Zhenzhen Xu: "A technician has to be smart. Our thoughts and ideas are an important part of the process."

I joined ROD as a bridge technician just over a year ago.

I studied engineering at Tianjin Chengjian University in China, where I majored in electrical engineering and automation.  I became interested in design and construction after taking some computer-aided drawing (CAD) classes. 

After graduating, I attended a CAD and building information modelling (BIM) school with the intention of moving into drafting.  The lecturers at the school were experts in their fields, and a large part of my coursework focused on connecting the theory to live projects.  It was a great place to learn my craft. 

No. Construction had been booming in China for decades, so any job in a construction-related field, such as design or fabrication, promised a bright future.

I worked for three years with an architectural/structural firm in Shanghai, where I was initially responsible for doing general arrangement and mechanical and electrical (M&E) drawings. 

Over time, I became involved in some major projects, including a complex of high-rise residential buildings, 29 floors and 96.25m in height, with a total area of 375,500 m2. 

In China, I worked twice the number of hours as I do here in Ireland.  During busy periods, I would regularly leave the office as late as 11.00 p.m.  At the end of the year, however, every employee received a bonus of between one month’s salary and one year’s salary, regardless of their position in the company. The bonus was calculated on the work the employee delivered during the year.

I came to Ireland with my boyfriend, Miguel Angel Hidalgo, who is a graduate engineer at ROD.  We wanted to advance our careers by working in an English-speaking country and chose Ireland because it is in the European Union (EU) and is an attractive place for immigrants to live and work.

A technician has to be smart.  While our job is to convert an engineer’s design into a drawing, our experience, thoughts and ideas are an important part of the process.  We need to understand the whole project so we can combine the information correctly to produce a drawing. That is the main reason technicians cannot be replaced by robots – at least not yet!

I am still relatively new in the company, but I am building up my experience one project at a time.  While working on the as-built drawings for the A6 Randalstown to Castledawson ECI, for example, I learned about the correct project procedure, the information that needs to be shown on drawings and the inputs of the various disciplines involved in the project.  

I had a little more responsibility on the Great Yarmouth Third River Crossing scheme and learned how to communicate more efficiently with my colleagues.

In my view, the gender of a mentor is unimportant - it is the knowledge and experience of the person that matters.  My mentor is John O’Driscoll.  He is hugely experienced but also patient and willing to help.

I am happy living in Dublin but, as I like to say, the world is big!