A career in engineering

Mark Cotter

In the late 1990s, information on college courses and careers was generally limited to experiences from family, friends, and short summary in course booklets. To be honest, I had no idea what a wide variety of roles an engineering career could open up for me.

I knew I liked maths, technical drawing, and other practical subjects. With no engineers in my circles to advise me, I turned to the school principal and guidance councillor who recommended that engineering would be a good fit for me, and he was spot on.

An education in engineering is a great starting point in almost any career. Engineers are trained to be critical thinkers with great assessment and problem solving skills that are easily transferable into many other fields. In Ireland, engineers are ranked as high as doctors as the most trusted professionals that people can rely on to be competent in their daily roles.

When it comes to all stages of construction or manufacturing, engineers are like the 'jacks of all trades'. We are often the clients advisers, researchers, project managers, designers, and quantity surveyors. On sites, we are the supervisors, surveyors, safety managers, quality managers and lead representatives for clients and contractors. And that just scratches the surface of the varied roles that engineers undertake.

After college, I started my professional career as a site engineer with the contractor, Rohcon, working on the Cork County Hall extension. I picked up some useful construction knowledge and skills before moving to the engineering consultancy, Mott MacDonald. My consultancy work focused mainly on the development, construction, and management of large scale infrastructure projects such as the Limerick Tunnel, New Ross Bypass, Waterford Bypass, and Arklow Rathnew Bypass to name a few. Although much of my work involved road design, planning, ground investigations, and construction, I was also involved in the operation and maintenance of projects such as bridge and flooding inspections and maintenance of the Jack Lynch Tunnel.

During the recession, when many engineering projects in Ireland were put on hold and many engineers moved out of the industry into IT or other similar roles, I was able to diversify with Mott MacDonald working on engineering projects in the UK, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. In particular, the Bergen Light Rail project in Norway is a project I found a great experience to work on. It included an early implementation of Building Information Modelling (BIM) design and construction modelling and management, which is only now becoming more widespread best practice worldwide.

Several years ago, I joined Cork City Council as an executive engineer working in the operations and maintenance of council assets. This role has great flexibility and allows me to plan and manage varied operational elements including projects, health and safety, procurement, and management of staff and contractors. I also enjoy the well balanced mix of in-office and on-site working.

After being elected as Chair of the Cork Region of Engineers Ireland in May 2026, I am looking forward to a busy year ahead. Engineers are often seen as innovators, and I want to take this view as the focus of the annual Cork Region Continuing Professional Development (CPD) autumn lecture series.

With the advent of AI, modular and off-site construction, and manufacturer methods, I will seek to collaborate with industry leaders in these fields to provide informative CPD (continuing professional development) session for the region. As has been more prevalent since Covid, I expect many of this year’s CPD sessions will be presented online only.

However, I understand that an important part of learning and development comes from engineers interacting in person. I plan to host a number of in-person only networking events during the year, culminating with our annual region dinner event in February. I hope to continue our great collaboration events with our very active Cork Young Engineers Society with some events in the works to help develop and encourage students to enter engineering courses and help contribute to the future success of our industry.