How did you get into your job

Question: How did you get into your job
- Keywords:
  job
Asked by 459cars43 on 11 Jul 2016.
- Simon Lay answered on 11 Jul 2016:
  
  Hi all
  I didn’t want to go to sixth form from school as i wanted to do something a bit more hands on. However i knew i would need to get further qualifications to get a good job later on in life so an Apprenticeship seemed like a good idea as it was a mixture of two weeks practical followed by one week at college for the duration of the 4 year Apprenticeship. This i felt gave me the best of both worlds and had the great advantage of getting paid along the way (always nice 😉 ). Whilst doing this i realised i wasn’t bad at the college stuff after all so upon completing the apprenticeship i decided to keep on with the college and go as far as i could on a day release basis as i did the day job. The good start plus the higher levels of education put me in a great position to apply for better and better jobs in engineering as i spotted them. I then just kept my eyes out for interesting jobs at higher grades in the local area and worked my way up. Simple!
- Philip Moriarty answered on 11 Jul 2016:
  
  Hi.
  
  Thanks for the question.
  
  I went to school in Ireland where the secondary school system is a little different than in England. I did seven subjects for the equivalent of A-levels (the “Leaving Certificate”) including physics, biology, chemistry, maths, and English.
  
  I then did a BSc in Applied Physics degree at Dublin City University (DCU) followed by a PhD (also at DCU but with lots of trips to Germany to work in a lab in a town called Braunschweig) — that, all told (BSc + PhD), took a total of eight years. Doing a PhD is great — you get to discover things no one else in the world (or perhaps in the universe!) has seen before. (You have to produce original results during your PhD or you don’t get the degree.)
  
  After completing my PhD, I then did three years research as what’s called a postdoctoral (i.e. “post-PhD”) researcher at the University of Nottingham…
  
  …and I’ve been here ever since. First as a lecturer and, since 2005, as a professor. It’s the best job in the world.
- Heather Ritchie answered on 11 Jul 2016:
  
  Hi 🙂
  
  I stayed on until my last year at school and was generally interested in biology, maths and history so staying on those extra years really gave me the time to decide what I wanted to study at university. I struggled for a few years to decided because I was always given the impression that doing an “academic” subject at university was pointless and that I should focus my aspirations towards something more vocational. But in reality both academic and vocational subjects are equally important but open different career opportunities.
  
  I studied a Marine Biology BSc and knew by the end of it I wanted to pursue an academic career. Some people go from a BSc straight to a PhD but they are usually exceptional or an appropriate oppertunity just arose at the right time for them. For me, like many others, I bridged the gap between my BSc and PhD with an MRes course in Applied Marine and Fisheries Ecology. When I finished my MRes course a PhD became available in the field I really wanted to work in so I applied and got the position.
  
  I’ve recently just started a Post Doctoral position in the same field – deep sea molecular ecology and evolution!
- Sam Smith answered on 11 Jul 2016:
  
  Hi there,
  
  I wanted to work as a sport psychologist, so I contacted one while I was doing my A-Levels and they advised me to study Psychology rather than specialising too early. This was good advice, as I did an undergraduate degree in the topic and found I really enjoyed specific parts (not just sport!). My main interest during my degree was in health and psychology, so i applied for a place on a masters doing Health Psychology. Here I was able to learn more about why psychologists get involved in healthcare and how they can contribute. My main focus was on cancer and psychology (e.g. how do people react if they’re diagnosed, how do people feel about preventing it). So i applied to do a PhD studying how to increase the number of people who do bowel cancer screening. This sounds like a very specific area to focus on for 3 years (it sure felt like it!), but it’s important to do a piece of work that is original. After 3 years of that, I got my PhD and went to work in the USA – Chicago. I spent a year working as a research scientist at the hospital, and returned after that to take up my current position. I’m moving again soon to take up a position in Leeds, so I get around quite a bit!
- Michael Sulu answered on 11 Jul 2016:
  
  Hi all!
  I unfortunately missed the chat, but hope it went well!
  
  I kind of stumbled in to my job! I started of at university as a chemist as I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, but when I stopped doing chemistry I picked Biochemical Engineering as it seemed to have a broad mix of all the sciences. I really enjoyed the undergraduate course so stuck with it and did a Masters and Doctorate. Every element has taught me new things I enjoy so I try to do as much research and teaching as possible now, as they are the things I enjoy!
- Steph Tomlinson answered on 11 Jul 2016:
  
  Hi,
  
  I did Maths, Physics and Art for A-level and then got a degree in Mechanical Engineering at Imperial. I worked in Special Effects for TV and Film during holidays as well as working for interesting robotics companies and the university workshop. It’s important to get practical experience of the working world and is easy to do on top of a full time degree (where you will also get good practical experience if a decent university). You get good length holidays and a lot of companies do summer placements. This helped me discover what kind of working environment I liked. I discovered that I liked challenging work which was not repetitive. When I searched for jobs in 2004, I found a graduate scheme at STFC where projects are new and fresh and rarely been done before. I joined this scheme where I had lots of additional training on top of regular engineering work. This helped me to progress in my career and become the Engineering Manager that I am now.
- Rebecca Dewey answered on 11 Jul 2016:
  
  My school offered the A-levels I wanted to do (with a little persistence – they didn’t offer Further Mathematics at the time, but I asked them to and they agreed): Mathematics, Further Maths and Physics (I also did AS-level Chemistry but didn’t want to take it to A-level). I knew I wanted to do Physics at uni, specifically, I wanted to do theoretical physics as the particle accelerator at CERN was being upgraded to the LHC so particle physics was in the news a lot. So I went to the University of Manchester to study a course called “Physics with Theoretical Physics” – it was a 4 year undergraduate masters – an MPhys. I enjoyed the physics a lot but I found general relativity too hard and I just wasn’t motivated enough to put the hours in to getting that good at maths!! I ended up taking less theoretical physics modules because I didn’t like the sound of them, and I ended up taking some medical physics modules. I did well in those. Towards the end of my 4th year at uni, I started looking at PhDs in medical physics because I wanted to do something with physics that would help people or improve medicine. I applied for a PhD in lung imaging in Manchester and another one in brain imaging in Nottingham. I went to both interviews, and while I would have preferred to stay in Manchester, the Nottingham people phoned me straight after my interview to offer me the PhD studentship (this is three years, being paid to study and do research at the university, and they would also pay all my tuition fees). I couldn’t turn this down, so I moved to Nottingham!
  
  Then, I handed in my PhD thesis 3 and a half years later (I had 5 months in the middle when I wasn’t getting paid so I had to use some of my savings). I started applying for jobs towards the end of my PhD and the first one I really liked the sound of was a 3-year contract using brain imaging to do hearing research. I went to quite a long interview and had to give quite a scary presentation. Thankfully they wanted to offer me the job and were willing to wait a couple of months while I finished my PhD. Then when the funding ran out on that, a colleague told me about another job at Nottingham that was about to be advertised, also 3 years contract, also doing brain imaging to study hearing – so I applied for that, had an interview, and was offered the job – and here I am now!
- Nicola Asker answered on 11 Jul 2016:
  
  Great question! During my engineering degree I got a scholarship in the power sector which really interested me and as I specialised in the energy sector I learned about the role that National Grid plays. So, after graduating and volunteering for 18 months I applied for the graduate program and was really fortunate to be successful.
- Ollie Brown answered on 11 Jul 2016:
  
  Hey,
  I’m actually just doing an internship at BIOVIA, so to get that all I had to was approach their stall at a careers event thrown by the Scottish Centre for Doctoral Training in Condensed Matter Physics, which is the rather wordy title of the group that runs my PhD. Probably the more interesting answer would be how I ended up doing a PhD!
  
  I really enjoyed doing my dissertation at the end of my undergraduate degree, and decided I wanted to spend some more time doing research. I wandered along to my supervisor’s office, and quickly discovered that the hard part of finding a PhD is not finding someone who wants to hire you, but finding the funding! I was very lucky as Heriot-Watt is (along with Edinburgh & St. Andrew’s) a part of the CM-CDT, so there were actually two sets of funding I could apply for — the CDT’s, and the standard EPSRC funding available for PhD students in Engineering and Physical Sciences across the UK.
  
  I applied for both, but was lucky enough to be selected by the CDT, and well, here we are! CDTs are partnerships between universities and industrial partners with a particular research focus — Condensed Matter physics in the case of the CM-CDT. If you find yourself doing science or engineering at university, and decide you’re not ready to go at the end of it, I recommend looking in to them!
  
  Having said that, I’m afraid there’s rather a lot of uncertainty regarding science funding in the UK right now. Everything I’ve just said is true today, but the current funding round will be over by the time you finish your undergraduate degree (if you decide you want to do one). With luck, it’ll still be true by then, but keep an eye on it… The core advice is that there are plenty of supervisors and plenty of projects out there — the difficult part is finding funding! It’s also super important to find a PhD project you’ll enjoy of course 🙂
- Graham Wiggins answered on 11 Jul 2016:
  
  Hi,
  I started before leaving school… I found a few short courses about engineering, 10 Saturday mornings at a local College. Made things, welded things, did some electrics…. which got me interested in that sort of work. Work experience was in an electronics shop, repairing radios for customers. While doing that, I saw a few adverts for Apprenticeships, so I applied for a couple, and also a local college course.
  Back in 1993 I started as an apprentice, 4 yrs later, I completed, and was offered a job where I was working. 20+ years later, I’ve been promoted a few times, the work has got more technical, more fun, and I’m now a qualified assessor for the companies Apprentices, so have gone full circle.
  – Grab training opportunities as they arise, Learning never stops ! there’s always something out there to find out about, always something you didn’t know about. A few years ago, I threw myself into this thing called STEMNET, and found out it was fun ! never used to like standing in front of people, doing presentations, now…. I’m not worried at all, 10 people, or 200, makes no odds… I’d advise everyone to do some management training – maybe it’s not your thing, but …knowing how managers manage people…helps 🙂 ..Oh, and stay calm…. it’s only work….and you can work anywhere….
- Tadhg O'Donovan answered on 11 Jul 2016:
  
  Hi – thanks for your question.
  
  I guess I have to start by saying, I never had a plan and I guess I kinda just ended up here. So where is here? I am an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. I teach fluid mechanics and my research is all about renewable energy and solar power in particular.
  
  So my story is similar to Philip’s – I grew up in Ireland and after leaving school. I went to Trinity College Dublin to study Mechanical Engineering. I ended up spending 10 years there – if you’ve ever visited, you’d know why – it’s a great place. I always just followed my interests.
  
  The best advice I was ever given was to follow what you like and by liking it, you will succeed at it. So I did – I followed my interests and opportunities came. I loved my project work as an undergraduate and was offered the opportunity to do a PhD. As a PhD student I would also give tutorials and lab demonstrations and really liked it. Again, by liking it, I guess I became good at it and was offered a lecturing position.
  
  I sometimes look forward a few years and try to plan…but if I look back, where I’ve ended up is always very different to where I had planned to be…so I don’t stress – just continue to enjoy what I do and follow the opportunities that present themselves 🙂
- Katie Sparks answered on 11 Jul 2016:
  
  Great question!
  So, I had no clue what I wanted to do, for ages, so I basically followed what I liked. I’ve always loved learning and find how the world works fascinating, so that took me to lots of science A levels (AS in Biology, as I decided I didn’t like it so much); I play 2 instruments, so I was doing a lot of music then too.
  From there, I did a degree in Physics. It was great fun, there’s so much to learn! However, I rapidly found out that I’m just not bothered about coming up with new stuff, so research science is out for me. I’m fairly goal orientated too, so “what is going on here?” is a bit too much of an open question, compared to “can you make something that does xyz?”; which for me is the main difference between science and engineering.
  After graduating, I had a good look through what subjects I’d really enjoyed and over half of my optional modules had been space (I really like space); so I did a Masters (12 month full time post graduate course) in Aerospace Engineering, to convert my physics background to engineering. One job application later and I’ve been working as a spacecraft engineer ever since. I love it and wouldn’t want to do anything else now. Maybe I’ll change discipline, company etc. but overall, I want to work on engineering things to support space science.
- John Allport answered on 12 Jul 2016:
  
  Started off with A levels, then a Student Apprenticeship with the National Coal Board as an Underground Maintenance fitter – ideal training for the automotive industry, I know! Completed my BEng degree in Mechanical Engineering during this time. Had to leave the mining industry after the pit closures of the mid ’80s, so worked in the oil industry for a couple of years prior to moving into the automotive sector. I then spent 25 years in a range of roles, including design, testing, analysis, technical sales and research, completing a part time PhD along the way before moving to take over as head of training for Asia. After a few years in India and China, I was recruited by the University to start up a new Research Institute specialising in turbocharging.
  So, my real answer is – it just happened like that. It’s difficult to plan a career, as you never know what opportunity might come up. As long as you get good basic qualifications, you can learn new things as you go along and take advantage of whatever comes your way.
- Melanie Zimmer answered on 12 Jul 2016:
  
  Hi 🙂
  
  I got into my current job through my master’s thesis. In my last year of my studies at the University of Applied Sciences in Stuttgart, Germany I had to write my master’s thesis (most preferable) with a company. I came across an offer of my current employer and simply applied for it. I passed the phone interview (I got asked some technical questions, but a greater focus was on team working and project management), and I started in August 2014. I got offered a job for which I had to do another interview (including a 10 mins presentation of a project I worked on before and I got asked business- and marketing-related questions) and here I still am currently doing my PhD. 🙂
  
  Before all of this above happened, I had no idea what I wanted to do, really. Before I reached my last year of school (Burg-Gymnasium in Schorndorf, Germany) I would have never thought I would study maths at some point and even after I graduated in 2008 I was more interested in studying something to do with arts and design. I couldn’t finish my portfolio in time, however, and therefore started studying maths first at the University of Stuttgart and then at the University of Applied Sciences in Stuttgart, Germany, where I also learned about software programming. I enjoyed computer science in the end much more than analysis or numerical mathematics and so I decided to go for a computer science master’s programme after I finished my bachelor’s degree in 2013. During my final year of my master’s programme, I also went abroad for a semester (more precisely to Lugano, Switzerland) before I then came to the UK for my master’s thesis.
- Julia Attias answered on 12 Jul 2016:
  
  Hello!
  
  Thanks for your question.
  
  I studied PE, Psychology and Geography at A-Level. Strangely this combination wasn’t actually that “sciencey” but was enough to get me into a sport science degree because of the amount of physiology/biology in A-level PE.
  
  I loved my degree and really enjoyed learning about how humans functioned and adapted in extreme environments like mountains and whilst scuba diving. I graduated and starting working in a gym because that was the natural next step. I climbed the ladder and started working more clinically as a physiologist, but then realised that I wanted to increased my knowledge of physiology in extreme environments so I applied for a Masters in space physiology and health and was fortunately accepted.
  
  Through this Masters I learnt thoroughly about how the body functions in space and completely fell in love with the topic. More so than that, I fell in love with research, and realised that I wanted to have a career in finding out information that doesn’t currently exist. So I applied for funding to pursue my PhD – 3-4 years of research on a skinsuit that is designed to help protect astronauts whilst in space – and again I was fortunate enough to get the funding, and I am half way through.
  
  What I believe to be my keys to success: being curious, being passionate, being determined, not taking no for an answer, always developing yourself to be better, and taking every single opportunity you come across as you never know what box it might tick or how it might help you in the future.
- Richard Unwin answered on 12 Jul 2016:
  
  I kept doing what I enjoyed. During my GCSEs, my favourite subjects were science, and maths, so I tool Maths, Chemistry and Biology at A-level. Of these Biology was probably my favourite subject so I chose to go to Uni and get a degree with a vague idea of doing something scientific but not really sure what.
  
  Towards the end of my degree I did a couple of small research projects, one written and one lab-based, which I found interesting so I decided to do a Masters degree where I would do a bigger research project (6 months teaching and 4 months in a lab). I really enjoyed the lab project and it was then that I decided I wanted to do research for a career so I went to Leeds to do my PhD (a 3+ year research project in the lab), and have worked doing research, moving up in responsibility, ever since.
- Rik Allen answered on 12 Jul 2016:
  
  I ended up here almost by accident – I chose electronic engineering because it sounded interesting, then spent a year pre-university working for Philips Research which was a great help in putting what I then learnt at university into context. After uni I applied various places, but returning to Philips was by far the most interesting. I then just hopped from one project to another when they looked interesting, before finally hopping to Imagination Technologies whom I’d worked with at Philips. Again, following whatever looked interesting when opportunities arose, I stayed there until I was approached to move to Altera for a significant pay rise and a more interesting role. It’s all been deciding what looked most fun along the way .
- Ian Hands-Portman answered on 23 Sep 2016:
  
  I was always determined to be a scientist. After doing my degree I took a temp job in a dairy laboratory which was dull and started at 2am 🙁 but at least gave me some money whilst I was looking for a proper job. It took me four months to get a ‘real’ job – working at a government institute and that was only a two year contract so when there was six months left to go I started looking again.
  I found a job at Warwick working on viruses – which was most of my degree so I applied and got it.
  It was a permanent contract so I’ve stayed here for 20 years but I’ve not been doing the same job – when we got the big microscopes I knew I had to work with them ( I have microscopes at home too ) so I applied for the job internally and moved sideways into running the microscope laboratory. I like the job so much I spend most of my lunch breaks on the microscope – I’ve actually managed to turn my hobby into my job 🙂
- Victoria Sharpe answered on 11 Feb 2018:
  
  I ended up studying mechanical engineering because I enjoyed maths and physics but wanted to do something that allowed me to apply my knowledge to make the world a better place. Since graduating, I have worked in many different industries – automotive, medical, measurement and now offshore- and have found my skills transferable to all areas.The results of the sums either get larger or smaller depending on the product. I ended up in my current job as I was looking for something close to home and would give me the opportunity to manage other engineers.

Question: How did you get into your job

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