Maria Carmona

"My three personality types are the Campaigner, the Coordinator and the Influencer. I feel like I relate very strongly to all of these! I have always seen myself as a Campaigner, and have done other personality tests showing me the same results. This is because I am a very driven person in all that I do and will strive to take meaningful action to solve a problem myself or my team are facing, whether this involves a structured approach or thinking out of the box. I am also a Coordinator because I am good at talking to several people to organise an event or manage a big project with several parties involved and time limits. Finally, I am an Influencer because I am able to explain complex topics in a simpler way to people around me to get them on board with my idea, but if I am not the expert I am also good at explaining what is the right thing to do according to people who know more on the subject than me."

"I work as a project engineer. This is a fairly new job title that hasn't always been around, but it can be used in many different fields; in general, it will always combine at least one type of engineering/technical role with some project management. For example in the energy and power industry, my job is a combination of a few areas: I would sum it up as power engineering, control/system engineering, and project management. Therefore, I would say the key to this type of job is being open-minded, flexible and not afraid of doing the \"wrong\" thing. It is a fast-paced job as projects come and go, so you will not always do the right thing; but it's important to be consistent, and learn from your mistakes in order to always get better at what you do. I'd say a typical starting salary for this job is between £27,000 and £30,000 a year, depending on the sector you are interested in and the company hiring."

"I started out studying physics (astrophysics in fact). I was very tempted to go into quantum engineering, as I find quantum physics a fascinating area; however, my drive and passion to fight climate change and work on the \"energy trilemma\" changed my career direction forever. The energy trilemma is called as such because it consists of three main challenges that humans must urgently deal with: environmental sustainability, energy security and energy equity. Environmental sustainability means polluting less and releasing less greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, recycling more, and trying to become carbon neutral for the health of the planet for example by using renewable sources of energy instead of coal or gas. Energy security means making sure that everyone, no matter who they are or where they are, can access energy - we need it to cook, to stay warm, to keep the lights on and much more, and many industries depend on 24/7 access to energy to do their business. Energy equity means making sure that energy is not a luxury, but a basic right, and that everyone can afford to cook, to stay warm and to keep the lights on. It also means giving people more autonomy with their energy sources, for example having your own solar panels to generate your electricity, and perhaps your heat too!Having learned about this, I knew I wanted a career in energy and I knew that I wanted to work on each of these 3 challenges in my lifetime. For now, I am mainly focused on energy security: the backbone of all our energy is the transmission and distribution grid that transports electricity from power plants to households and businesses. The wires and cables that we use for this are under a lot of strain, and we must make sure they stay in good shape by having a smarter, digital grid and more flexibility using batteries for example."

"- I enjoy music as my second passion in life. I sing, record, produce and mix my own music, as well as play several instruments. I have two electric guitars named George and Roger (yes I name my guitars!!), and can also play a little bit of keyboard. I could've been a sound engineer in another life!- I enjoy reading, mostly science-fiction, although I have recently turned to reading books about complex topics like inequality, race, politics and economics. I also enjoy watching series and movies - I love everything from comedy to fantasy and documentaries!- I play video-games quite a lot! I own a Nintendo Switch (I have been a Nintendo fan since I was very young) and love spending time on all types of different games as a way to relax.- I love spending time with my friends! I enjoy spending time in people's company, either joking about silly things or debating very heavy topics. However, as I am about 50% extroverted and 50% introverted, I also love spending time alone to switch off from the world around me. - I am a big plant lover! I have many plants at home that I enjoy taking care of. My favourite plant genus is the Calathea genus, it's a tropical plant that generally doesn't like too much sun but needs a lot of humidity. They can be very picky about their surroundings, but the result is so worth it as they are very beautiful plants!"

"Every day is different. This is fantastic for me, as I get easily bored doing a repetitive task and having this job means I get to put a different hat on every day that I am at work. It can be scary to have such different tasks at times, because I may not be as skilled in all of these areas; for example, as my academic background is in physics, I am quite good at power engineering. However, I am not (yet) an experienced project manager, but I have to manage projects which usually take years to complete! "

"My qualifications are:- European Baccalaureate: I did not grow up in the UK but in Belgium, so I took slightly different qualifications than A-levels. The EB is very similar however, and I took my \"A-levels\" in Further Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Economics.- Bachelor of Science: I studied a BSc in Astrophysics at Queen Mary University of London, which is in the East End of London. I didn't know what I wanted to do for my job, but I decided to follow my heart and study physics, planetary/stellar science and cosmology at university. I also discovered quantum physics, and nearly decided to specialise in this field. But my passion for the fight against climate change led me to the world of sustainable energy. While I'm no longer in this field, I learnt essential problem-solving skills and methods during my bachelor that I still use every day. I also still use some physics fundamentals in electromagnetism, which are very important to my job as an engineer involved with distribution grid networks.- Master of Science: I studied an MSc in Sustainable Energy Futures at Imperial College London, in the West End of London. I was worried I couldn't afford it, however I tried my luck and applied to a scholarship to fund my studies... and it worked! This goes to show you never have much to lose when aiming high. Here I studied topics that I use almost every day for my job, my career and my everyday personal education, like energy systems, wind and solar power, energy storage, energy policy and economics... the list goes on!- Qualifications in Health & Safety: now that I am a Project Engineer with a focus on electricity networks, health & safety is so important to my job, but I did not have any formal qualifications in the field. Fortunately my company is always willing to train its workforce, especially in safety topics, so I was able to get myself certified to work on site projects."