Catherine Mcquillan

"Initially starting out in the role you need to be touching the soil, visually looking at what is in it. It is very much a puzzle, reading maps, curiosity, with an investigation looking at the evidence in the soil, ground gas, groundwater and surface water.I like to go through data looking for unusual results and finding out the reason, so data quality checking and and a basic understanding of the interaction of soil, water and the atmosphere are something I have to do daily. Data and quality control play to my neurodiversity traits, so Quality Controller Skills are very much me and I enjoy these aspects. I never thought of myself as an Influencer but I do continually have to find and reviewing information and think outside the box. "

"I work on construction sites, greenfields, old factory sites for new housing estates, proposed high rise building in city centres, windfarms, petrol stations, the variety means I am never bored. Typically a client will approach and say they want to build on a site. I have to show that people in the future using the site and the environment will not be harmed. I work with ecologists looking at the plants and the animals, people who specialise in noise, air quality, drainage and civil engineers. I look at lots of historical maps, geological maps, borehole records, laboratory data, mining maps etc and put all the information together to provide my interpretation. I get to be curious looking at lots of information and no to sites are the same so i am never bored. The salary really varies from region and whether you are a contractor continually out on site or a chartered consultant whom mostly desk based."

"I was good at and enjoyed geography and science in high school and did well at GCSE. Back then ALevel was the main route into University. Initially I was looking at some kind of role in the medicine, however I had some teenage vision of running off to study volcanoes (Dante's Peak and Volcano movies) so I then headed towards studying geology and/with geography. Geology was going to be a new subject to me. I didn't know if i was going to enjoy it or understand it so i did a combined /joint degree for geology with physical geography. In my 3rd year I enjoyed the water and engineering module and so headed that way into environmental assessment and environmental engineering. During Uni I worked part time in supermarket. "

"With an interest in all things geological, I can't walk past lots of the buildings in Belfast without stopping to look at all the different structures in the stones making up building or the pavement outside of the Ulster Museum which are full of fossils. The lobby of my apartment building has fossils in the limestone on the floor. "

"On a Monday I am typically in the office planning my week. For a new project I review all my desk based mapping for things that need to inspect on site when i visit later in the week. On Tuesday I go to site with my maps and some survey equipment. This may involve just a tape measure checking distances and sizes, taking lots of photos and notes on my map, or i may be out supervising drilling rigs and machines taking soils samples. Wednesday i would typically be out on a different site environmental monitoring water levels and ground gas.Thursday and Friday I would be back at my desk to type up my notes and photographs from the site into the report, and write up my interpretation."

"ALevels Geography, Biology, Chemistry, then undergraduate degree in Geology with physical geography. I then choose to do a Masters. I knew i would need geography and one other science at A Level to get into most of the university courses I wanted to do and I was always going to in England or Wales to study. The equivalent would be Environmental Science at Ulster University as in Northern Ireland we have no geology degrees at either University.My Masters included a placement and that is how i found out my job/ industry. I have worked in a couple of different companies across my career, working my way up from graduate level in a ground investigation contractor physically on sites across the UK; now I am a Chartered Principal mostly desk based. "