Welcome to Glamour's new weekly column, How I Got My Job, featuring one woman with an amazing job, and the real route to get it. Looking for career inspo? For this week's instalment, structural engineer Roma Agrawal shares her CV...
Who? Roma Agrawal, 30.
What? A structural engineer who helped build The Shard.
The CV:
My teachers said a maths or science degree could get you pretty much any job you wanted. Great â but university careers fairs were just full of banks. They asked why I wanted to work or them and I realised I didnât. So I got a work placement in my physics department at Oxford, surrounded by engineers building particle accelerators â the kind of thing that discovered the Higgs boson. It hit me: âIâll use physics to build stuff.â
I picked structural engineering as itâs focused on buildings, which I love. The course was tough: everyone already had one engineering degree or five years in the industry. My strength was the theory: fresh out of a physics degree I could do equations in my sleep! Through group projects we helped each otherâs weak spots.
Careers fairs were more varied at Imperial. I applied for 20-25 jobs with engineering firms, got a couple of offers and chose WSP as they specialise in skyscrapers. They understood I needed extra support because of my inexperience, so my first project was creating a footbridge in Newcastle with the guidance of my boss. I designed nearly everything: foundations, bridge, cables. I call it my little bridge baby.
My boss was assigned to The Shard and asked if I wanted to do it too â obviously I said yes. I was on the project for six years: preparing the site for demolition, then designing the foundations, office floors and spire. The team planned things that hadnât been done before, such as building the âspineâ of the Shard using a technique called top-down construction. There was no textbook to follow: Iâd give an idea, it got ripped apart, then another â until it worked. When it was done, I stood on level 87 and it was beautiful⌠until I felt nauseous because I donât like heights!
After The Shard I could have moved on to another huge build, but I wanted to flip things around. WSP let me select small residential projects so I could learn to manage a team. It was daunting to be in charge, but I started with a very small project and grew bigger and bigger.
Former Education Minister Elizabeth Truss (now Environment Secretary) invited me to be part of the Your Life campaign board to go into schools to change perceptions of science. Studying it doesnât mean you have to be a scientist â I went to an alumni event after my BA: there were doctors, lawyers, engineers, musicians. I feel my future is balancing engineering with a policy-making role.
Say âyesâ to things that scare you. I knew nothing about presenting engineering to schoolchildren, but I did it and I loved it. You donât know what you might miss out on if you donât try.
Value relationships. People presume engineering is a very technical career, but itâs incredibly creative and about working with people. If you have great social skills youâre likely to do well.
Donât fear stereotypes. I often go to meetings where itâs me and 15 men. Iâve learnt not to lose confidence, because everyoneâs human â if you know your stuff, people respect you.
