Meet The Team: Guy K, Engineering Surveyor

Recently, we sat down with one of our Engineering Surveyors, Guy. Guy joined Kemp nine months ago and has fitted right in with the team.

His journey into surveying began when he studied an undergraduate degree at Exeter University on the Penryn Campus. After completing his degree, he went on to do a Master’s with the Camborne School of Mines. It was an easy decision, helped by the £1000 discount for students already based on campus.

Now, nine months into his role at Kemp, Guy shares what stood out to him while job hunting.
“Kemp stood out because of the large-scale projects they’ve been involved in throughout their history. That was a big deciding factor for me. ”Since joining, it’s the people that have left the biggest impression. “There’s such a team mentality here, which you don’t always find. Everyone’s pretty down to earth, no big egos. It’s great!”

Guy is currently working on the Truro Northern Access Road (TNAR) project. His day typically starts at 7:30 am with a drive to site, where he works as part of a team. With most of the drainage works now complete, the focus has shifted to kerbs, preparing data for setting out, and then setting out using that data. The early starts are balanced by a 4:30pm finish, which makes for a great work-life balance.

Before joining Kemp, Guy spent time working in New Zealand, where he found himself on a railway redevelopment project in the remote north of the North Island. Locals call the area “the wop wops,” basically translated to the middle of nowhere. The work was very different from what he’s used to in the UK. “New Zealand is a bit behind the times when it comes to technology, and this job was no exception,” he explains.

One example of this was when the team laid railway lines using diggers, manually adjusting each sleeper by hand over long distances.

“There’s a machine that does all this automatically, but at the time, New Zealand only had one. And we didn’t have it.”

The team also faced challenges like remote access, tough weather, and poor ground stability that led to regular minor landslides.
“But overall, it was a great project to be involved in, and the overtime paid for the engagement ring I bought for my now wife.”

After a decade in surveying, Guy came home ready for something different. With a love of food and living in Porthleven, which definitely isn’t short of great restaurants, he decided to try his hand as a chef.

“Everything you hear about hospitality is true,” he says. “Fun, fast-paced and chaotic, paired with long hours, low pay and zero work-life balance. It was great… and also a disaster. Six months was enough to last me a lifetime.”

Outside of work, Guy likes to keep active. He walks his Labrador, goes to CrossFit, cycles (albeit slowly up the Cornish hills), and when the weather is warm enough, he enjoys a swim in the sea. A keen scuba diver, he’s been lucky enough to dive in some of the world’s best spots, including the Maldives, the east coast of Australia (with the Great Barrier Reef), and Fiji, where he dived with tiger and bull sharks.

He’s also a big sports fan, supporting Arsenal in club football and, thanks to his South African roots, the Springboks in international rugby. Unsurprisingly, food remains a huge part of his life. From baking sourdough and fermenting kimchi to experimenting with spices, cooking is more than a hobby. Lately, he’s been getting into Sichuan cuisine.
“Big flavours and lots of chilli.”

And finally, if he could travel anywhere in the world? “The Galápagos Islands,” he says without hesitation. “It’s considered a bit of a mecca for divers interested in large pelagic species. Everything big and exciting is there, and in large numbers.”