engineering.
Julia recently joined our Cambridge studio as a BIM technician, following a background in architecture. Just six weeks in, she’s already working on major projects while learning new tools and collaborating with colleagues across studios.
I’m based in the Cambridge office as part of the CAD team. My main project is Botanic Place, an office development here in Cambridge, and I’ve also done a little bit of work on Merlin Place, which is a laboratory. Both are currently on site, and at Botanic Place they’ve just started pouring the basement slab.
Starting this role meant learning a whole suite of software. Revit was completely new to me, and so were Revizto (for clash detection) and Asite (for document control). It’s been a steep learning curve, but I’m proud of how far I’ve come already.
Julia's project Merlin Place, a laboratory in Cambridge, has topping out.
At the moment I mostly work with our CAD lead in Cambridge, which makes day-to-day coordination really straightforward – we sit next to each other. I also collaborate with engineers here and in the Bristol studio. We have weekly Teams calls with all the regional studios, which is a good way to stay in the loop.
The main challenge is that I’m still new to the projects and the workflows. It sometimes takes longer to make sure I’ve fully understood what’s being asked of me, especially with markups. But it’s getting easier every week.
Learning Revit from scratch has definitely been the biggest change. I’d never used it before – my previous firm worked with different software. Robin in our Cambridge office and Ryan in Manchester gave me a lot of support. Ryan even set up a mock project with written instructions, so I could practise modelling and then check in with him to see if I’d done it correctly. That was really helpful.
Taking regular breaks makes a difference for me. We have a Monday morning catch-up to run through the week, and sometimes Friday drinks. The co-working space where we’re based also organises things like afternoon teas or breakfasts, which is a nice extra.
Favourite tool: Marking up PDFs – it sounds boring, but it’s so useful for keeping track of what I’m doing in the model.
Best tip as a graduate: Consistency over perfection.
Studio social to recommend: I’m looking forward to the next Office Discussion. These are big Spring and Autumn events where everyone from all our studios comes together. I’ve met so many colleagues only on Teams so far, so it will be great to see them in real life.
