Life of a Graduate Engineer in DPS

The DPS Graduate Program

Overview: What Am I Getting Into?

The DPS graduate programme is an excellent way to develop your standard of soft skills, alongside practical engineering experience during the day to day working life. There are options for working both onsite and in the office. - Crucial skills such as: Leadership, Project Management, Presentation Skills, Personal Growth and many more. The programme is very interactive, and it is an excellent way to get to know your peers. It is also heavily endorsed by the Senior Leadership in DPS, which makes it a good way to make a name for yourself!

Continual Improvement

Continual improvement is a major focus here. There are regularly scheduled trainings across skills disciplines as well as a multitude of platforms to explore other areas of interest through LinkedIn Learning. The Graduate program incorporates these resources and provides and great platform to grow as an engineer.

• LinkedIn Learning
• Lunch and Learns
• 3rd Party Educators

Honestly…What is it Really Like? 

Is It Any Craic?

Days normally consists of a mixture of team meetings, personal time to work on deliverables, coffee breaks, asking questions to the senior engineers and having a bit of a laugh with the team! DPS regularly organises social events such as BBQs, Go-Karting, Escape Rooms, 5-aside, pints or a round of golf. We found this breaks up the work really well!

Will It Be Like My Course?

Process Engineering: If you enjoy design work in college, then you will love working here. Each project is different and the potential for learning and building your engineering experience is enormous. Lot of the skills are key especially the teamwork and general engineering sense! Project Controls: I studied accountancy so applying to DPS as a project controls graduate was going to be a bit of a change.

There are parts of my degree that I use every day. I’m not exactly doing accounts now but I’m dealing with numbers in a lot of different ways and really enjoying it. Construction Coordination: I have a background in IT Management. As my role is based around project management. Similar methodologies and soft skills are shared between the two however the main ones include Strategic, Time & People Management. These really helped me in the transition moving from an office to a site-based role.

Work Life Balance

Having a healthy work-life balance is a real priority here. The ability for flexible working location and hours, really help keep things in balance.

Will I Be Out of My Depth?

Don’t worry, you absolutely don’t have to know everything when you start! If you are keen to learn then you will fit right in. Everyone you’ll meet here are more than willing to help and are approachable. As a graduate engineer you are assigned a mentor to help guide you through the new role. We found this made settling in much less daunting!

Will I Get to Work Internationally?

DPS works on projects across the globe. While based here, our work isn’t limited to Ireland. In our first year at DPS, we have been involved in projects based in the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Ireland. So yes, we regularly work with teams internationally. These international connections are also a great pathway to working internationally across our many European and global offices and clients, such as in the US and Israel and Singapore.

Sample Graduate Activities

Group Contributions So Far:

From day one we have personal responsibility for Multinational client deliverables. With help and oversight from a mentor of course! We have mostly been working with clients in the Pharmaceutical & Biopharmaceutical Industry. Process Engineering and Project Controls: - Technical Bid Analyses & Datasheets for state-of-the-art equipment. - Technical Drawings - Hazard & Operability Reports – Safety by Design - Calculations for Design, sizing, optimisation & relief of process equipment - Progress submittal measuring, cost reporting, change controls, Commercial bid Analyses. BIM & Construction Coordination: - Model development and clash detection in large scale construction projects. - The day-to-day management of trades - Communicating with multi-disciplinary teams, Scheduling, budgeting and quality management.

Key Takeaways! 

The DPS Graduate program is a fantastic opportunity for young engineers to experience a wide range of opportunities in a cutting-edge & constantly evolving field. It fosters soft skills and helps you to grow, pushing you on your way to succeeding as a leader in this industry.