From Lake District tarns to highway runoff analysis: Maisie on starting a career in water quality

Maisie is a Junior Environmental Scientist in the Water Quality team at AtkinsRéalis, based in Manchester. She joined six months ago after graduating in 2024 with an Environmental Science degree from Leeds.

Growing up in a national park

Maisie’s route into environmental work started early. She grew up in the Lake District, walking the tarns and peaks with her dog and developing a connection to water and landscape that shaped her choice of degree.

“During these studies, I realised the scale of human impact, specifically on the quality and abundance of natural resources,” she says. Recent water quality news in the Lake District has only strengthened that commitment. “I enjoy working on important projects that protect the environment close to home.”

What the work actually looks like

Maisie’s week splits across multiple projects in the Water Quality and Water Resources teams. One involves analysing water quality data from highway runoff that’s been through novel treatment apparatus- extracting and cleaning the data, building comparison graphs between treated and untreated water and sediment samples in Excel, creating location maps in QGIS, and pulling it all into a report summarizing the effectiveness of the treatment works.

Another project has her reviewing water abstraction licenses for the Water Resources team- building a master spreadsheet of all licenses, detailing their locations, abstraction limits and conditions, and assessing whether clients can abstract more from boreholes in the event of a drought.

“Day to day, I switch between working different projects for my own interest, prioritising a deadline when necessary,” she says. For someone six months into their career, the variety is already there.

Why AtkinsRéalis as a graduate

Having completed an industrial placement at another environmental consultancy during her degree, Maisie knew what she was looking for. “As a graduate, I wanted a role where I could experience a wide range of projects and interact with many technical experts in the overall aims of exposing myself to a wider network and disciplines.”

What stood out was the trust. “The trust between company and employee and subsequent flexibility attached to the role was advertised to me whilst applying and has been followed through completely within the six months I have worked here.”

Her role wasn’t originally restricted to graduates, but after securing the position she was moved across to the graduate scheme to support her career progression- an early sign of the flexibility she’d been promised.

Advice for this summer’s graduates

Maisie’s advice is practical. Start the application process early- onboarding takes time and you need to factor that into your own timeline. Don’t be put off by job titles. “Do your research and have a number of key words that you can look out for in the job descriptions. Whether advertised as a graduate scheme or not, if your academic background and experience align, don’t hesitate to apply.”

And show some personality. “It matters whether you are likely to be a good fit for your team, as working together well is crucial for project delivery. Also, it is important that your team is a good fit for you too.” 

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