Farm life and the future of infrastructure

Pumpkin carving and fireworks nights – the traditions that make Autumn magical for every child. But for Joanne Hunt, who grew up on a farm in rural Ireland, the season was punctuated with another much-anticipated event – harvest day.

“I was in a tiny class with six children, and we got to skip school to help bring in the harvest,” she recalls.

Bunking off to scramble around the fields while screaming with laughter was one of the many perks that farm life brought with it: She loved too climbing out of bed in the dark to feed the animals before school and being allowed to hop up into a tractor with her siblings at an age when her friends were occupied with their dolls. ?

But Joanne was also a focused child. She loved maths, physics and chemistry and, once she had set her mind on a career in engineering, she was not to be deterred from pursuing it, despite some regarding it as an unlikely choice for a girl.

“My career’s adviser kept pushing me towards something in the pharmaceutical sector, or, at a push, medicine. But I had a cousin who was a civil engineer and had worked on the Channel Tunnel. I spoke with him and did a fair bit of research. Being quite a persistent person, I was not to be put off the idea.”

Her persistence paid off. Today Joanne is a chartered civil engineer having graduated with a Beng Hons from Queen’s University in 1994. There, she recalls “the hustle and bustle of Belfast with a full-on engineering timetable was quite a shift from my country life.” She became a member of the Institute of Civil Engineers (CEng MICE) in 1999.

She is also providing an important role model for future engineers by demonstrating that the discipline has opportunities within it that go far beyond hard-hats and hi-viz.

Over the past decade Joanne has supported Cohesive and its parent company, Bentley Systems, as a Quality, Environmental and Sustainability Manager. She is the custodian of the 9001, 14001 and 27001 certified management systems and works closely with product owners and delivery teams to help drive continuous improvement in how they deliver their offerings.?

Joanne has also supported clients in their digital transformation work. This has included National Highways where she provided expert quality assurance for new features that they were developing for a data management solution that integrates built asset information from multiple sources.

The role and the skills involved in this type of work proved a natural next-step after 20 years in more ‘traditional’ engineering roles within the transport, infrastructure and renewable energy sectors. This included seven years at the major UK contractor, John Mowlem and Company as a site and section engineer, and two years supporting the Navitus Bay ￡3.5 billion offshore wind-farm project.

The project did not advance past the planning stage, but, says Joanne, “it was a very interesting venture to be involved in.? I learnt a lot about working with multiple stakeholders and managing the examination process during this time.”

The Navitus role also marked a personal milestone for her – a return to professional life having taken a career break to focus on what were then, three young children. “I worked so hard to get my professional qualifications and experience as an engineer - it was and is important to me to be using my skills and sharing my knowledge.”

As the pace of digital uptake in the sector increases, bodies including the Institute of Civil Engineers, the UK’s professional body, have been debating about the skills needed for the role today ?– and whether re-training and re-focusing will be necessary for some engineers.

Whatever the next decade brings, Joanne believes that engineers are well-suited to managing change. “The world has become more digital but the fundamental skills of engineering have evolved to utilise the tools and technologies available,” she says. “Adaptability is a key skill for engineers – the field of engineering is constantly evolving, and engineers are the types of individuals who are able to keep up by applying their problem solving skills.”

To those starting out in their careers, self-confidence, she says, is key. While her upbringing gave her resilience and a respect for the natural world around her, she regrets not being more sure of herself. “When I look back, I would like to have had more confidence during my early career. On reflection I was quite clever and did have stuff to say - I didn’t need to always be in the background.”

By Elizabeth Owen