remember that engineers work with other engineers and other people, don’t just focus on gaining a solid technical grounding, but also on soft skills, for example being able to work well with other people. Secondly, if you are wanting to pursue a fire safety engineering role, then studying as many fire science related courses at the University of Edinburgh would be hugely beneficial. Lastly, embrace a wide variety of courses and experiences at university, this has held me in good stead for life in general but especially for my career.
