Michelle Maloney

Name: Michelle Maloney
Job: Graduate geotechnical engineer
Area of work: Geotechnical
Employer: Ramboll UK
Qualifications: MEng civil engineering, Imperial College London

I’ve always been interested in buildings and how they work, and fascinated by large-scale civils projects such as bridges and dams. I wanted a career that would be productive and contribute to something. I really enjoyed the geotechnical modules on my course and my fourth-year coursework settled it: we analysed real soils data and presented our findings, as if we were at a real company. It was a taste of the work I’d do later on and I loved it.

Assessing settlement

My main project is a retail and residential development in Cardiff; we’re assessing how much it will settle into the ground during construction. I analyse data from soil samples and boreholes taken during a site investigation before I started, and I’ve done extra investigations on site since then. I use computer programs to model settlement – I’d never done this before but I picked it up quickly.

I also write reports and do desk studies. I examine historical maps to look for possible sources of contamination and investigate local council planning applications and reports of contamination and ground gas. I find out what the site and surrounding area have been used for to investigate the risks in terms of geology, contamination and the water table. I recently did a desk study for the redevelopment of a castle in the Lake District. It’s on limestone, which is quite unusual – the rock dissolves in water so you get caverns and cracks that can’t be seen on the surface but might cause problems.

Each job requires a new approach

The ground conditions, history and environmental contamination are different with each site, so each job requires a new approach and I’m constantly learning new things. Initially I found juggling several jobs a challenge but I have improved my time management and working on several jobs is now a highlight! In ten years’ time, I’d like to be working on complex projects and running my own team. Geotechnics is still developing, so there’s lots of scope to improve and refine techniques. I want to keep up with new, improved methods and use cutting-edge analysis techniques.

Top tips

Don’t worry if you think your degree isn’t specific enough for geotechnics. I was worried that I wouldn’t have the specific knowledge required but it wasn’t the case – you can pick up and learn the technical stuff as you go. Other team members have backgrounds in maths, civil engineering and geotechnics; each person brings their own talents and they’re all useful.