Project manager & Design Engineer from Ireland, currently working in Vancouver, Canada. Currently role is Lead Designer/Project Manager for ContainerWest Manufacturing LTD. At ContainerWest we manufacture modular buildings, specializing in shipping containers. Project scopes vary from standard products like our construction office to custom one off projects that require a lot of engineering design, details of such projects can be found in my Blog. I am involved in every aspects of my projects, from design concepts right through until erection of the container on-site. Prior to starting this role at ContainerWest, I Created my own business in 2021 called SMARTVEST LTD, the idea was to bring GPS tracking to all levels of sport. Although not a huge finical successes, I learned a lot about myself and have no regrets after deciding to close the company in 2022. One of the key outcomes of this short venture was realizing that you can teach yourself almost any skill and how much of a resource the internet can be if you look in the right places. 

 

On completion my Leaving Cert in Athy Co.Kildare in 2015, I started studying in the Institute of Technology, Carlow (IT Carlow). I decided to study a bachelor of engineering in Aircraft Systems. The fact that IT Carlow had their own airplane hangar on-site was a leading factor for choosing this course. This gave the program a perfect balance of hands on work and classroom based learning. We did maintenance on the discontinued aircraft to simulate real life aircraft maintenance work. The key take away from this experience was the soft skills learning to use different tools. When we weren't in the Aircraft Hangar we were in the classroom learning modules such as Aircraft Design, Physics, Structures, Electrical & Electronic Fundamentals, Electrical Power Systems, Basic & Advanced Aerodynamics, CAD modules, Coding modules, Aviation Law, Propulsion Technology and every year we had Engineering Mathematics. I liked how broad the course was, it is a course where you need to have an understanding of all working parts of an aircraft and this can be quite challenging. I graduated in 2020 with a distinction (Final GPA of 70.58%). Graduation however was short lived due to the ongoing pandemic which had the world turned upside down. The aviation sector was particularly affected due to the grounding of all flights.

​

Owing to this downfall of the sector I decided I would have to look to other sectors for work. In September 2021 I started work at Etex Ireland, A Global Company who specializing in the manufacturing of Roof Slates. I started at Etex as a general operative but quickly climbed the ladder to hold a position of machine operator of 'the drum machine'. The drum machine was the most important machine in the process of manufacturing fiber cement slates. I was the youngest ever 'drum man' and it was a daunting task at first. After some long days & nights I began to get comfortable with the machine and it's complexities. I worked 4 cycle shifts in my tome at Etex, which consists of rotating 12hr days and nights. I learned many things at my time at Etex but above all else, I learned the definition of hard work. Not the type of hard work I was accustomed to, like rushing to finish an assignments over a weekend. I remember many a night of putting on a wet suit at 4AM in the morning and jack hammering concrete out of a machine to get it up and running again. The type of hard work that tests co-workers relationships but ultimately created unbreakable bonds. After a quick year of working at Etex I decided it was time for a change, leaving behind blood, sweat, and tears, along with many new friendships. I have very fond memories of my time working at Etex but the highlight was the people I worked with morning, noon & night. But for me and my career, it was time for change and this would be the biggest change of my life so far.

​

In September 2022 I moved to Vancouver, with nothing more than a piece of paper to get me into the country.. After taking some personal time to get to know the city I started to search for work. I took a job as a laborer for a construction company whilst I got my feet firmly planted on the ground. I worked in varies sites around the lower mainland and the skills I learned working in the hangar in IT Carlow were put to good use. In September 2021 I started with ContainerWest manufacturing LTD and haven't looked back since. It was a perfect roll for me as it offered a perfect balance between project management and mechanical design. The philosophy within this company is design it, then build it. This process ensure the engineer designing the projects knows the project scope before going on to project manage it. Throughout my time at ContainerWest I have streamlined many process such as the use of Lego blocks, basically top level assemblies with mating plans within the assembly making it easy to drag and drop Lego blocks into container models. I have now progressed into a more senior role within ContainerWest where I oversee manufacturing and man-power whilst still project managing complex projects. I have an apatite for learning and this continued in my time in Vancouver, I have completed two professional development courses in my time in Vancouver the first in Supervision and Management and the latter in Project Management. I recently completed a safety audit course, which enables me to do internal safety audits to keep in compliance with EGBC requirements.