• Question: What inspired you to first start your work?

    Asked by becky to Ken, Alex, Chris, Harriet, Jed on 12 Mar 2012. This question was also asked by susannah1, cfgsgirls64, lucy162, 09lforeman, charlottie, lozzamac, kyran1997, zoeh2o, 11mgazelshigh, ryan1234, charlotteacb11, lily16, lauraabc11, bethanymcmanusxo, matt, codyrocksyoursocks, chloe123, amber123, abigail.
    • Photo: Ken Gibbs

      Ken Gibbs answered on 9 Mar 2012:

      Good question ! I don’t think I had a sudden brain-storm but was interested in what made things work – and originally just needed a job to look after my family. Then I was given one or two surprise opportunities – which I took – and found that working to help people get the basics (clean water and a functional loo) became so rewarding, that this has been my inspiration ever since. Besides, safe water and good sanitation/hygiene can stop a lot of small children from dying. Being asked to travel widely to do the work has been an even greater inspiration – meeting and working with so many different people, getting to know their cultures, eating their foods and learning what makes them laugh – I couldn’t have asked for a better career. Consider trying it yourself !

    • Photo: Jed Ramsay

      Jed Ramsay answered on 12 Mar 2012:

      I kind of fell into working in engineering without realising it. I got a job in an office working on computers, as I’ve always been pretty good at that. The people I was working for were all engineers and they started to teach me about engineering…

      The bit that really got me hooked though was building something using all kinds of machines and materials to do it. My first project was to replace a set of steps with a ramp to let people on wheelchairs get to the river. I designed the ramp, then got people to build it for me and it’s still being used today 10 years later. Even a small thing like this I really enjoyed and today I get to work on all range of building projects on the river that are never the same.

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