What does a typical day look like for you? 

"There isn't really such a thing as a typical day - and that's genuinely what I love about it. Some days involve a lot of tea and meetings; others, you have your head down in a design, producing drawings and calculations. There's never a dull moment. There's always something pressing that needs your attention."

If you had to pick one highlight of your role, what would it be? 

"Seeing the drawings come to life. When the renders you've produced look exactly like what's been built, that moment when you can point at a finished building and say 'I worked on that', it never gets old."

Where do you see Building Services heading in the next five years? 

"The industry is always evolving. My feeling is we'll see a significant increase in refurbishment projects as clients look for more ways to become more sustainable and reduce costs. Renewables and sustainability aren't trends - they're the future of what we do."

What's a common misconception about your role? 

"Most people don't even know this job exists - it's genuinely difficult to explain what building services engineering actually involves. When people do have a mental image, it tends to be the stereotyped one: technical, male, and let's say not exactly glamorous. I may have a five o'clock shadow by the end of a long week on site, but I'm not quite the image they're imagining!"

When it comes to sustainability, where is the industry making progress - and where is it falling behind? 

"Progress is real and ongoing. The industry is responding to new technology, tightening regulations, and rising sustainability targets. I think we're moving in the right direction; the challenge is keeping pace with the urgency of what's needed."

What should clients be thinking about now that they weren't five years ago? 

"Two things stand out. First, renewables and energy consciousness - clients are far more switched on to long-term running costs and carbon impact than they were. And second, fire safety. The industry has shifted. Clients are asking harder questions, and that's a good thing."

What attracted you to join the Front Five team? 

"The people, and the projects. There's a genuinely wide spread of work here. There are some really exciting and complex jobs - and the team that delivers it makes all the difference."

What advice would you give to someone considering a career in Building Services? 

"RUN!... Straight into it. There aren't enough Electrical Design Engineers out there, full stop. If you have an interest in it, you will always find work. It's a career with real security and real variety." 

What excites you the most about the future of Building Services? 

"The scale of what's coming. The construction world always wants to build bigger and better, and knowing that one day you might be part of the design team behind something extraordinary - that's genuinely exciting to me."

What needs to change to attract more women into the industry? 

"In the 15 years I've been working, the numbers have shifted. I went from being the only girl in my college class to, by the end of my studies, there being three of us - and now I work in an office where women make up a real proportion of the team. That change is real, even if it's slow. 

The stigma of construction being 'for men' is fading, but the stereotype lingers. What needs to go is the image - the idea that this industry belongs to one type of person. It doesn't. Alongside that, equal pay. Simple as that."

Happy International Women's Day from Front Five.

To every woman working in construction, engineering, and building services, thank you for everything you bring to this industry. And to anyone considering it, there has never been a better time to join.