My route to chartership with CIWEM: Emma Seddon

01 July 2026

Emma Seddon, a Senior Engineer at AtkinsRéalis, shares her route to becoming a chartered water and environmental manager

In studying Maths & Physics at A level, my interest in how the world works and being able to shape the world's infrastructure led me to my degree of BEng (Hons) Civil Engineering. After graduating, I started working as a graduate site engineer for a contracting firm, where I was able to develop my knowledge and working experience in water and wastewater projects for NI Water.

As I developed my understanding of the water industry, I decided to expand my knowledge within infrastructure engineering, by completing an additional degree of MSc Infrastructure Engineering to undertake further learning.

After completing my MSc, I knew that the water industry is where my interests were. I secured a job with AtkinsRéalis as a graduate engineer and I have progressively evolved my career within AtkinsRéalis to my current position of Senior Engineer.

Choosing a Chartership

I chose C.WEM because it’s a professionally recognised chartered title that is interdisciplinary and suits professionals working in a variety of engineering or environmental roles. With my experience in the water industry, I felt that C.WEM suited me best.

From developing my knowledge and gaining years of experience, I felt that I was capable of clearly demonstrating leadership, decision‑making, and responsibility all while being able to provide examples for all 14 competencies for the C.WEM registration.

I feel that since gaining my chartership it has provided me with professional recognition in demonstrating my competence and capability in showing high technical & ethical standards. It has also enhanced my career progression to a more senior level as well as opening a wider range of career opportunities. Personally, it has given me a sense of pride as well as building my confidence in my own professional capability.

I think the only thing that I would have done differently would have been to apply earlier than I did. There were a few different reasons that stopped me applying earlier. One of the main reasons was how daunting I thought the experience of the chartership process would be, especially the professional review interview. However, this wasn’t the case! The interviewing panel made me feel relaxed and at ease, which helped a lot with nerves!

Another reason was that my husband and I had started a family! Initially, it was a lot to try and juggle finding my feet as being a first-time parent and completing all the necessary documentation for chartership and working a full-time job, but it’s not impossible! With a lot of support from family, mentors and colleagues, I became a chartered member of CIWEM with a 3-year-old toddler and 8 months pregnant with my second daughter.

Preparing my application

I had been collating information for my chartership application for a few years prior, such as CPD and noting down all that I have achieved in my career to date. However, when it came to completing all necessary documentation for submission, it took 4 months in total as well as a further 2 months to prepare for my interview and practice my presentation.

I had a lot of support from my mentor who was patient with me and helped me with all sorts of queries throughout the whole process. I also had a huge amount of help from my husband and parents who were able to help look after my daughter to allow me to fully concentrate on my application. I will always be very grateful to them in helping me achieve my chartership.

As previously mentioned, it was no mean feat trying to achieve chartership with a 3yr old and being 8 months pregnant, but I did it!

Preparing for the interview

The main thing I did to prepare for my interview was to ensure that I had plenty of practice presenting my presentation, ensuring that I was within the 10-minute time limit. I found it very beneficial to set up mock interviews with colleagues to build up my confidence in presenting and practicing answering questions that could potentially be asked by the interviewing panel.

As I previously mentioned, having a mentor was a very important factor for me. My mentor was a big support all while being able to keep me accountable, providing me with a reminder of ability as well as building my confidence.

I was nervous on the day but knew I had prepared as much as I could and was ready for the interview.

My presentation was on my role designing for the watermains rehabilitation for Uisce Eierann under the Water & Wastewater Network Services and Works Framework for the Dublin & Eastern Regions of Ireland which was contributing to the leakage reduction. I had the most experience in this project and I was able to demonstrate a multitude of capabilities including my responsibilities, facing design challenges, incorporating sustainability & project management including programme, cost and change control.

There was one question that challenged me and it was something totally different to what I had been discussing and it was in relation to the effects of people flying across the world to Australia – Initially, this question caught me off guard, but it made me think outside of the box and the panel and I were able to have an interesting discussion about the environment and economy.

Top tips for getting Chartered

1. A Mentor
2. Mock Interviews
3. Keeping on top of CPD

Next steps

Currently I have no plans for any further registrations, but there is still time! I feel that the next step for me would be to become a mentor and champion junior team members to promote CIWEM as a professional institution.

Since becoming chartered, I have progressed to a more senior position in my career and my goal is to continue developing my expertise, expand my scope of responsibility and keep moving forward professionally.

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Want to become a chartered water and environmental manager? Find out more at: ciwem.org/membership/chartered-member. You can also stay up-to-date with our free monthly The Environment newsletter – subscribe here.

Emma Seddon is a senior engineer at AtkinsRéalis