Friday, 2/24/2017
André Lima, former student
of the Integrated Master programme in Civil Engineering (MIEC), returned to the
EEUM to share his professional experience in the United Kingdom (U.K.). The
event took place on 13th February at the Campus of Azurém, in
Guimarães.
The Civil Engineering Students Association of the University of Minho
invited André Lima, a former student of the MIEC of the EEUM, for a testimony on
his career start in the U.K. André Lima shared his professional experience
since he completed his studies at the EEUM in 2015.
André Lima is a 24 year-old from Lagos, Algarve. His passion for
Engineering and Architecture was shown from a very young age, partly due to the
civil construction company owned by his father in the south of Portugal. Two
years after completing the MIEC at the EEUM, André Lima recalls that those were
“five years well spent in this school. It is always good to come back and
review some of the people who helped me on this journey”.
In February of 2016 he started his first job in London, in a
multinational providing consulting services in Engineering (Arup). In August of
the same year, he changed companies and currently works in a civil construction
company in Bristol (Laing O’Rourke), in the southwest of England. "Nowadays, people
have to be able to adapt to different situations that life presents them,
because they do not know what will happen tomorrow", André Lima explains.
During his academic journey at the EEUM, André Lima always had a
particular interest for extracurricular training, having developed skills in
sustainable practices as well as engineering software. The former student
therefore encouraged students to go on Erasmus for the opportunity to meet new
universities, news ways of teaching, people and language. “I did an Erasmus exchange
programme in Belgium and it was a very rewarding experience, as it helps you to
expand your horizons. I often say that there are many Engineers, but only the
Engineers with different skills will make the difference in the future”, André
Lima encourages.
After a year in the U.K. and counting on several experiences, André Lima
has no doubts about the future he aspires to: "My father owns a civil
construction company in Algarve and I would like to return to Portugal at some
point with a broad knowledge of the industry and help him with innovative
methodologies” he concludes.
The
full interview to André Lima is available in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9XE-RI0Y_E
+ info (in Portuguese): http://www.civil.uminho.pt/; https://www.facebook.com/aeecum/
