You finish the degree. The photo goes up on the wall at home. And then Monday morning arrives, and someone hands you a live site, a client with a deadline and a set of drawings that do not quite match what is actually built on the ground.
That gap between finishing college and feeling like a professional is the part nobody prepares you for. It is also the part that decides the shape of your whole career.
At HD McKay, we take that stretch seriously. Our team spans architecture, civil and structural engineering and project management, and almost everyone in the office has come through some version of that same journey. Here is what it actually looks like from the inside.
The route to chartered, in plain terms
For engineers in Ireland, Engineers Ireland is the body that awards the title of Chartered Engineer, and it is genuinely the benchmark of the profession. The application runs in two phases. The first looks at your education, where the standard is an accredited master’s level qualification, with recognised routes available if your degree sits at honours bachelor level. The second looks at your initial professional development, which is the evidence of what you have actually done in practice.
You need two chartered engineers to support your application, an up to date CPD record, and you sit an interview once your submission has been assessed. There are two application deadlines each year, the last Friday in January and the last Friday in June, so it pays to plan backwards rather than scramble.
Architects follow their own path, with a period of practical experience in practice followed by the professional practice examination before registration. Architectural technologists and technicians have recognised professional routes too. Different bodies, same principle. The qualification opens the door, and the years in practice are what earn you the title.
Why the experience has to be varied
Here is the thing that catches people out. You cannot evidence competence you have never been given the chance to develop.
If your first three years are spent doing one narrow task on one type of project, you will struggle to put a submission together, no matter how well you did that task. What builds a strong application is breadth: design work, site inspections, dealing with the local authority, sitting in front of a client, watching a project go from a sketch to something people walk into.
A practice the size of ours is an advantage there. You are not one of forty graduates in a department, siloed onto a single element of a single scheme. You will be on a housing scheme, a commercial fit out, a structural assessment and a planning application in the same month. That variety is not just interesting. It is the raw material of your chartership.
What we expect from you, and what you can expect from us
Being honest about both sides of this matters.
We expect you to ask. Engineering and architecture are professions where the person who says “I am not sure about this connection” is far more valuable than the person who guesses and hopes. Nobody here thinks less of a graduate for checking.
We expect you to keep records. Start your CPD log and your experience diary in week one, not in year four when you are trying to remember what you worked on in 2027. Your future self will thank you.
And we expect you on site. Drawings teach you geometry. Sites teach you buildability, sequencing, cost and the difference between a detail that works on a screen and one that works in the rain in Donegal in February.
In return, you get real responsibility early, senior people who are in the same office rather than at the end of an email chain, support with professional membership and CPD, and mentoring from engineers and architects who have been through the same assessment process and know exactly what the reviewers are looking for.
Building a career without leaving the north west
There is still a notion floating around that a serious technical career means Dublin, or London, or a Gulf state. We would gently push back on that.
Our projects range from private housing and extensions to commercial, industrial and public sector work, with structural assessment and project management across the north west and beyond. Our office operates an ISO 9001:2015 quality management system, so the standards and processes you learn here are the same standards you would meet anywhere.
What you get on top of that is a commute measured in minutes, a cost of living that leaves something in your pocket at the end of the month, and the particular satisfaction of driving past a building you helped bring about, in the county you come from.
Thinking about your first move
If you are finishing a degree in civil or structural engineering, architecture or architectural technology, or you are a year or two into your career and finding the experience too narrow, we would be glad to talk.
We take on graduates and early career professionals when the right person comes along rather than strictly by intake, so a speculative approach is always welcome. Send a CV and a short note about the kind of work you want to be doing.
HD McKay
Unit 262, CoLab, ATU, Port Road, Letterkenny, Co. Donegal, F92 YXK8
074 912 9243
