Simon Cetkowski

Technician, Track team

What was your route into Engineering?
My route into Engineering started when I did some work experience with AMEC Foster Wheeler in the Nuclear Design team. I had enjoyed working with the team and from that point on, I wanted to be in the Design Engineering Industry. Once I had completed my A-Levels, I did not want to go to university straight away and applied for an Apprenticeship – I am currently studying a Civil Engineering course whilst being sponsored by SYSTRA.

Is engineering different from what you expected?
I find that Engineering is sort of what I expected. I had a rough idea as to what sort of problems I would be solving through the work experience I had already done, but as the railway industry is different to other industries I had to broaden my knowledge to cater for the new standards and regulations that I have to adhere to on a daily basis.

What is the best part of your job?
Designing. I think that the concept of designing something from a Technical Workscope (TWS), coming up with many different ideas and pitching them to the client to see what they would prefer – there could be differences in construction, costs or capacity – and then finishing the design to the best level possible is a really good feeling. It’s also great to see the design being installed and looking back at it being able to say, ‘I designed that’. That’s what’s good about the job.

What would you say to someone considering a career in engineering?
I would say, if you want to do it, got for it – you don’t know until you try it. At the end of the day, we have to try something to see if we like it. Engineering has many possibilities, you could go into design, survey, construction and many other options – so even if you don’t like one aspect of engineering there are many other routes you can take to find what is right for you.