Nicola Whelan-Henderson

7.00 AM

The alarm goes off, I wake up and get straight into my biking gear and sit down for breakfast with flatmates.

7.45 AM

I usually bike to work, if the weather is fine and I don’t need my car after work. Stantec’s Christchurch office provides us with secure bike parking, locker, and shower facilities. 

8.30 AM

I switch my laptop on then grab a coffee and read through my emails. I also review my notebook where I have listed a few key jobs to look at first thing, and that’s the start of my plan for the day.

 
9.00 AM

Today, I am catching up with fieldwork notes and writing up soil logs. Last week I spent three days on-site in rural Southland doing some ground investigation works, and two days working from our Queenstown office, where the Project Technical Lead is based.

10.30 AM

I flick my colleague a message on Skype to tee up a meeting to discuss how to progress with the data collected, and the specific client requirements for how it is to be presented. I discuss what the outputs are, and the steps I am going to take to put the raw data into a model.

11.00 AM

I return to my desk to continue working through models. Our office is just south of Hagley Park, we have a great view over the Port Hills. I’m lucky enough to have a window seat.

12.30 PM

Lunchtime! If it’s fine, I head outside with some other graduates and chat over lunch. 

 
1.00 PM

After lunch, I begin working on a different project, working on a condition assessment of stormwater infrastructure assets locally here in Christchurch. I do some background reading on the communications between others in the team from last week. I collect some attributes along the pipeline such as groundwater and invert depth. We are looking at how these attributes combine to cause failure and trying to predict when this failure will occur. 

2.30 PM

In mid-afternoon, some questions arise from colleagues they need my input on. I have been working in the Geotech team for the past two years and have just recently switched into the water team, my input is required into old projects, so I spend some time helping with that.

 
3.00 PM

I briefly break and grab a cup of tea and continue with progressing my stormwater pipeline attributes model. 
 

5.15 PM

The workday is done. We’re lucky here at Stantec, we have flexible work arrangements, so on occasions, I can change my start and finish times to allow me to balance work and life. Every evening, I try to spend some time outside– between yoga, social sports, and mountain biking. I keep busy.

8.30 PM

After my evening activity, I head home to the flat. We usually hang out and yarn, share dinner, watch some shows on tv, perhaps do some baking.

10.30 PM

Bedtime.

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