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ENGINEERING - TANYA ROSS OM'84
What is your profession and current position?
Consulting engineer (construction industry); director
How did Monkton get you ready for the world of work?
Monkton gave me plenty of opportunities for teamwork, and designing a building is a hugely collaborative team effort, integrating the skills of architects, various engineering disciplines, cost professionals, umpteen specialists plus contractors, so my role as a design manager has very much been one of promoting teamwork to achieve the best end result.
What is your biggest professional achievement?
I’ve been lucky enough to have several: attending the Millennium celebrations at the Dome and seeing that hugely innovative structure succeed so well (whatever you might have thought about the exhibition it contained); being there when Steve Redgrave brought the Olympic torch into the stadium in London on opening night in 2012, and again seeing the stadium perform spectacularly well.
What has been your most challenging professional moment?
Being informed that “the cables are the wrong length” whilst in the middle of erecting the Millennium Dome in 1997. Still, we sat down with the team and worked out a solution: the Dome is actually 300mm lower than the original design as a result, but I don’t think anyone noticed…
What inspires and motivates you at work?
Every project results in a building that people will use; so I really feel I’m doing something worthwhile that leaves a tangible legacy.
What is one piece of advice you would like to share with pupils or OMs about getting into your profession?
Choose to do something that you’re really, genuinely interested in, because you’ll be doing it for forty years!