Alan Madden

Senior technician, Fairhurst

Expertise

Construction, Project Management, Design

Location

Scotland

My highlights

My first civil engineering project being in my hometown

Gaining my higher national diploma in civil engineering

Achieving Engineering Technician status with the ICE at the age of 60

A day in my life

When I’m in the office I work closely as a part of a team working (normally juggling) on a number of design projects.

I carry out, sewer, road and level designs using 3D software and AutoCAD.

When site based, I can be found poking my nose into everything that’s going on and checking that works are being carried out safely and correctly.

Achieving EngTech MICE recognises my status in the wider engineering world, and Fairhurst recognise the achievement with a substantial salary increase.

Which individual project or person inspired you to become a civil engineer?

The father of a girl at my primary school worked for a large Scottish house builder.

He organised a trip for us when we were about 10 years old to go on a school outing to his nearby housing site.

I was hooked as it all amazed me – the pipes, the manhole rings, the diggers and mud.

Twenty years later he gave me a job as a site engineer in the civil engineering company he’d gone on to found.

We asked Alan…

I would recommend a career in civil engineering because…

Every day can be different with new challenges and things to learn.

I’m now 60 years old and still learn new stuff all the time.

Seeing a project, especially one that you’ve had a hand designing, rise from the ground and begin to function as expected is still a thrill.

I still drive past projects that I worked on and think – I had a hand in building that.

Complete this phrase: I’m a civil engineer, but I’m also…

A husband and father.

What’s the biggest/most complex thing you’ve made out of Lego? How long did it take you?

I’m old school, and long before fancy kits and themes existed, my Lego was only bricks, flat base slabs, roof tiles, windows and doors.

So I built houses as big as my box of bits could stretch to, for hours on end.

What about being a civil engineer gets you out of bed each morning?

Being paid...

Seriously though, the sense of achievement that you get when things go right, or after you sort something out when they don’t.

What’s one great thing that you love about civil engineering that you didn’t know until you started working in the industry?

That it’s an industry that keeps evolving and renewing itself to keep up with technology, but still needs backwards glances to old methods all the time too.

Which civil engineering project (past or present) do you wish you’d worked on?

The Tay Bridge in Dundee.

Name one civil engineering myth you’d like to bust.

That technicians can only draw, and engineers can only design.

In a time before computers, which I have to admit that I'm from, technicians spent their working hours behind drawing boards with their ink and pens, while engineers got to use their calculators.

The technological revolution changed that forever with astonishing computer programmes and applications that we all had to adapt to and learn to use.

I feel that this re-learning process had the effect of levelling the playing field to a degree (no pun intended), and re-defined a lot of the boundaries of what tasks could only be performed by technicians or engineers.

Has civil engineering helped you overcome any personal hurdles/difficulties?

I've noticed that having a brain wired to engineering helps solve a lot of life issues.

What motivated you to become professionally qualified? 

I started on a route to becoming professionally qualified at Hammersmith and Fulham Council and nearly achieved it, but moving jobs got in the way.

I then decided to move into contracting, where I felt that the ability to do your job and meet deadlines was sometimes seen as being more important than letters after your name.

When I joined Fairhurst I was once more encouraged to pursue a further qualification.

I started the process, very nearly finished it again but procrastinated over it for weeks, months and then years.

Approaching 60 coupled with the introduction of Barbara Murray, membership development officer (MDO) at the ICE, spurred me on finally to get my act in gear.

What does being professionally qualified with the ICE mean for your career?

The letters after my name demonstrate my ICE membership and that I reached a nearly 40-year-old goal.

It recognises my status in the wider engineering world, and Fairhurst recognise the achievement with a substantial salary increase.

What’s the best thing about being professionally qualified with the ICE? 

I’ve always felt that there was a bit of a stigma about being a technician rather than an engineer in the world of academia.

Achieving Engineering Technician (EngTech) status and becoming a member of the ICE (MICE) therefore feels like a real achievement.

How did the ICE and/or your employer support you to become professionally qualified? 

MDO Barbara Murray’s real friendliness, infectious enthusiasm, never ending encouragement and gentle prodding, when required, was of tremendous support to me.

She also took great delight in me finally buckling down to get EngTech over the line, having received my over 60s bus pass first.

Our new office partner in Fairhurst, Andrew Kram, took a personal role in helping me with my written submission and my presentation.

Other colleagues, who mentored me, also encouraged me by proofreading my submission and offering constructive criticism and advice.

What do you value most about being an ICE member? 

The sense of achievement and being part of an exclusive group.

How has being a member helped your career? 

It has helped financially but also, importantly, studying for EngTech helped me to re-focus on all levels of being a civil engineer, morally as well as academically.

Any hobbies?

Working in Carnoustie for 20 years rekindled my interest (obsession) with golf and I’ve been a member of Carnoustie Links for 30 years.

Alan's career path

I qualified with a higher national diploma in civil engineering in 1985 when there was a downturn in the construction industry.

I moved from Dundee to London to work in the Hammersmith and Fulham roads department.

After that, I moved to the City of London engineers department.

I decided that local authorities weren’t for me as I wanted to get out onsite.

Various site engineering posts followed as contracts came and went and I slowly moved back up the country to home.

I worked for Torith Ltd in Dundee for five years before moving to DJ Laing (Contracts) Ltd in Carnoustie as a project manager, where I stayed for 20 years.

As I turned 50, I had had enough of being outside in all weathers and moved to my current post with Fairhurst, where I divide my time between design work and site-based commissions.