Transport and Traffic Design Technician Sarah Gregory Transport and Traffic Design Technician In my early twenties and after project managing several London retail store openings, I decided to completely change careers. I talked to my brother who was employed by A-one at the time and in 2004, I joined the A-one Area 14 Network Control Centre (NCC) in my home town of Darlington, working a day and night shift pattern coordinating responses to incidents on the network - as well as manning the snow desk through the winter season. I loved working in the NCC because every day was different and it gave me experience working alongside the emergency services and incident support units. Whilst doing night shifts, the opportunity arose for me to produce AutoCAD drawings for the value management team, I enjoyed the new experience finding it really interesting and wanting to learn more. Soon after, I was offered a full time role in the value management team and so after a year in the NCC, I joined A-one employed by Halcrow as a value management trainee technician. In 2007, I completed my final year at college achieving a Level 2 and 3 City & Guilds 2D & 3D Auto CAD qualification enabling me to join the design team in Darlington, working on traffic management and As-built design drawings. In 2009, I transferred from Area 14 to Area 12 in Normanton, West Yorkshire to further my experience as a transportation and traffic design technician, working across a number of teams. Some of my time now is spent as a STEM ambassador going into local schools and colleges. One of the many career highlights for me was winning three photographic competitions with my entry of ‘Ladies at lunch’ including ‘This is Civil Engineering’ run by the Institution of Civil Engineers in 2015. Next year, I am getting married to a fellow engineer and having a baby, but will definitely resume my career afterwards. #INWED17 A-one+