If there's anything that can highlight the creativity, ingenuity and good social skills needed to be an engineer, it can be found on the lower levels of Hong Kong International Airport.
That's where Jardine Engineering Corporation management trainee Cynthia Lam was faced with a challenge: find a way to upgrade the airport's baggage claim system while keeping it in service around the clock.
'You can't stop the airport, so we needed to work with the airport authority to make sure everything worked smoothly,' said Lam, who collaborated with a site team of 40 people.
'We needed to find a place inside the baggage hall for the hot works, somewhere that was flat and large. Then we had to revamp the structural building that holds the baggage conveyor. You really have to consider the site area and make an effort to co-operate with others.'
It has been a little more than a year and a half since Lam joined JEC's training programme for young engineering graduates. The fact that she is already working on such ambitious projects is a sign that it's a good time to be an engineer in Hong Kong. After jittery investors put development projects on hold in the financial crisis, the construction industry has bounced back like no other.
The number of unemployed workers in the industry has dropped from 12 per cent last year to 6 per cent, according to Dr Chan Fuk-cheung, vice-president of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers.