Be open to all opportunities

Connie Edgar MIET is a Global Graduate Engineer for SP Energy Networks. After discovering her passion for engineering at Space School, she has embarked on an exciting career path that has already taken her internationally and is looking ahead to Chartership in the future. 

What inspired you to become an engineer or technician?

Can you describe your career in engineering so far?

I started at SP Energy Networks (SPEN) in September 2022, and spent the first 6 weeks completing training courses and learning about the operational areas of the business. I thoroughly enjoyed this aspect of working at SPEN as it gave me the opportunity to put my degree into practise - I will never forget seeing a circuit breaker for the first time after years of studying them at university! Since then, I have been rotating around different departments in the business, and learning as much as I can about how the business operates. At the end of last year, I also had the amazing opportunity to spend 3 months working in Bilbao in the north of Spain.

What has been your biggest success in your career?   

My biggest career success was when I was working in the Engineering Design and Standards team. I was tasked with performing a market study on available SF6 free switchgear options, which involved holding meetings with team members and suppliers to get a picture of the state of the market.

I got the opportunity to present this research on a company wide call, and the study was then picked up by the Global Standards team. This meant that my research was used to form part of a SF6-free working group across the 4 global Iberdrola networks companies in the UK, Spain, Brazil, and America. I'm proud to have been involved in something so important across the Iberdrola group at such an early stage in my career.

What has been your biggest challenge in your career? 

The biggest challenge for me so far has also been the highlight of my graduate scheme to date. I had the amazing opportunity to move to Bilbao and to work with one of the teams in I-DE Iberdrola. This was a huge challenge living and working in a new country and communicating in a new language.

My project involved completing an analysis of past defects across the network and drawing conclusions in order to predict the number of anomalies which could appear in the future. At the end of the placement my language skills had improved greatly, and I was able to present in Spanish to the team leaders about what I had achieved.

It was a fantastic experience, and I'm now focussing on further improving my Spanish skills as even at this early stage in my career, I've learned the benefits of working in a global company.

Are there any exciting projects you are currently working on?

I'm currently carrying on my work on the defect analysis for the team in Spain alongside my rotational placements. I'm enjoying the challenge of balancing both the project and learning about the business here in Scotland through my placements around the business.

Do you participate in any other career-related activities?

I'm a member of the Connected Women Allyship Steering Group. This has involved working to define a mission statement and communications plan for the Allyship Network within Scottish Power. We are hosting our first event in a couple of weeks! It is really rewarding to be part of something which I feel passionately about.

What does the future look like?

I'm at an exciting point in my graduate scheme as I am waiting to hear which team I will be joining for my longer, 6-month placement. This placement will take me to the end of my graduate scheme, and I am looking forward to being in a more permanent role. I'm still unsure about what kind of engineering role I want so I am excited for the opportunity to learn more about what other team members do. I also want to continue to improve my Spanish skills and make more connections across the global group.

Chartership is also a huge goal of mine, and I will continue to work towards this during my graduate scheme and beyond. My placement is accredited by the IET, and so our placement objectives are mapped to the chartership objectives. It's a good way to get familiar with some of the skills I will need to demonstrate when I go for my chartership interview.

Do you have any advice for those looking for their first role in engineering and technology?

I think the main piece of advice I'd give would be to be open to all opportunities, even if you don't think you're qualified or if you don't think the work is for you. I've learned so much from throwing myself into placements where the work wasn't necessarily what I see myself doing in the future. There's also been so many situations, like the SF6 free market study project, where I was scared, I wasn't qualified, but I surprised myself by achieving what I was asked to do.