Zoe Dobell

Mechanical Engineer, London Underground
Joined 2010

Throughout my fourth year, I knew that I wanted to work for TfL. I was particularly drawn to the vast amount of opportunities available here, a consequence of London Underground (LU) owning all aspects of the railway, not just one part. Also, I was interested in the challenges that LU has to face in order to keep the railway running and thought learning about these and meeting the people who've had to face them would be invaluable.

Both structured and flexible...

The graduate scheme is very structured in that you have many support systems around you to ensure you get help when you need it, get offered many different placement opportunities and someone to ask those "silly little questions". However, it's also incredibly flexible - you choose every placement that you do, how long for and what projects you may do in it.

Before I got to this stage though, I started with six weeks of operational placements - three weeks working in a station and three weeks of train driving. Both of these were really fun at the time, but also really useful in my engineering placements as not many people around me have been able to do the same thing. This experience has meant that I consider who the user of any modification is, whether it's the customer or an operator.

Always busy...

I'm currently working in a project team that designs the modifications to the infrastructure required in order to allow for longer, new trains. This involves going to design meetings, meeting with stakeholders, modelling the performance after modifications, conducting technical studies and more. I'm really enjoying this placement as I'm always kept busy with additional bits and pieces of work as well as my longer term projects.

As well as working in different placements, I've got involved in projects to teach students about railway engineering before they go into their GCSE year. This was an amazing experience that taught me a lot and it was an opportunity I wouldn't have got without TfL supporting the promotion of engineering from a young age.

Rolling stock...

I'm planning on continuing my training, concentrating more on rolling stock and roll off the scheme into a rolling stock job. However, with all the areas of the company left to see before then, anything could happen!