A road paved with experiences

Some people have known since childhood which way to go in life. Others need to try many different things before they are certain. Veronica Velling Sveistrup let her curiosity show the way which among other things led her to a double internship.

Nurse, structural engineer or a journey with the school ship Skoleskibet Danmark? Veronica wanted to try it all when choosing her educational path. She ended up applying for admission to BEng in buildings and civil works – partly because she knew the construction industry via her father, who is a carpenter, and partly because it is a profession with a higher level of freedom compared to the other options :

As an engineer, you can be yourself and express who you are without being limited by a uniform or other requirements to your appearance, which I found appealing, Veronica explains.

Even though she initially aimed at a future as a structural engineer, Veronica ended up choosing Roads & Traffic as her specialty after she had gained a broad introduction to the different engineering disciplines during the first two years of her education.

When working with roads and traffic, you help tie things together. You get in contact with the entire infrastructure area as well as with other fields, e.g. environment, water, supply and structures. You get an understanding of the other disciplines and see the connection between everything. I get to use most of what I have learnt during my education, Veronica explains.

The fact that Veronica can let her creativity unfold during the drawing and modelling processes was also part of her consideration.

The value of a double internship

Curiosity also played a decisive part when Veronica had to plan her internship. It was important for her to try a broad range of tasks to make out which way to go. On recommendation of the university’s intern coordinator, she ended up applying for a job at Artelia in Aalborg – an office that had just the right size for taking a broad approach. It turned out that the internship offered several opportunities for Veronica.

Veronica’s careers advisor in Artelia, Stine Vistrup, contacted her former employer in the contractor company Arkil and suggested a double internship so Veronica could get even more out of her internship. As both Arkil and Veronica liked the idea, Veronica spent two out of her 24 weeks as an intern with Arkil and their excavators. It was a very useful introduction to how the engineers' material is transformed into actual roads, Veronica explains :

It was a bit of an eye-opener. When working on the computer, most scenarios are possible, but that is not always the case in real life. I realised how important it is to be precise in my drawings, because when the machines are fed with our data, they dig 100% according to them.

In addition to valuable insight, the double internship also gave Veronica an even larger network which might turn out to be a huge advantage in the future.

Continues her career in Artelia

After her internship, Veronica was hired as a student assistant in the department for Roads and Traffic, where she has continued working with some of the projects from her intern period and still gets to put her qualifications to the test. The projects include one for the Danish Road Directorate where she has designed a two-way cycle track.

As part of the project, Veronica also got the responsibility for creating an overview of the Road Directorate’s specific requirements and standards for layout of drawings and models which were also new to her colleagues as this was the office’s first project for the Road Directorate. Veronica was therefore also responsible for training her colleagues, and it has boosted her faith in herself that the colleagues completely trusted her to have everything under control.

In the beginning of 2023, Veronica finished her graduation project with well-deserved top marks and can now call herself BEng in buildings and civil works specialising in roads and traffic engineering. Her next career step is also determined, as Veronica is now employed on a permanent basis by Artelia, where she has really settled in.

It is awesome that I get to try everything and show my skills. I am thrown into new challenges and get to try things on my own while always being helped along.