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“You chose a good profession”, my mother said to me when I was a student in university. “Wherever you look something is being built. You will always have work to do. It’s not like electronics”.

At that time I lived in the north-eastern part of Ukraine, in the city of Kharkov, where I was born and where my family came back after my father finished working in Siberia.

My mother turned out to be right — everywhere you looked there was construction. After I graduated with a degree in Civil Engineering, I got a job in one of the oldest institutes of basic chemistry, with its own civil engineering department, working on construction projects for the institute.

The factories the institute commissioned were spread all over the European part of USSR. These were giants of chemical production, producing thousands of tonnes of valuable resources for all sorts of industries — glass, tires, detergents etc. I worked there for 13 years as a steel structural designer.

Extreme loads, vibrations, corrosion, difficult environmental conditions, long distances to cities supplying the labour — these are all issues in construction which I dealt with right after graduating from university.

After I left this job I found a position in the natural gas industry in Ukraine with an institute responsible for developing natural gas deposits. Our department worked on gas supply lines for the entire region. The group of only 4 engineers worked on projects for laying gas pipes, roads and stations servicing high-pressure piping and compressing terminals.

On both jobs I worked in a team of specialists in diverse fields, from technologists to electricians, from HVAC technicians to engineers. We had to solve interconnected and interdisciplinary problems and had to compromise and work together and that is how I liked to work.

In 1994 my family left the Ukraine for Toronto, Canada. That was a difficult year for construction here; I saw many unemployed engineers in learning centres where I was studying English and computer skills. In my first design position in Canada I made shop drafts the old fashioned way, with paper and pencil. Eventually I found a job as a structural steel detailer at Etobicoke Ironworks, where I worked on SDS/2 for 3 years. At the end of my tenure there I got a chance to work on X-Steel. In year 2000 I began work at Dowco, where I am happy to say I work today.

At various times I have had different hobbies. When my daughter was growing up I liked to read about animals. I liked my children loving and understanding nature. When my son grew up I began taking him on fishing trips. I also like to sew, although I rarely have time for that now. I enjoy making patterns and designs and crafting things with my hands.