Chris - Graduate electrical engineer

My journey

I was studying for a Masters in Electric and Electrical Engineering when TfL sent an email to my university requesting students to apply for a three month internship. I applied and was chosen. It went so well that I was kept on as a salaried contractor whilst still studying which effectively paid for my forth year. Once I finished my Masters, TfL asked me to come back on their Graduate Programme.

My learning

I am now eight months into my graduate programme and working as a software engineer on the 'Cooling the Tube' project. As a graduate, after about three months working on this project, I will rotate for two years around various areas of TfL. Next I will be learning how to drive the trains! You have to learn from a grassroots level up. I shouldn't be allowed to work on track engineering unless I understand how to drive a train.

My future

Looking to the future, I would like to stay with TfL and go as high up in the engineering department as possible. There is every incentive to stay and achieve this as TfL is possibly the only major hands on engineering company in the Greater London area. I would need to move abroad in order to get the same day-to-day engineering experience I currently enjoy. Many companies would take a myopic view and only be interested in how much money I could make for them, but TfL are interested in me for the long term and want to make me the best engineer I can possibly be in 10 or 15 years time.