During the time I have spent on this placement, I've been at the receiving end of many an odd glance of surprise. Sometimes I've wondered if I've accidentally offended, or maybe if there's been something on my face or stuck in my teeth, but I think I've figure out the cause of these small indications of confusion.
The best way of describing the phenomenon would be culture shock, I suppose.
Take an office full of engineers. If you were to stand them all up against a wall and ask each one a few questions about his or her life, what would you discover? One engineer likes to go quad biking on the weekends, one is a rugby enthusiast, one has a pet snake, one simply likes to get lashed and do crazy stuff. But, in my experience, none of them will say that they like doing musical theatre, or any kind of theatre. It's bizarre. You would think that taking any large sample of people there would statistically be a likelihood that at least one of them would love musicals. I digress.
A large part of having a job is communicating, so it's natural that you speak to your colleagues, share stories, discuss how everyone's day, weekend, trip away went. Despite this, nothing had prepared this bunch of rugged, hardworking people for hearing that I'd been away for 2 weeks to be in a musical. It's like I told them I went to Mars for the weekend, or spent it skinning voles for my collection. Of course, they're much to polite to show this, so instead the muted glances of surprise.
I won't claim to be a typical engineer because I most categorically am not. For starters I'm female, I'm not actually the most practical person and I don't spend my free time taking things apart. I'm just happy to know that I myself am the missing link between engineering and muscial theatre, and although I'm certain that somewhere out there there are other all-singing, all-dancing engineers, until I see concrete evidence of this, I'll keep holding the fort.
Friday, 19 August 2011
Friday, 15 July 2011
High Security
The Olympics is a huge project that is close to the hearts of many of us, and as such, extreme pains are being taken to ensure that they continue as planned. This involves preventing unauthorised access to the site, and preventing dangerous things and people from getting on to it.
The security at the park is extremely tight. By no means can you just stroll onto it, oh no. The first step to getting on the site is to show that you have got the required safety training to work there- this means getting a safety (CSCS) card. To get the card you have to do a test similar in style to the driving theory test- you can read all the questions and answers in a book beforehand, and 50% of it is common sense. I passed mine last week.
One you’ve passed that milestone, you must then get yourself a site induction. This is easily in writing, but when I tried to book mine I had to wait a few days because apparently after they receive your application, they do some background research on you to check you’re alright. I apparently was alright, as my induction was on Wednesday.
The first part of the induction was a presentation about an hour long. It was militarily organised, and other than the 2 videos that we were played, the woman giving the presentation knew her whole speech by heart. It was very “Wow! Olympics!”, but sadly I’ve forgotten all the fun bits other that that you could fit a whole load of football pitches in there (they tend to use it as a sizing parameter for us simple folk).
Once you’ve semi-napped your way through the presentation, you move on to the ‘conveyor belt’, which is genuinely how the woman described it. Rather than the moving pathway which I as hoping for, it was more like a highly efficient series of formalities I had to go through to eventually get my pass and be OK’d to go on site. It was honestly like being in the airport! I had to provide id, and then get my photo taken and my hand biometrically scanned so that they can ensure it’s me that’s trying to get on site. Finally I had to have a quick health chat with the nurse, and I was handed my pass and unleashed onto the park!
When I want to get onto site I have to show my card and scan my hand, and then there are actual conveyor belts where your stuff gets scanned, you walk through a metal detector and get searched if you look suspicious. Sometimes there are even adorable sniffer dogs!
Rest easy, the Olympics are safe.
The security at the park is extremely tight. By no means can you just stroll onto it, oh no. The first step to getting on the site is to show that you have got the required safety training to work there- this means getting a safety (CSCS) card. To get the card you have to do a test similar in style to the driving theory test- you can read all the questions and answers in a book beforehand, and 50% of it is common sense. I passed mine last week.
One you’ve passed that milestone, you must then get yourself a site induction. This is easily in writing, but when I tried to book mine I had to wait a few days because apparently after they receive your application, they do some background research on you to check you’re alright. I apparently was alright, as my induction was on Wednesday.
The first part of the induction was a presentation about an hour long. It was militarily organised, and other than the 2 videos that we were played, the woman giving the presentation knew her whole speech by heart. It was very “Wow! Olympics!”, but sadly I’ve forgotten all the fun bits other that that you could fit a whole load of football pitches in there (they tend to use it as a sizing parameter for us simple folk).
Once you’ve semi-napped your way through the presentation, you move on to the ‘conveyor belt’, which is genuinely how the woman described it. Rather than the moving pathway which I as hoping for, it was more like a highly efficient series of formalities I had to go through to eventually get my pass and be OK’d to go on site. It was honestly like being in the airport! I had to provide id, and then get my photo taken and my hand biometrically scanned so that they can ensure it’s me that’s trying to get on site. Finally I had to have a quick health chat with the nurse, and I was handed my pass and unleashed onto the park!
When I want to get onto site I have to show my card and scan my hand, and then there are actual conveyor belts where your stuff gets scanned, you walk through a metal detector and get searched if you look suspicious. Sometimes there are even adorable sniffer dogs!
Rest easy, the Olympics are safe.
Thursday, 14 July 2011
First Entry
Ever since I started my 8-week summer placement on London’s Olympic Park, I’ve wanted to blog about it. Okay, so a job is a job, and maybe there won’t be a whole wealth of exciting things to blog about, but there are a few reasons that I want to try.
Firstly and most simply, to inform. As an engineering student, I knew almost nothing about what to expect from my site job, so it seems logical that anyone without three quarters of a Masters degree under their belt might know even less about the nature of working on such a project. I feel like people recoil from the concept of engineering because it just sounds complex. The word itself is associated with numbers and graphs and technology in the minds of the general public. In reality, we only get technical when we’re forced to, and that probably only makes up 20 or 10% of our day. I want to show what a site engineer really does.
Secondly, I want to somehow capture the totally unglamorous, almost nonchalant way that beautiful and inspirational structures can be created- also to explore the realism, humanity and genius of the engineers behind them. From an outside perspective it can seem like structures mystically rise from the ground, slowly gaining floors each time you pass them, builders crawling over them like ants, busily working away. I want to show construction as it really is- a continuous process which involves hundreds of tiny, precise tasks that all combine to give the end result. The scale of the Olympic project is incredible, and I want to capture that along with the amazing teamwork needed to make the Olympics a reality.
Thirdly, I want to portray the construction industry as it really is, without the stereotypes and stigmas that usually accompany it in the media. I want to show you that the Olympics was made by people, people leading normal lives, people who have peanut butter on toast and play rock paper scissors.
I’ll aim to update once or twice a week (1 week has already passed, so I’ll post this, and one to cover my whole first week or so). Any extra updates will be a bonus! I’ll also try to upload photos and maybe mini posts if something significant happens to me.
Let’s learn about engineering then, shall we?
Firstly and most simply, to inform. As an engineering student, I knew almost nothing about what to expect from my site job, so it seems logical that anyone without three quarters of a Masters degree under their belt might know even less about the nature of working on such a project. I feel like people recoil from the concept of engineering because it just sounds complex. The word itself is associated with numbers and graphs and technology in the minds of the general public. In reality, we only get technical when we’re forced to, and that probably only makes up 20 or 10% of our day. I want to show what a site engineer really does.
Secondly, I want to somehow capture the totally unglamorous, almost nonchalant way that beautiful and inspirational structures can be created- also to explore the realism, humanity and genius of the engineers behind them. From an outside perspective it can seem like structures mystically rise from the ground, slowly gaining floors each time you pass them, builders crawling over them like ants, busily working away. I want to show construction as it really is- a continuous process which involves hundreds of tiny, precise tasks that all combine to give the end result. The scale of the Olympic project is incredible, and I want to capture that along with the amazing teamwork needed to make the Olympics a reality.
Thirdly, I want to portray the construction industry as it really is, without the stereotypes and stigmas that usually accompany it in the media. I want to show you that the Olympics was made by people, people leading normal lives, people who have peanut butter on toast and play rock paper scissors.
I’ll aim to update once or twice a week (1 week has already passed, so I’ll post this, and one to cover my whole first week or so). Any extra updates will be a bonus! I’ll also try to upload photos and maybe mini posts if something significant happens to me.
Let’s learn about engineering then, shall we?
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