In Conversation with Katherine Saldanha and Selina Suri: Women in Rail and Infrastructure industry
In this conversation, we hear from two accomplished professionals in the rail and infrastructure industry, Katherine Saldanha and Selina Suri, as they discuss their career journeys, experiences and advice for aspiring project managers.
Katherine Saldanha graduated in Business Management with a Year in Industry in 2020, before going on to become a Scheme Project Manager at Network Rail, she has been involved in multidiscipline infrastructure projects, including track renewals, station upgrades and bridge replacements.
Selina Suri graduated in Business Economics with a Year in Industry in 2017 and is now a Project Manager at HS2, she transitioned from a performance analyst role at Network Rail to project management, gaining extensive experience in track renewals and major infrastructure projects.
Selina: Hi, nice to meet you, Katherine! Can you tell me about your role as a Scheme Project Manager on the TransPennine Route Upgrade? What are the key challenges you’ve faced so far?
Katherine: Hi Selina, nice to meet you. So, it's a multidiscipline infrastructure project upgrading the railway. Over the years I've been involved in a variety of different elements of upgrades and new platforms at stations and depots for trains, bridge demolitions and replacements, track renewals, all that sort of stuff. Between all the different disciplines, meetings to facilitate, stakeholders to update on the progress, documents to write and emails to respond to, there's always a lot going on. A key challenge I would say is definitely time management and fitting it all in. You've really got to be able to organise and prioritise your time, but as well as that communication with your stakeholders, to manage expectations of what can and can't be done to what time scales.
Selina: That sounds really good. And also, if you've been working multidisciplinary, no disciplines the same.
Katherine: Yes, definitely. And then pulling them all together once you've done it individually.
Katherine: So for you Selina, moving from Network Rail to HS2, how has your experience transitioned from a performance analyst to a delivery project manager? What was the biggest learning curve?
Selina: So, I was a performance analyst whilst I was in industrial placement student, so I think just naturally getting older and getting more experience that was definitely a transition - becoming more mature in my career and going back to university, finishing my degree, and then coming back to work. That was definitely a learning curve. As a performance analyst, it was very much numbers, spreadsheets, formulas, and then moving over to project management for my graduate scheme for the last eight years, it was actually a lot more fitting for me as a person. I was only a performance analyst for one year, so that compared to the eight years of project management, I felt like it was quite a smooth normal transition.
Katherine: When you did your graduate scheme, were they all project management rotations?
Selina: Yes, so there was two, a business management graduate scheme and a project management one. I actually went for the business management one, but there was no room left on it. So they gave me project management. So, I fell into project management and there were three different rotations, eight months each in different teams.
Katherine: I went straight in as a project management assistant rather than doing the graduate scheme.
Selina: Yes, the graduate scheme is good because students or graduates can see where fits them better. They have three, eight-month long rotations, which is a good time frame. After six months of being on the graduate scheme, I was able to actually apply for a job in my team, so I didn't get the benefit of finishing the graduate scheme, but I got the benefit of becoming a scheme project manager, which really accelerated my career by a couple of years.
Selina: So for you Katherine, what does a typical day look like for you and what are some of your key responsibilities?
Katherine: Like you've just said, every day is completely different, something I really like about a job. It keeps it interesting. Last week, I was doing my medical to be signed off to go on track. I was doing a day at the design office, using virtual reality to see what the job will look like when it's built. I did a community event making residents and local businesses aware of an upcoming road closure and why it was required. Key responsibilities I guess ensuring readiness for upcoming works, monitoring progress of design, ensuring that your documentation's in place, your permits and consents are approved, integrating and deconflicting, all the different design and construction disciplines and stakeholder management and communication are a big part of project management.
Katherine: What about you, what does your day-to-day work on HS2 look like?
Selina: I'm pretty new into my role. I'm six to seven weeks in now so I'm an absolute newbie going from Network Rail to here which is a big change, but the difference is HS2 is a new railway that has not been built yet and Network Rail is the existing infrastructure. At the moment because I'm still pretty new and I'm just working on my relationships. HS2 hasn't started laying the track down because the civils works are happening currently. So that's the bridges, the roads, etc and they are slightly delayed at the moment so we're getting ready for design, so it's all the design readiness, the integration with Civils has been absolutely massive.
Selina: Working on major rail infrastructure projects, how do you balance technical knowledge with project management skills?
Katherine: There's a lot of learning on the job and technical knowledge, like you say, comes with experience, but you definitely have to accept that you'll never know everything. The railways are just too complex.
Selina: It's a black hole for sure.
Katherine: Yeah, and that's where the project management skills come in and you need to know the right person to go to get that information. So expanding your network, building the right connections and relationships with people, so that when you don't know something or you need something, you know who to go to and they're willing to help you.
Katherine: You have a master’s in strategic leadership - how has that helped in your project management career?
Selina: I did my strategic leadership master’s with Network Rail just before I left, and it was really good. It helped me in my project management career by actually understanding that leadership is about people and project management. Rather than being called project management it should be called people management as it really is about the people!
Selina: What advice would you give to graduates looking to start a career in rail or infrastructure project management?
Katherine: I would recommend looking at the Association for Project Management website. So our chartered body for the project profession, that's what's recognised where I work and you can become a student member and gain access to a lot of useful project management resources.
Katherine: Looking back at your own career, is there anything you wish you had known earlier when starting out?
Selina: Exactly like what you've said, knowing about the Association for Project Management and networks in general. You've got a network from university, your professional network, and you have your life network. The number of great conversations I've had with friends and parents and aunties about careers and how that's helped someone in their life, your network is the most important thing.
Katherine: That's really interesting and to be honest my LinkedIn could do with a bit of work. What sort of stuff do you put on there now?
Selina: I think things like this. I go to a lot of female networking events, like Women in Rail. I'll just take a picture of what the content is or what the presentation is, and I'll put that on LinkedIn and that does actually gauge interest.
Selina: If you could give one top tip to a new graduate wanting to enter a project management role or the rail industry, what would it be?
Katherine: Well, quite similar to what I said before, how it can be quite hard to demonstrate relevant experience if you're straight out of university and so make the most of free resources available to you.
Selina: It sounds quite unoriginal, but I would actually say the same as you. There is so much free resource around. I think just put the energy into using free resource that you have. Speak to your network. Start a conversation with someone and it could lead to something special.
This news story is based on a transcript from a recorded conversation. A huge thank you to Katherine and Selina for volunteering their time to share their insights and experiences. To learn more, connect with them on LinkedIn.
If you are a Management School graduate and would be interested in sharing your story, visit our webpage here.