THIS YEAR WE ARE CELEBRATING THE AMAZING WORK OF OUR TOWER CRANE SALES & PROJECT ENGINEER, PARVATHY DEVI
Read about how Parvathy made the move from India to the UK a few years ago, and what lead her to her critical role at Radius Group, planning tower crane schemes for our valued customers.
What is your position? Sales Engineer / Project Engineer
How long have you worked at Radius? I joined in March 2019, so just over 4 years.
What career path did you take to get to where you are now? I studied architecture in India, and have been a registered Architect for more than a decade now. After working with a few architectural practices, I completed a Master’s degree specialising in Theory and Design. I also worked as Teaching Assistant while studying which was interesting, as it gave me an opportunity to learn about planning street designs with students. Whilst studying for my Masters, I decided to join a construction group, which gave me a platform to strengthen my skills in architecture and engineering. My career has been built on different sectors of construction and in completely different parts of the world. I have been fortunate to have had exposure to different work cultures.
Tell us about your move to the UK After completing my Masters, I worked as an Architect planning and developing large-scale residential projects. Working with builders encouraged transitioning from a predominantly design-oriented role to a technical one. I decided to move to the UK with my husband who wanted to pursue his PhD. I worked freelance for a few years, developing designs and planning housing projects, but my grand plan was to be working in a technical capacity, and then I found Radius. Over the last four years, I have learned a lot about tower cranes, and now I only see cranes around me!
What does your daily routine look like? My day is predominantly planning new tower crane strategies. You will see me discussing different plans with my team over a big AutoCAD screen. A typical day consists of engineering meetings, planning tower cranes schemes, client meetings to understand the commercial options, project requirements and discuss multiple approaches, developing standards to make our work more efficient, communication with our tower crane manufacturer (Potain) and a lot of coffee!
What is your biggest accomplishment since working at Radius? Apart from all the exciting projects I have worked on and the amazing clients I had a chance to work with, I am proud of how our team has developed. We have a team of engineers supporting the sales side of the business which was my “pet project” I am proud of how far we have grown and developed as a team. Dare I say, I think the Sales team is the best team at Radius 😊
How have you grown professionally whilst working at Radius? Exponentially is what I would call my growth. I was (very) new to tower cranes when I joined Radius Group. I have grown from being a complete newbie to understanding tower cranes and associated planning requirements; I have come a long way. After I joined the Radius team – made up of incredible professionals who inspired me and helped me learn more about cranes – I progressed to earning my Blue Card, Appointed Person accreditation. Training other engineers in my team and growing our team is a feather in the cap I proudly wear.
What are the best parts of your job? The best part of my job is the team that I work with. Each person brings their own expertise and versatility, which strengthens the team. We have evolved stronger as a team and that is a credit to the people I work with.
What is the most difficult challenge you’ve experienced working for us? Working from home through COVID-19 and not having a full team around was a big challenge. However, it helped each of us grow more by pushing our limitations, even without knowing it. As much of a struggle as it was, it was also the biggest learning opportunity for us all.
What motivates you at work? New projects that coming through the door is always exciting. It is a joy to be involved with new people, new teams, and exciting new opportunities. As we predominantly work with the Pre-construction team, I get to develop new strategies every day, with our core team.
If you are inspired to pursue a career in engineering and want to join the Radius team, please take a look at our careers page here
