In our ‘day in the life’ blog series, we aim to showcase the work of our talented team and help you get to know the faces behind our projects a little better. This month we sat down with Iraj, a Civil/Development Engineer, to chat a bit more about his career so far and what it’s like being part of our certification team.
Tell us a bit about yourself and what interested you in civil engineering.
I have a bachelor’s in civil engineering from UTS and started my career in the second year of my university degree working as a student engineer at City of Sydney Council. Since completing my degree, I started working as a Project Engineer at City of Sydney and stayed there until 2018 before taking a Senior Development Engineer role at Campbelltown Council in 2018.
I was always curious about an engineer’s role in development applications, so before I moved to Campbelltown I took a role as Development Services Coordinator at City of Sydney, where I got the opportunity to work with Town Planners and Landscape Architects to access development applications, especially in urban areas, whereas in Campbelltown Council I was mostly involved in greenfield areas and urban renewal/subdivision projects.
What does a typical workday look like for you?
A typical workday would be a combination of site visits for inspections and office work. Half of the day I would be going through engineering plans and reports and checking their compliance with Council and Australian Standards, and the other half would be conducting site inspections of civil construction works for their compliance with industry and council engineering guidelines.
What’s it like being part of Barker Ryan Stewart’s certification team? Are there any stand-out projects that you’re currently working on?
As part of the BRS Certification Team, I really like getting the opportunity to work on a variety of projects from certification of subdivision works, to development referral of works for Councils like Kempsey and Bellingen. Currently working as a site inspector for certification works at Oakdale East, which is a major industrial upgrade area in Fairfield LGA.
What’s been the most memorable aspect of working at Barker Ryan Stewart so far?
I had always worked in local government before moving to BRS and I was really startled about the flexibility, employee recognition and mentorship that have been provided by BRS.
Looking back at your career, is there anything surprising about being a Civil/Development Engineer?
It is quite fascinating that a Civil/Development Engineer has an opportunity to become a Registered Certifier for Subdivision, which I believe is a significant opportunity.
Finally, what advice do you have for anyone considering a career in civil engineering?
I always tell everybody that civil engineering is a broad sector and as a civil engineer we can get involved in design, transport, construction, project management and also development/planning. So there’s plenty of work out there.
Want to get to know our team a bit better?
Check out our other ‘day in the life of’ blogs to learn more about our talented team.
