Markus Huber

Board director, Brydenwood

Expertise

Design, Structural

Location

United Kingdom

My highlights

Working on various infrastructure projects all over the world

Keeping our team fully employed during the Covid-19 pandemic

Becoming a Fellow of the ICE

A day in my life

Since the Covid pandemic, I’ve luckily kept to hybrid work, so I can have breakfast with my family at least every second day, and help my children get to school.

Then, due to time difference, I get in touch with colleagues from Asia and Australia who are finishing work when I start.

I check emails and messages to see whether my support is urgently required on any of our projects.

Then, I’m lucky to have a very mixed type of work, from bids and strategies to construction details.

Some days I stay at home, some days I’m in our London office or at a site or external meeting. Occasionally I travel abroad for projects or to our other offices.

When there’s a chance, I interrupt work for a half an hour of sports, and I tend to finish around 7pm.

Chartership with the ICE is widely recognised and has helped me in job search and bid situations.

Which individual project or person inspired you to become a civil engineer?

The funny thing is nobody.

My parents were musicians. None of my relatives or friends were engineers.

I liked to play pretend construction when I was young and after finishing A-levels I went to a career fair and decided to give it a go with civil engineering.

We asked Markus…

I would recommend a career in civil engineering because …

… of (some of your) projects becoming physical reality.

What’s the biggest/most complex thing you’ve made out of Lego? How long did it take you?

Tower of single Duplo blocks approximately 2.5m high (with my children).

What about being a civil engineer gets you out of bed each morning?

To do my best so my team has a safe and good job.

What’s one great thing that you love about civil engineering that you didn’t know until you started working in the industry?

How many different specialists of very varying fields are involved in the construction industry.

Has civil engineering helped you overcome any personal hurdles/difficulties?

After many pressure points and engineering challenges, it simply gave me the confidence that I will (almost) always find an alternative or some way through a difficult situation.

Name one civil engineering myth you’d like to bust.

Construction is dirty and noisy (my point is the majority doesn’t have to be if the right methods are employed).

Which civil engineering project (past or present) do you wish you’d worked on?

Tidal Lagoon (hope it comes back one day).

What motivated you, or is motivating you, to become professionally qualified?

To learn about all the different aspects of engineering that were required for the chartership review that hadn’t been part of my core job.

Also, I simply had to become chartered to further progress in my career at my previous employer.

What does being professionally qualified with the ICE mean for your career?

Chartership with the ICE is widely recognised and has helped me in job search and bid situations.

I only became a Fellow recently but I’m sure it will also open doors.

What’s the best thing about being professionally qualified with the ICE?

Rather than receiving the title (although of course this was satisfying), I felt it was the process of preparing, studying, and gaining experience in the chartership attributes that weren’t part of my day-to-day that made me a much better engineer all around.

It gave me confidence to participate in discussions outside of my original core areas.

How did the ICE and your employer support you to become professionally qualified?

General support with training and career development, and more specifically internal sessions to review reports and presentations that were to be submitted for the chartership review.

For the fellowship preparation, I put together the necessary documents.

What do you value most about being an ICE member?

Access to a network of engineers, manuals and publications.

Complete this phrase: I’m a civil engineer, but I’m also …

… a façade engineer, and more importantly, a father and husband.

Anything else? i.e. personal causes, hobbies

During my Erasmus exchange year, I met an engineering colleague from Mexico who is now my wife. I lived and worked as an engineer in Mexico for several years before coming to the UK.

Markus' career path

Studied civil/structural engineering at TU Vienna in Austria and went for an Erasmus exchange year to UPC Barcelona.

I started work in Austria, then went to Mexico.

I ended up in London, first at Ramboll, and then joined Brydenwood where I had the opportunity to start and lead a structures/civils group which grew to over 100 people last year.