June Dublin is an Electrical Design Engineer with E.G. Pettit Ltd, and has been in her job since 1999.

What qualifications did you need to obtain to do your job?

A degree in Building Services Engineering at D.I.T Bolton Street (Combines both Electrical & Mechanical Engineering)

What attracted you to this career?

The indoor & outdoor lifestyle – possibility to travel

Describe a typical day in your job.

When in the office: Arrive into the office at 8.30am – Sit down read emails & general correspondence on my desk relating to particular jobs. Prioritise what work needs attention first – there are always deadlines to be met. When a new project comes in I’d do a quick estimate of the amount of power that building would use and have a chat to the ESB to see what power they have available. We usually receive drawings from an architect, which we place on to our computer system so that we can start drawing on them. After getting an overview of the project I’d then arrange a meeting with the client to see what his requirements are – normal designs usually include fire alarm, lighting, general power, CCTV, Intruder alarm, security systems – specialist designs would include control programming and other wonderful mind boggling things.

When dealing with pharmaceutical companies Instrumentation forms a very large portion of my work. Lunch comes at 12.30pm and back to work at 1.30pm. Working as an electrical engineer means that you always have to be clued into what the Mechanical Engineers are doing – and also what the civil/structural engineers are at. The mechanical engineers have to give you the electrical loads of the equipment that they will be using on the project – the normal equipment include air supply fans & extract fans, and Air Handling Unit (Air conditioning), Boilers (to give you hot water into your radiator system) Chillers, Calorifiers and pumps. Any changes the mechanical engineer makes in his equipment usually affect the electrical engineer. The civil/structural engineers like to build buildings & Mechanical & electrical engineers like to make holes in buildings – A building with no lights and no power is not a very good building but to allow the electrical cables to get to their destinations close co-ordination with the Architect, structural engineer, mechanical engineer & electrical engineer is necessary – co-ordination takes up much design time especially on large projects. Most of my days are spent doing electrical design at my desk, talking with other engineering disciplines, talking with the client, visiting construction sites and making phone calls.

When out on Site: The day begins at 7.45am (or earlier if your lucky!) with a meeting reviewing what everyone is doing that day. Construction sites are busy places and co-ordination of the contractors is paramount. Having got guidance to what areas the electrical contractors can work in that day off I go to meet up with the electrical foreman. A walk through site will bring up issues regarding workmanship, difficulties with installations, design queries, problems with suppliers, wrong equipment arriving on site and so on. Back in the site cabin a quick flick through the cable schedule and drawings solve some of our difficulties while others need to be sent back to the design office for confirmation or review. A 15min break comes at 10.30pm but one doesn’t always get time to take it. Then onto suppliers – telephone conversations back and forth about what plant was ordered and why the wrong piece of equipment has arrived on site. Pressure is on to get the right piece of equipment on site as soon as possible. Lunch is at 1pm and back to work at 1.30pm – An electrician comes through the door looking for me to witness one of the required site tests. Another trip though site, up & down ladders, watching to see if contractors is complying with the safety requirements. Back in the cabin the drawings are taken out to mark up the design changes that have been made. These will be the most important documents at the end of the project as the client will need to have a clear indication of what has been installed. Just then a mechanical guy walks though the door needing power to an Air Handling Unit immediately. We find an electrician and get a temporary supply to the unit. The day usually ends at 4.30pm if it’s a normal site. If the construction time line is short then it may be until 6pm. On occasions you may have to work later or if there is particularly hazardous work to be done. Construction sites are quick paced, high pressure places especially if it’s a large project with short time lines but the craic on sites is great – even if tempers run a little frayed at times!

Does your job match the expectations you had for it before you started it?

Definitely not! I had a poor idea of what electrical/mechanical engineers did before I left college – boring, mundane, mathematical and wearing hard hats. I never realised how diverse the industry is and how easy it is to change from being an office engineer to a site engineer or from design to management – the possibilities are endless. There is much teamwork involved in engineering and people skills play a much higher role in my job than I ever anticipated. The ability to communicate clearly is paramount – Technical knowledge is required but about 50% of your work is dealing with people – clients, architects, other engineers, contractors, consultants, ESB, Telecom etc. etc. etc.

What are the best things about your job?

Seeing something you have designed been built. Making a dead line that you have worked hard for. The many people that you meet. The diversity of the projects that you can work on. The ability to change career paths without any difficulty. Coming up with solutions to problem. Great opportunities to travel the world and experience other walks of life.

What are the worst things about your job?

The mundane paper work involved in day to day correspondence. Filing. High stress levels at times!

What are the key skills you require for your job?

Good Communicator, reasonably well organised, ability to keep calculations in a neat & orderly fashion, willingness to always be learning something new, good team player. Ability to be versatile. Ability to see problems as challenges to be solved rather than problems!

What advice would you have for someone who was interested in this career?

Find an engineer and ask them if can you follow them around for 3-5days – great way to see exactly what goes on. (I did this in my leaving cert. year with an engineer in the county council). Don’t be worried about the maths end of things and don’t let that put you off as once you are finished in college the maths aren’t difficult. Maths in College is taught in order to develop engineers ability to think, to teach them to keep notes in an orderly fashion and to know from first principles how physics works. Much of the maths you learn in college won’t be used when working but one does need to know the fundamentals. And if you don’t know what you what to do for the rest of your life engineering is a great education which can open doors into many areas.

If you were now to change careers, what could/would you do?

Could: Project management, Technical Sales, I.T, Accountancy, Set up your own consultancy, Building Maintenance. Many companies look for people with engineering backgrounds as they are considered very ‘trainable’!

Would: Go into ‘counselling’ – Have good life experience now that I’ve been in a working environment for a number of years - have learnt much about working in pressured environments and its toll on peoples personal lives & relationships. There is an increasing need for good solid level-headed counsellors based in reality. Would have to go back to study if I chose to go this route.