Dan Lehmann

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I get in to work at around 8:30 in the morning. I'm currently working on a project in Powerlink, the part of EDF Energy Networks responsible for maintaining and running the energy networks for London Underground. The first thing I do is to check my e-mail to find out the progress of the projects I'm working on, or see if any faults that have arisen overnight.

This is the personal protective equipment (PPE) I wear whenever I am on site. Since joining EDF Energy I have been on various Health & Safety courses, including first aid, fire safety and substation entry courses.

I get to meet and talk to a whole range of people across the business – not just engineers. Especially when I'm running a project, I'll talk to Finance or people from the commercial part of the business. At the moment I'm involved in a cross Branch project with other graduates, so we have a regular teleconference every week, to check how things are going.

I've also been on site visits to all the other branches. Tomorrow, I'm going to visit one of our coal-fuelled power stations up in Nottingham, and a few months ago, I took all the other graduates around Heathrow Terminal 5.

Today, I'm working on a cable diversion. At the moment, our 22kV high voltage cables run underneath a school playground. However, the school wants to build an extension on top of it, so we have had to divert them to another route. This may sound simple, but there is a lot of planning and other work that has to be done. This particular project has the added technical challenge of using a special joint, because these cables are filled with nitrogen gas.

As an engineer, I get to go out on site and get involved in the practical side of the project too. So far I have helped test the old and new cables, and see the jointers prepare the cables. One of the real advantages of the scheme, for me, is the balance between the time you spend in the office and the time you spend out of it.

When you join the graduate scheme, you get assigned both a mentor (who's usually a senior manager) and a buddy, who's a graduate from the year above you. Their job is to support you whilst on the graduate scheme, and help you get the most from your training. You also benefit from a two-week induction, where you're shown round different sites and get to see all the different work we're involved in.

Because the London Underground has such a long history, some of the cables and equipment on the network date back as far as the 1950s or 1960s. Faults on the network can be really interesting to find and fix, and we spent a few days trying to locate one particularly tricky cable fault.

As an Electrical Engineer, there are things that I get to see here that you simply couldn't see anywhere else. We work right across London, so there is always a new place to go, and different types of work to do.

EDF Energy's contract with BAA (who run all the major airports in the South East) runs for 90 years, and covers a whole range of work. My time at Heathrow was spent in the construction team for the new Terminal 5. It was amazing to be involved in the largest building project in Europe, and to know that EDF Energy has such a major role.

My most memorable project was delivering an 11,000V substation for Heathrow Terminal 5. I was involved right the way through the construction phase: from contract negotiations and the contractors turning up with the digger, to seeing the substation cabled up and tested. Best of all was the moment I was allowed to carry out the final checks and energise the substation - a successful end to my four-month project.

In one of my placements, I was involved in technical modelling for initiatives to harness energy from wind, biogases and other biofuels. It was fascinating to explore such a new area of our business – especially since I had done a lot of work on combined heat and power at university.

There's a real variety of work here. Reporting, modelling, design, construction, maintenance – the programme covers virtually every aspect of an engineering project.

I get to work with a lot of talented engineers and experienced people in the company. What's more, they always find time to explain what they do. People are really willing to let graduates get involved, and have hands on experience, which is a great way of learning. They've also got some fascinating stories to tell.

I've got lots of training courses lined up. I'll be studying for my Prince 2 project management qualification soon, and I will also be attending some specialist technical courses in the areas that I'm interested in. One of the major advantages of the programme is that it's accredited by the IET – so I'm also working to become a Chartered Engineer.

I've already completed two placements, and I've got one more to go – which will be focused on design and planning. However, because the graduate programme gives you such a good insight into all the different types of job, I have got a fairly good idea of what I want to do once I've finished. And I can't wait to start.