What's your job about?

Northrop is an engineering consultancy that is locally owned. I’m currently working in the Newcastle office, in which Northrop is involved in many local projects and has been instrumental in the growth of Newcastle’s infrastructure over the last 20 years, which is one of the reasons I was so interested in working here.

As a structural engineer at Northrop, we are responsible for working out the structural elements required to make an architect's/designer's plans come to fruition whilst ensuring the building is structurally sound.

At Northrop, I’m involved with first completing the concept and detailed design of sizes of the structural elements and materials we can use for them to achieve strength and stability. This includes designing the connections of how the building all fits together. I’m then involved through the construction of the project and answering any questions the builder and architect may have regarding optimising aesthetics and reducing time and cost.

A fun project I have been involved with is Knights Boarding House, which will be a home for the younger players in the development squad of the local NRL team, Newcastle Knights. This house is architecturally designed and will be an asset to our community, which has been super rewarding to be a part of.

What's your background?

I’ve grown up in Lake Macquarie, which is 20 mins south of Newcastle, NSW and went to high school in Newcastle. My interests in high school were economics and math/science, so I wanted to study something relating to these, so I decided on combined Civil Engineering and Business after noticing the opportunities for civil engineers in Newcastle.

At the end of my final year of high school, I secured an engineering cadetship with Transport for NSW, where I worked at Sydney Trains in railway maintenance (civil/structural areas) and then Infrastructure and Place on the Newcastle Inner City Bypass throughout my 5-year degree.

Throughout university, I volunteered in the Newcastle University Women in Engineering Society as the treasurer and then Vice President. Through the industry networking opportunities this role came with, I was able to meet a variety of industry professionals that had studied civil engineering and understand the different pathways it could take.

After meeting many of the wonderful females from the Northrop office at these student/industry networking events and wanting to pursue the technical/design side of the engineering degree, I decided to apply at Northrop in the structural engineering team, being intrigued by the projects Northrop designs and the culture being a great fit.

Could someone with a different background do your job?

Yes, I believe they could—with an engineering degree/background. Someone who is technically minded and a good problem solver who can also communicate their ideas to varied audiences, especially people who haven’t got an engineering background, would be perfect.

I think the ability to communicate with different clients and stakeholders on the importance of the structural element you have designed, whilst also being practical and understanding their needs/motivators, is super important to being a good engineer in this industry, and anyone who possesses these skills would be excellent.

What's the coolest thing about your job?

Being the bridge between the technical/mathematical side of construction and the practical side of construction. As structural engineers, we understand the theoretical side of a building’s stability. Working with builders to find solutions to issues and explaining the technicalities behind the solution is super rewarding. Good builders will suggest what they think will work, and we become a team to get the best solution for the client, which is super rewarding.

At Northrop, we complete the inspections for the building that we have designed. This is extremely rewarding, seeing on-site the building erected that you have done the design calculations for, and it makes us realise the impact we have!

What are the limitations of your job?

A limitation of being a structural engineer is being responsible for the integrity and safety of a building, which can be an overwhelming thought. Northrop has quality assurance systems to ensure other engineers within the company complete a review of each other’s work to prevent any mistakes being made, which is reassuring. There is still the responsibility of the engineer to ensure they are designing the building correctly and ensuring everyone will be safe using it!

Another limitation is the tight deadlines/turnarounds. Sometimes the builder will require a solution as soon as possible on a site issue to ensure they can continue their work within the timeframe they are given. This means we must be able to undertake the design calculations and have an answer to them quickly while completing our other work that has other deadlines, but finding a solution that is structurally adequate and that the builder is happy with is very rewarding.

3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...

• Understand what career prospects are out there early on at university by talking to engineers in the industry at networking events. 

Knowing what options you have after your degree is important! Finding this out as early on as possible is best, as then you can go and work as an undergraduate in different roles to see what suits your lifestyle and your skills best.

• Get involved in university societies.

Being involved in the Newcastle University Women in Engineering Society was so beneficial to me. I met so many cool people within the local industry who attended the events, and I could find out what their roles were like, as well as opening me up to opportunities I wouldn’t have known were out there otherwise.

• Network with other students in your degree.

Networking not for the purpose of finding opportunities but getting to know fellow students taking the same career path/study path as me was important. Being able to talk through those confusing assignments, hanging out together, and making new friends makes the uni experience so much more enjoyable.