Profile

Candidate CV questions (extra)

• Education:

  I went to Ridgewood, a state school in Doncaster, South Yorkshire.

  I went to a sixth form attached to the school as it was where my friends were going and a lot of the teachers I like from secondary school taught there too.

  I then studied Chemical Engineering at the University of Bath. I almost chose to study Chemistry but decided against it in the end as I didn’t know anything about scientist roles out there, other than hospital based roles I saw on TV.

• Qualifications:

  I got mostly A*s at GCSE (helps, but isn’t often a requirement)

  A*AB at A Level in Maths, Chemistry and Physics

  Masters in Chemical Engineering(MEng): 2:1 at University of Bath.

• Work History:

  My university course included a placement year where I worked as an Engineering Project Management placement student at Walkers Snacks Food in Coventry. This involved seeing Doritos being made from the corn coming in to the triangle shapes being made, seasoning and packaging (and free crisps!). I managed lots of different equipment installation projects. This was a huge shock to the system for me as it was the first time I’d worked with other ‘adults’ and needed to learn lots of skills quickly. However, lots of people were extremely helpful and kind to me and  I learnt a lot. I realised I wanted to have a more science-y role and at the research stage, rather than supply chain (where things are mass produced and shipped to customers).

  After graduating, I moved to Liverpool to work for Unilever with laundry products (Persil, Surf etc).  Although I liked the environment, the role wasn’t for me so I moved to Wiltshire to work for Johnson Matthey, and I really like what I do now!

• Current Job:

  I work as part of a fun development team (around 13 of us) where we work to improve the different components of a hydrogen fuel cell (catalysts layers, membrane).

  This involves analysing data and working out how to tweak the composition of the layer to improve the performance (make it easier for reactions to happen) and durability (help it to last longer).

  We can have targets from customers to work towards or we can follow scientific curiosity and try to foresee what will be required in the future.

  I sometimes go into the lab, but there are often people whose role it is to carry out lab based activities, so I often request this to help make decisions.

• Employer:

  Johnson Matthey