I really enjoy working at Cavendish Nuclear, the Commercial team especially; it is quite a big team which is dispersed across all the Cavendish Nuclear offices. We are a close working team and we meet regularly to have overview on what everybody is working on. I have had to move around quite a lot and Cavendish Nuclear have been very supportive. Each office I have relocated to has had a really strong and supportive network of graduates and employees.
The achievement I am most proud of is my secondment to the government in my 3rd year. I worked for the Department of Energy and Climate Change and it is an achievement because it was a new opportunity that hadn’t been available in this business before. An example of a challenge I had to deal with is when I was working on quite a significant bid for Cavendish Nuclear and we were dealing with a US supplier. We were working to very tight deadlines and unfortunately the US supplier hadn’t provided the quotations in time so it was on me, to call him in the middle of the night, on his personal mobile and find out where they were. Luckily I had some prior engagement with him and we had built up a good relationship, and the quotations were sent over quickly.
As a direct result of this secondment I was awarded “Graduate Learner of the Year” by the Engineering Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB). These prestigious awards are a celebration of the achievements and successes of individuals working in the engineering industry. I am incredibly proud that my hard work has been recognised and this is also a real testament to the support I have had during the graduate programme.
When I started at Cavendish Nuclear, at first I was worried that it would be quite male dominated but having been here for 4 years, it isn’t that way at all, it is a very diverse company and diverse industry. I have been to several ‘Women in Nuclear’ events which really do support diversity in the industry. The culture here is people-focused, they are mindful that in order for the business to grow, they need to develop their people and that comes through the graduate scheme.
Before joining here I never thought I would get the opportunity to work in government and be award winning!