Jade Hundziak: United Utilities graduate

Employer: United Utilities
University: University of Manchester
Subject: BEng civil engineering
Graduated: 2008

I was attracted to civil engineering as it seemed to offer the most variety of work – I get bored easily! I did work experience with a contractor before university and during my vacations – it did a lot of work for United Utilities, which developed my interest in working in water. Also, my degree modules that most interested me were water, hydraulics and environmental engineering.

My first placement

I’m on a two-year graduate scheme, rotating round different areas of the business. In my first placement I worked on a cleaning programme for major trunk mains (large water pipes) and aqueducts. I spent the majority of the time in the office, helping assess high-risk parts of the mains (for example in relation to structural integrity) and ensuring compliance with regulations, though there were frequent site visits.

Working on a £120m project

I’m now on my second placement, assisting on a £120m project to construct a 1.2 metre diameter potable water pipe from Bury to Prescot. There’s a lot to learn, for example about hydraulics, geotechnical engineering and tunnelling. I’m working as a field engineer and spend most of my time out on site, overseeing contractors’ work: I monitor quality, compliance with health and safety regulations and programming (assessing how work is progressing against schedule and considering how this will impact on future work). I work a 37-hour week, though I sometimes need to put in extra depending on deadlines. I’m expected to be mobile to travel to sites within the north west – at the moment I have about a 40-minute commute to work.

Skills to interact with different people

I need to be organised, pragmatic and have good communication and interpersonal skills as I work with lots of people at all different levels: this includes construction managers, projects managers, suppliers, contractors, consultancies and specialist organisations. It’s also important that I’m self-aware, realising what I don’t know and when I need to ask questions. Management, legal and technical training I’ve had lots of training since starting work in areas such as management development, relevant health and safety legislation, and technical matters such as large diameter pipelines and excavation support. I’ve also received training that will help me towards my chartership with the Institution of Civil Engineers.