My Career: ‘Every day is different in my role’

Name: Niamh Cronin.

Age: 43.

Lives: Killarney.

Job title: Director, PUNCH Consulting Engineers, Cork Office.

Salary bracket: €60,000+.

Education background: I attended Loughquittane National School in Muckross and Presentation Convent in Killarney. I then studied Civil & Environmental Engineering in UCC. I graduated in 2003 with an honours degree.

In 2009, I undertook a Postgraduate Diploma in Construction Law and Contract Administration in Trinity.

Throughout my career, I have undertaken various continued professional development training through formal courses, but also informal, and I am continuously developing even now through mentorship with senior leaders.

Hobbies: I love sports and exercise, so I try my best to fit that in. I recently joined Mothers and Others football team in Fossa, and I am really enjoying it. I also mentor with the girls underage at the club.

I love catching up with family and friends, that’s my priority for the remaining spare time I have. I love being by the sea, gardening, reading, music and photography. All of which take a slight back seat at the moment with young kids, but I still tap into all of them when I can.

Describe your job in five words: Varied, interesting, fast-paced, challenging, rewarding.

Describe yourself in five words: Positive, resilient, organised, social, kind.

Personality needed for this kind of work? Engineering is so varied and from when I started as a graduate to where I am now, a Director and Executive Board Member of PUNCH, the personality traits remain largely the same. You need analytic skills of course, but the one that may surprise people is how much interaction you have with people, therefore, good people skills, communication and presentation skills are key.

How long are you doing this job? 21 years.

How did you get this job? When I graduated from UCC, I wasn’t quite sure what to do. I got offered a Postgraduate in Smurfit Business School, qualified for an interview with Thames Water in London, and received a job offer from PUNCH all around the same time. I decided to go with the job in what I had studied and thought, I can always go back to business. As it happens, my career has led me down the business side anyways, of Engineering Consultancy.

I started with PUNCH, then Michael Punch & Partners, in Dun Laoghaire in 2003, and worked there for eight years. I was promoted from graduate through to Senior Engineer during my time there and worked on projects like Beacon South Quarter in Sandyford, a €450 million project, one of Ireland’s largest at the time.

As a Senior Engineer, I was involved in business development for the company, securing new work, assisting in marketing and management of project finances. These are all elements that you don’t think you will be involved with as an engineer when you graduate, but they are a significant component of your work as you become senior.

I thoroughly enjoyed working and living in Dublin and worked on a wide range of projects, while gaining more management experience.

In 2011, my husband and I emigrated to Perth, Australia. We were fortunate to survive a lot of the then financial crash at that time, it was tough times in Ireland and in the industry, so we decided to look at emigrating as we had never taken a gap year or travelled.

I worked with a company called BG&E there until 2016. I worked on such interesting projects and loved the Perth lifestyle. I got the opportunity to manage a lot of advanced works construction contracts and expand my experience in the delivery of roads projects while working in Australia.

In 2016, my husband’s company offered him a position in Singapore. With our two-year-old and eight-week-old baby, we left for Singapore!

On wanting to return to work, BG&E also wanted to create an office in South East Asia, and hence the opportunity for me to start their Singapore office arose. This was challenging, exciting, and completely new for me. It involved researching a new market, preparing a business plan on where and how to position ourselves in the market to secure work, and of course implementing the business plan to secure work.

I am extremely proud that when I left, we had an established office location in downtown Singapore with 10 staff and extremely interesting projects secured.

In 2020, we decided to leave Singapore and we returned to Ireland. I meet with Tim, PUNCH Managing Director, and agreed to return to the company as a Technical Director.

In March, 2024, I joined the Board of Directors of the company, where I focus on the operations of the company and growth of our environmental sectors.

Do you need particular qualifications or experience?

There are many routes into engineering now. There are new apprenticeship courses being run where you can work with a company like us straight out of secondary school while obtaining a level 6 or level 7 qualification. There are many civil, structural and engineering courses offered in technological universities and universities. To reach board level is another discussion.

Describe a day at work:

Every day is completely different, sounds like a cliché but it’s true! It usually contains many meetings. There is a lot of administration tasks, from reviewing contracts for new work, submitting fee proposals and costs to clients, to securing new work, inputting into the operations of the company, which ranges from accounting to human resources tasks.

With the introduction of Teams, a lot of days are spent at the computer attending these meetings, reviewing documents and actioning emails. In person meetings, site visits to see potential site locations or ongoing construction works are welcome breaks from the desk and computer.

At the end of the day, we are part of a team delivering buildings and infrastructure to change our local communities.

How many hours do you work a week?

Generally 40 hours a week. It’s a balance as I could always work more, but my kids need me to find time for them and me.

For periods of time after returning to work from maternity leave, I have reduced my hours to ease myself and the kids back into it. PUNCH allowed me the flexibility to make this work for me and my family.

Is your industry male or female dominated?

The perception is that it is male-dominated and unfortunately it is a true statement, however, not as much as people think. My company, PUNCH, in industry standards has a very high percentage of female staff.

It is probably true to say that the construction (site-based) arm of the industry still is, and the consultancy (office-based) is heading more towards equal split.

The perception that civil and structural engineering is not for females is nonsense, it offers fantastic career opportunities, flexible working arrangements, travel opportunities, and a role in making the world a better place for future generations.

Females who are good at science and maths and have an interest in climate change, providing infrastructure for this world including roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, etc, should reach out and talk to someone about what it can offer them. To make changes and influence for the better needs to represent all people, including females.

Is your job stressful? How? Rate it on a scale of 1-10: Yes, at times it is, but I enjoy the challenge and what I do. I do feel a responsibility to all our staff for the company to succeed. I would go with a 6.

I would say, like all jobs, the stress levels will go up if you are not enjoying it.

Best bits: Enjoyment of seeing staff working on interesting projects and younger staff progressing in their careers, interacting with people, seeing projects delivering improvements to our communities. In essence: people and what I can achieve for them within my position.

Worst bits: The industry is under-resourced; it is not attracting enough students into it. The industry is also not understood fully and therefore undervalued. We need to get better at selling our value to society.

Engineers can assist change in the world to save it from climate change, assist with the housing crisis, improving our health care and education and transportation systems, therefore, it is a very worthy career.

Advice to those who want your job? Set goals throughout your career, achievable goals and make them happen. You are very much in control of your own career.

Any other comments? Encourage your kids to look at engineering as a career. If you want them to change the world, they can as engineers, while having fabulous opportunities.

If you would like to feature in My Career in our Women on Wednesday supplement please email mary.corcoran@theecho.ie