Diving into the fire engineering industry with Trigon – By Olivia Hackett

“As a general engineering graduate, with no fire engineering experience and having just worn my cap and gown on stage less than a week before, one would rightly think that I was nervous stepping into my new role as a graduate fire engineer.

However, diving into the fire engineering industry with Trigon has hardly given me time to let those worries take hold. From my first day, I was introduced to exciting projects led by the senior engineers, which I would be working on. Within my first week, I was on-site, guided by my mentor and manager, and immersed myself in observing the fire safety provisions of a project firsthand.

Within a month, I attended the prestigious Women in Fire Safety awards ceremony, where I met and spoke to women in all different aspects of the fire safety industry, from fellow fire engineers to members of the fire service, to safety system installers and testers, and more.

By the end of the year, I had attended the She Can Engineer event at Imperial College’s Dyson School of Design Engineering with my colleagues, to help introduce fire safety to those university students currently exploring the engineering industry who were uncertain about the working environment, just as I had been not so long ago.

Soon, I will be presenting on the topic of human behaviour in fire scenarios at our upcoming company-wide technical training day in Belgium, as well as taking a ‘buddy’ role for an upcoming summer placement in our Richmond office.

There was no expectation as a graduate of general engineering to come in already knowing about the industry and how fire safety is put into practice, but there was a valuable supportive team behind me to keep me on the right track.

Working on exciting projects with the team has led me to challenge myself to work hard, and to pick myself back up and do even better when I don’t quite reach the mark. I love to learn new things, and at Trigon I’ve been encouraged to broaden my knowledge beyond the basics; I find that I learn something new from my mentor, my manager, or my coworkers each day, and I can use that to make a difference as a fire engineer. The Trigon Technical Training Program has prompted me to think critically about the guidance used in fire engineering, as well as see the bigger picture when working on projects.

Those around me, even outside of work, have noticed how much I’ve improved and grown in the last nine months; I plan to keep taking opportunities to grow as a fire engineer in the years to come and Trigon is the perfect place to do just that.”