• Question: At school what made you interested in engineering to the extent that you've chosen it as a career?

    Asked by alixlangford to Alex, Claire, Kate, Marcus, Neil on 16 Jun 2014.
    • Photo: Claire Brockett

      Claire Brockett answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      Good question!
      I don’t think I ever did anything at school that was specifically called ‘engineering’. We did some design and techology classes, and obviously science – my favourite was chemistry. I was very lucky to go on an Insight course – a week at a university during the summer to try engineering when I was about 16 – and that was very inspiring. I went to Reading and tried rehabilitation engineering and cybernetics, and loved every moment. If you have the chance to go on something similar, I’d really recommend it!
      I think engineering is all about the application of science to solve problems, and that’s what I love about it.

    • Photo: Alex Lyness

      Alex Lyness answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      Hey alixlangford,

      Great question. I don’t think I chose engineering, I think engineering chose me!

      I used to love solve puzzle books as a kid, I was always building Lego and taking apart things about the house to see how they worked.

      I enjoyed Design Technology at school which is about as close as you can get to engineering like Claire said. I had a great work experience working at a Design Consultancy when I was 15. I realised that you could get paid well to solve other peoples problems and build and understand things for other people/companies.

      I also worked on a dry powder inhaler (for people who are allergic to gases in normal inhalers) and I was hooked. I’ve worked on/with medical devices ever since.

      If I had had my work experience at a garage it could all have been very different and I might be making/fixing cars instead!

    • Photo: Kate Niehaus

      Kate Niehaus answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      When I was in school, I actually had no interest in being an engineer! I thought that engineering sounded like a boring job that only involved looking at math equations all day. How wrong I was!

      What finally drew me to engineering in college was the fact that you can solve real problems through engineering. It’s a great career if you like identifying problems, learning about how they can be solved, and then doing it! Once you learn the skills (which takes time – but don’t be intimidated – it takes time for everyone), you can do so much!

    • Photo: Marcus Johns

      Marcus Johns answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      I always knew that I wanted to do something based around science but realised that I wanted to apply it to real world situations rather than being in a lab all the time. (Slightly ironic that I now spend most of my time in a lab!)

      I had chosen maths, physics, chemistry and product design for my A-levels and one day saw a sign at Imperial College that read ‘Chemical Engineering Stores’. Somehow I just knew that chemical engineering was the subject for me so did a little research on the subject – http://www.whynotchemeng.com is a good site – and visited a few university open days. This confirmed it in my mind and 7 years later here I am!

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