Meet the Team: Tom Hayward, Setting Out Engineer

Tom has been with Kemp for three years, but surveying wasn’t always part of the plan.

Growing up, he never really knew what he wanted to do. He moved out of home at 18 and quickly realised that “finding yourself” is a lot easier when the rent’s paid so he worked. A lot.

It wasn’t until he was 30, working in groundworks, that he first came across a total station. At the time, he didn’t even realise surveying was a job in its own right. “It’s not exactly a career that gets pushed at school or college, unless plays with expensive kit and argues with drawings has recently been added to the syllabus.” Tom shared.

After doing some research into setting out engineers locally, Tom found Kemp online and decided to take a chance. He got in touch with Scott and said something along the lines of, “I’ve got no experience, but I know this is my dream career.” Scott took a chance on him and three years later, the rest is history.

When asked what he enjoys most about working here, Tom says it’s the trust. He isn’t micromanaged, he’s trusted to manage his own time and get the job done properly. Surveying isn’t always a neat 9–5 role; some days are longer than others, and you don’t always switch off exactly at 5pm. That understanding works both ways though, and the flexibility makes the job enjoyable.

A typical day usually means two sites. Tom starts with a list of objectives from the site supervisors, heads out, and gets stuck in, while also catching up with the groundworkers. Once everything’s sorted on site, he’ll either head home or back to the Exeter office to process the day’s work. That might involve producing block-up sheets, updating control listings, or processing surveys.

Before finishing for the day, he’ll prepare for tomorrow, producing data and loading the logger so he can hit the ground running in the morning.

One of Tom’s most memorable projects was actually one of his first setting out jobs at Dartmouth Naval Base. The project involved constructing a new pontoon, and his role was to guide a floating piling barge and position it accurately for piling. The only added pressure was the presence of undetonated WWII bombs on the riverbed, some around two metres from the proposed pile locations. Thankfully, everything went to plan, and no one went boom. He considers that a successful outcome.

If surveying hadn’t worked out, Tom thinks he might have retrained as a teacher – mainly to explain to students that maths does matter, and that trigonometry definitely isn’t pointless, no matter how convinced you are that you’ll never use it in real life.

Outside of work, Tom is very family-focused. He lives with his wife, Alice, and their three children, Pippa, Albert and Ted. Weekdays are a busy mix of school runs, clubs and trying to eat dinner together before someone has a meltdown — sometimes him.

Weekends usually start with a dog walk on Dartmoor with their spaniels, Percy and Minnie, followed by a big family dinner at his in-laws’.

Tom grew up playing rugby and water polo. He’s stepped away from rugby (his knees made that decision), but he’s recently returned to water polo and is enjoying being back in the pool.

If he could travel anywhere, he’d head to the Nordic countries, Norway, Sweden or Finland, for the landscapes, outdoor lifestyle and properly cold weather.