5 years ago, Project Engineer Michael Bell decided to visit New Zealand for a 2-year working holiday visa with his partner. What was initially planned to be a short holiday ended up being a career-defining move when he decided to stay. Now he is embarking on a new journey in Sydney with CaSE.
A Scotland native, Michael started in the industry as a labourer at 17, working on a multi-story set of apartments in Edinburgh.
"After I graduated, I moved into the environmental sector working on improving the quality of Scotland waterways which led onto working in the wind energy sector. I move to Christchurch in 2016 where I ultimately ended up working for a Civil Contractor called Martin Civil Construction as a project engineer predominantly upgrading and constructing new electrical substations throughout the South Island."
"In 2017 I moved down to Gore for 8 months to work on a large new Electrical Substation. One of the highlights of that job was the successful construction and installation of a 9 m tall precast paneled blast wall. A second highlight would be the on-time completion of the Naseby Substation upgrade. The project had several key dates which were constantly tested due to heavy snow, covid and the remote location of the substation itself. "
"The diversity and range of their project portfolio. I really want to focus on getting as much exposure as possible to different aspects of civil engineering and CaSE looks like a good place to get that."
