Water Resources Engineer at Riley Consultants
Bachelor of Science in Engineering at Smith College
What's your job about?
The Water team at Riley does a variety of dam safety management, hydraulic modelling, and design work for irrigation and hydropower schemes. Since I joined in September, I’ve mostly been involved with Intermediate Dam Safety Reviews for our main hydropower client. I’ve also been on-site visits to do construction monitoring for repairs to an irrigation canal. My specific tasks have included report writing, digging through old as-built drawings looking for details, construction monitoring inspections, dam safety inspections, and assembly of supporting work for a building consent application. I’m excited to get more involved in design work over the next few weeks as we start working on a new project to upgrade an irrigation canal.
One of the things that has been most interesting to me so far is seeing old irrigation and hydropower schemes. Some of them still have their original designs, like a hydropower scheme on the West Coast that has a bunch of wooded flumes. It’s also interesting to see how designs have evolved over time, for example how fish screens have been retrofitted to reduce ecological impact. I’m really excited about a new design project, where I will be directly involved in everything from the concept design to the construction monitoring.
What's your background?
I grew up in the United States and went to a small uni in the northeastern US, which had a tiny engineering program. There were about 20-30 students in each graduating class, and all of us received a “general” engineering science degree. I realised pretty quickly that I was only interested in the civil disciplines (civil, geotechnical, water) and took all my technical courses in those topics. I wanted to be able to do something to help the world adapt to climate change, and in water engineering that aligned nicely with my interest in rivers, hydrology, and hydraulics.
While in uni, I studied at the University of Canterbury for a semester abroad. I found that I really loved Christchurch and the easy access to the outdoors. While I was at University of Canterbury I went to a career fair, which is where I found Riley. The next year while I was looking for jobs, I kept thinking about how much I enjoyed living in New Zealand and how I was actually excited about the idea of working for Riley. I was able to get a graduate role in the Christchurch office, which I started a few months after finishing my studies.
Could someone with a different background do your job?
There are plenty of people at Riley whose degrees don’t exactly line up with their job title,. For example, there’s somebody who started in the Water team, worked in Geotech for a while, helped start the Civil team in our Christchurch office, and now is back in the Water team. I’d say you definitely need at least some technical background for the team you join, but for me the most helpful things I learned in university aren’t degree-specific. The biggest thing is being curious about what you’re doing and asking lots of questions.
What's the coolest thing about your job?
Riley trusts graduates with a lot of responsibilities, which give us lots of experience and exciting opportunities. I’ve been here for less than six months, and already I’ve called clients and subcontractors to discuss projects. There’s a new project that I just started working on, where I’ll be taking the lead and doing the design work. It’s going to span multiple disciplines, with everything from hydraulic modelling to geotechnical investigations to detail design. I’ll have support from senior engineers throughout the project, and ultimately I’ll be the main person doing the investigations, design, and even presenting our proposed solution to the client!
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