Jialiang Guo

I’m currently in a team called Traffic engineering and microsimulation, and my role in our team is to coordinate with senior planners to do analysis and calculations for different projects, for instance, in property development projects I usually help with basement parking calculation,  parking layout optimization and parking ramp analysis etc. In microsimulation projects, I usually do the whole Vissim model building or OD demand calculation for Legion model.

What ITS teaches is always useful and practical in work, like the SATURN model that is sometimes used in work. Also my microsimulation knowledge learned from the DRACULA helps me a lot in using other simulation software like Vissim and Legion.

I specifically chose my ITS course and the University of Leeds because ITS offers a range of courses which are useful and practical , also the professors and staff rank top in the transport sphere.

My advice to students interested in this course and a career in transport is that although the infrastructure development in China has slowed down a lot, I am glad to see that transport planning is playing a more important role in the governmental policy decisions. So if you are interested in transport, no matter if it’s for engineering or planning or economics, ITS will always be your first choice since it has top researchers from every topic and the students are truly global which I believe will bring you a diverse experience. Unfortunately, I didn’t attend the Employer Visits, but I do recommend you to do so.

I think the highlight of my career so far is that firstly I got a Distinction for my degree. The second is currently I’m leading several IKEA projects in China for either site selection or external traffic study, which I believe is a big breakthrough for me of role changing in our team, also I’ve done several complicated vissim model all by myself, which gave me great satisfaction.

When it came to finding and applying for jobs I got help and advice from ITS because WSP will usually email ITS for any interested candidates to join WSP China, and this is how I started a job after graduating immediately.

As an international student, my advice to other ITS international students who are seeking work in the transport sector is that basically local design institutes and foreign consultancies offer competitive positions in big cities like Shanghai and Beijing, other provincial capital cities also have several vacancies from local design institutes, also for my knowledge, ITS has very good reputation among transport consultancies.