Engineering: Case studies

search for » job vacancies in engineering

Lucy, materials & corrosion engineer

Lucy graduated with a degree in materials science from Oxford University and now works as a downstream materials and corrosion engineer for Shell.

'My first job at Shell was as a materials and corrosion engineer in our technical consultancy, Shell Global Solutions. As so many people say, there is no such thing as a 'typical day'.

Ads by Google

From the moment I opened my email I never knew from which corner of the world, or area of the business - gas, chemicals, refining, or renewables - would require the day-to-day helpdesk service that I was involved in providing.

There were also the larger projects and on-going services, which ranged from materials selection for new builds or revamps to failure analysis and perhaps a global teleconference for technical knowledge management.

Then there was the possibility of a ‘lunch and learn’ event on site, a graduate event, a women's network event or a diversity and inclusiveness workshop.

That was if it was a day in the office. Activities that I was sent to on manufacturing sites could include an asset integrity review, risk based inspection workshop or shutdown inspection support to name just a few. The Amsterdam office where I was located covered the European and African customers, with our sister offices in Houston and Kuala Lumpur looking after the rest of the world.

Since then, I moved jobs and am now located at Shell’s refinery in Singapore, working on site as a materials and corrosion engineer. This is the ideal next job after working in the technical consultancy and a great opportunity to put into practice what I have learnt in my previous job. Not to mention the practical experience of site operations that is crucial to experience in this field and the opportunity to work in another part of the world.'

Will, graduate engineer (infrastructure)

'I joined Mott MacDonald in March 2006, as a graduate engineer in the infrastructure division. My team gets involved in all aspects of highway and drainage design, from small residential schemes, local highway alignment and drainage design, to the pavement and building drainage design for large public building projects.

There are two aspects of my job that I enjoy the most:

• Infrastructure projects often have a quick turnaround time so there is always a new job just around the corner, and, as with most engineering projects, two jobs are rarely the same.
• A lot of the work involves liaison with local authorities, landscape architects and utility providers, in order to produce a design that will satisfy all parties concerned. This requires good communication and people skills, and it is surprising how quickly you learn to be able to hold your own and negotiate, when people from all parties want their needs to be met.

Whilst the work may not be as technically challenging as carrying out analysis of a structure, it presents more challenges in terms of logistics and flexibility, and quite often find that our discipline is the one that needs to change to accommodate other factors.

With all of my work involving digging up the ground in some form, you can guarantee that you will discover something there that had not been shown on the survey that will require design changes.

And with some flooding problems in the UK, the spotlight is on drainage engineers to come up with innovative ways in which higher intensity rainfall can be channelled safely away from residential homes and businesses'.