Name: Emma Scholes   Job: Principal Geo-Environmental Engineer at Curtins and National Chair at ACE Emerging Professionals 

What does your job involve?  Geo-environmental engineers are brought in early in a project to review and collect information on a site to inform how the development is designed. This involves spending time both out on site and in the office. In the office we might be doing desk-based reviews of existing information on a site, scoping out ground investigations, and writing reports on our findings. On site the role involves supervising ground investigations or earthworks / remediation. Personally, my role now involves a lot more project and team management.

What do you enjoy most about your job?  I like the variation. Every site is so different to the last and comes with its own challenges and problems to solve. We work all around the UK, and as a career it can easily lead to work internationally as well. I also really enjoy getting to interact with so many different roles on a project, I enjoy learning about what other people do and it keeps things interesting.

How did you get into this career?  I’ve always loved the outdoors and stumbled into Geology at school thanks to having a Geography teacher with an interest in it! I never expected it would lead me to engineering when I pursued a degree in it, but as I learnt about all the different career paths, I found engineering and the construction industry gave me the balance of all the things I enjoy most.

Have you got any advice for others looking to pursue a similar career?  Find things that interest you and then look at how to make that your job. All careers have good days and bad days so it really does matter to enjoy what you do! I think taking as many opportunities as you can early on is great, if you’re unsure on what you want to do try to get some placements to experience what working in that role might look like. The right qualifications (degree / apprenticeship) is important, but getting real hands-on experience is invaluable.