To mark International Women’s Day and as part of our Pathfinders series, we’re celebrating the achievements of women within our business and around the world.
Rozana Zyka is a Principal Civil Engineer with Waldeck, working on Hinkley Point C with EDF Energy.
She talks to us about how her dad inspired her into a career in engineering, her career journey and her work supporting the Hinkley Point C project in review and acceptance
Watch her interview below:
Talk to us about your career journey
I'm currently working on Hinkley Point C new nuclear power plant. My role is review and acceptance supporting the site, review and acceptance of deliverables, design changes and non-conformity.
I've worked for many years in the design office originally. I'm Albanian. But I moved to Italy to study there and there. I started working and I worked for many years in the design office in the back office, and now being on site is looking at from another point of view. I see every day everything that I've, I've studied, or I've seen theoretically, in practice. It's helpful and it's exciting. I'm happy and I feel lucky that I had this opportunity. I've enjoyed the coordination part because I like management, but also like being part of the design. So, you interact with doing the management part, but also you have you don't miss the technical part, which is always important.
Who has been an inspiration or mentor for you in your career?
My dad is a civil engineer, so he was an example for me when I was a child. I used to see his drawings. Years ago I remember these big drawings, because AutoCAD didn't exist at the time. To me, he is my example. During my career, I had other people that helped me, professors or mentors. But for sure, my dad was my example and my hero.
What advice would you give to aspiring engineers?
The advice that I would give is just study, be curious, avoid shortcuts. Shortcuts are not needed. Be curious, ask questions, try to learn as much as you can because this is the only way. Whenyou are during your career or during your study in high school, you learn a lot of formulas or expressions. But the I would say the key is to understand what is behind the questions.
PathFinders is a Morson original series uncovering squiggly career journeys, unexpected opportunities, professional pivots, work/life challenges & successes, to showcase that there is no such thing as a ‘typical career path’. Click here to view our series
