Candice Tian

"I am currently working on the design/support of jacket foundations for a proposed, new offshore wind farm off the coast of France. As the Grouted Connection Team Lead, I have expertise knowledge and professional experience from previous projects to contribute to the fabrication and installation support of the jacket structures. The actions includes the combination of all technical and corresponding administrative, managerial and supervision actions which were all managed personally by me to the highest of ethical, engineering and moral standards. The grouted connection team I have been leading comprised of 8 engineers at its peak, including analysis experts, grout experts, technical authorities, seniors and junior engineers from various offices in the UK and Australia. I have weekly meetings with my team members, assisting them to meet changing technical and managerial needs. I am open-minded to my team members' ideas and perspectives, and help them to achieve their full potentials. Alongside technical and project delivery roles, I am the Deputy Team Lead for the Bristol offshore wind Team. I have been supporting the team lead in terms of operational management, resourcing, recruitment and development of ~27 engineers working in the design and integrity management of offshore structures for offshore wind market.I have been a Line Manager of a Summer Placement Student (June 2021 - September 2021) and a Junior Engineer (November 2021 - Present). I provided continuous support to my direct reports and had weekly catch-up with them to ensure they was sufficiently trained and satisfied with the current work. I helped them to set up career development objectives aligned with the business requirements, then sought the type of work that not only they were interested, but also in the direction they wished to progress in the future. I collected feedback from the colleagues who worked with them closely, and had quarterly performance review discussion with them. I ensured that they were aware of not only the things they had done good on work, but also the things they needed to improve. "

"I'm a structural engineer and have been heavily involved in the foundation structural design of a number of offshore wind fixed/ floating wind farms. These design works are always complex and technical challenging. For example, Beatrice Offshore Windfarm which is the world’s deepest farm to use jacket foundations; Triton Knoll is currently deploying the largest turbine at 9.5MW. However, I love math and physics, and enjoy to be challenged. I like working with my brilliant colleagues and solving the challenges together. This job requires me keep learning and developing. I’m proud of my work and will keep working hard on it. I’m limited, but I can push back the borders of my limitations. Last but not least, I work in renewable industry. The offshore wind farms I have designed will provide green energy to thousands of families as UK moves to Net Zero. Climate change is critical for my generation and it’s everyone’s responsibility to protect the planet. The starting salary for my role is £30,000. "

"None of my peers or family had studied engineering, so I was the first one. When I was 18, I had to decide on what to study, but I had no idea at all, so I printed out a list. I loved math and physics, so I decided to go for engineering. I joined Atkins' offshore wind team as a graduate in September 2017. I've been lucky to be influenced by some brilliant engineers over the years. I was reverse mentoring Andy Thompson, the director of Atkins offshore wind business in 2018 - 2019. I heavily contributed to the business development in this way. This was the first time a reverse mentoring relationship was built in Atkins. Without any support or guidance to follow, I made massive online research myself, arranged monthly meetings with Andy and sent him the topics which would be discussed before each meeting. He shared his daily work with me and invited me to attend high-level business strategy meetings, and I kept challenging his work. Andy took my suggestions and made big changes happen such as setting up technical authorities, offering recognition reward, organising software trainings, set up the Wazoku platform (a platform to capture and assign appropriate development steps for innovative ideas) etc. I received massive confidence during this process and started to believe actions are not only from top to bottom, but also from bottom to top. All these actions received extremely positive feedback across the whole business. We were interviewed by The Guardian in March 2020."

"I have got into gardening through the lockdown. I harvested some tiny potatoes and carrots last year and is trying to grow more vegetables this year! I also love running after work. It's a great way of clearing the mind and turning off my work mode. "

"I normally start work at 9am and finish at 5.30pm. I have a lot of emails and meetings to catch up every day, so working effectively is very important. Other than that, learning to delegate work to the others is also important when there are a lot on your plate. "

"I achieved a 1st class BEng in Naval Architecture in Strathclyde University in 2014, then a Distinction MSc in Marine Structures in Norwegian University of Science and Technology in 2016. In 2020, After working as Project Manager/ Assistant Project Manager in 4 projects, I identified a gap in my project management knowledge and skill set. Therefore, I attended a 20-hour project management fundamental training courses and was certified with 'APM Project Fundamentals Qualification'."