After leaving university, my first job was at Oscar Faber (now AECOM) as a consultant with a transport focus. They let me work on a plethora of different projects and I wasn't confined to traffic signals, traffic management, public transport or development work. The breadth of things that I got to work on really helped me develop rapidly as a professional.

As a fresh graduate, there's a fear of the unknown, but nobody's going to let you make any huge mistakes that are going to get the project in trouble. If I could go back in time, I'd tell myself to relax: even if you miscalculate that model, if you measure it incorrectly, it's manageable, you can deal with it. People are going to support you.

Another thing I realised early on was that my writing style had to change. You spend a lot of time at university developing a wordy approach, whether to demonstrate depth of knowledge or cite sources. In the working world, the first few drafts came back with comments such as: “Do you really need to say that?” The biggest change was the switch from academic writing to writing for a client. Bullet points were a real discovery!

A new mindset

Dealing with clients was another thing that university didn't really prepare me for. Because I joined the private sector straight out of university, the whole mindset of a client was new territory.

Which leads me on to CPD, where I found that what was more valuable than technical things – which you usually learn on the job – were softer skills. As an example, within the last few years I’ve found some masterclasses on negotiation skills, video-based learning modules that you can consume over a couple of weeks. There are other subjects around softer skills – body language communication, effective listening – that are also very useful in real-world situations.

We engineers are often quite introverted: a lot of people do great work but really struggle to communicate their findings. Learning different ways to present or communicate are hugely useful in a competitive environment. You might have the best report, the best solution, the best product in the world, but if you can’t connect with your audience, it's wasted.

Embracing transformation

One thing that’s very clear is that my career has been witness to and embraces the fact that technology is causing a convergence, to the point where we’re now working on projects that have engineering, traffic signals and traffic planning, but also blockchain, digital twins, smart lighting columns and EV charging.

My graduate self would look at all of those digital components and wonder what type of education you need to lead all of that. He’d be blown away, especially coming from university where you're conditioned into well-defined traditional engineering roles. Some of my career highlights have been working on projects around autonomous vehicle projects, from real-world trials, inspection and testing to strategies and fundamental infrastructure work.

Finally, if I went back in time I’d have a long hard chat about joining CIHT sooner. I'm very proud to be a part of an institute that is focused on transport, nurtures the next generation and offers a platform to support people throughout their career.

Tim Piper was in conversation with Craig Thomas.

Are you looking for some guidance to get the most out of your CPD? Join CIHT's Professional Development Officer, John Hall, and CPD Panel Member, Agnieszka Jezierska, for a CPD focused webinar on 20 April.

By Tim Piper, Director of Smart Places for Jacobs in Abu Dhabi