Ruth Freedman - Licensing Engineer

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8.50am and I walk up to the central London office from the tube station. I’ve been interested in nuclear power since I did a project about it at school and got to meet a Nuclear Engineer. I liked the technical side, and it’s a complex area that involves economics and public opinion, so there’s a lot going on.

When I came to choose a company to join, EDF Energy stood out. I wanted to be involved at the pioneering end of nuclear energy and because they’re building nuclear power stations in France, they seemed the obvious choice.

Although my team’s based in London, we have close links with the nuclear business in France. The people I work with have a lot of experience in the nuclear business, which is useful for me. I can benefit from their knowledge, so if there’s anything I don’t understand, there’s always someone I can ask.

One of the main issues I’m interested in is nuclear waste and how to deal with it. This is a key issue for the nuclear industry at the moment. I’ve been involved in a number of meetings within EDF which involve senior managers from France, to discuss how we deal with waste.

My time on the graduate programme gave me a good broad knowledge of the EDF business, as well as useful skills that I can use in my day-to-day work. I got a real sense of the different areas of the business and the confidence to present to very senior people.

At EDF Energy you get a lot of training so I’m always learning. It’s a great feeling when you realise that you started a day not understanding something technical and by the end of the day, you may have a grasp of something like a steam generator.

Being based close to Covent Garden is great for getting out at lunchtime. I try to meet up for lunch with a friend when I can.

Covent Garden’s also a great area for window shopping. Although some of the prices are a bit out of my range – at the moment!

There are lots of schemes for improving your skills, For example, the Learning for All initiative enables you to learn any skill and the company fund your studies. A friend of mine did a cookery course and, as I’ll soon be going to France, I’m thinking about doing a wine tasting course.

I’ve always been given the training I need. The rule is if you ask, you usually get. For instance, because I’ll be going to work in Lyon soon, I have a French tutor who comes into the office each week to give me one-to-one language tuition.

In Lyon I’ll be working with safety engineers and also looking at some very technical procurement issues. So I’ll need to find out more about how the power station works and hopefully I’ll be able to see a similar station to the one we’re planning to build here.

The main thing I enjoy about my work is learning how things work. I’m piecing it together slowly – and seeing the progress of such a huge project from beginning to end is really interesting.

At the moment, I spend a lot of my time getting to know specific areas by reading and summarising guidelines and regulations. It’s quite a steep learning curve, but it will really help me later in my career. I’m also learning about the technical aspects of the reactor, which involves reading a lot of technical documentation.

Because I’m still learning the business, my colleagues will often ask me to join meetings that involve quite senior managers from the French nuclear business. Sometimes I have to take meeting notes, which is a good way of learning the detail, because you have to pay attention!

There’s a good work-life balance in my team. I hardly ever have to work late, so I’m usually out of the office soon after 5.30pm. On the graduate scheme, there was quite a bit of socialising. One of the Energy Directors even took us to see a match at Arsenal. I’m not even a football fan, but being in a box was quite exciting!