While studying Electrical and Mechanical Engineering at University, in my final years, I started to specialise more in the Electronics realm. I completed my Honours Dissertation with an optronics based project and I was able to find and secure a summer internship with Thales OME as an Optical Design Engineer in Glasgow during summer of 2018.
The Internship gave me significant exposure to industry and the products that Thales worked on. I was able to work on a range of design and experimental projects which helped further my understanding in optronics. From my interactions with other Thales Engineers, I started to learn more about the necessary skills and experience required for certain roles as well as starting to identify the areas I could enjoy working in after I graduated.
I was invited to the Graduate Assessment Centre for the Engineering Leadership Graduate scheme in March 2019 in Crawley. The Assessment Centre involved a series of interviews and group activities to understand my technical and reasoning skills. The activities also aimed to test as my softer skills including team-working and communication. I was offered a role on the Graduate scheme several weeks after.
The Graduate Scheme I’m on runs for four years, with two years of 6-month placements and two years of 1-year placements to allow me to get experience across a range of Engineering roles. The rotational placements are compulsory and they require the graduates to move to different UK sites. My first placement was a Strategic Management placement based in Reading. In this role, I was working directly under the Hardware Engineering Leadership team on a range of projects to support Hardware Engineering Activities. I was given the opportunity to deliver several presentations and workshops to the Hardware Leadership Team and members of the Engineering board.
I have had the ability to apply and improve my Engineering technical skills on my second placement in research. I’m currently working on developing machine learning algorithms in Python for a customer project which is allowing me to gain valuable experience in code development and debugging as well as machine learning techniques.
Thales is an absolutely amazing place to work! There is so much support that is available all around, whether it's placement managers and mentors who regularly check in to see how you’re getting on or your project supervisors and team who are willing to sit down and help you resolve any issues you are facing. I’ve had the chance to network with a lot of people across Thales in some of my placements and all of them are very supportive in helping you achieve your goals on certain projects, even if they are busy and you are just a graduate. The people at Thales are fantastic to work with and overall it makes the experience so much better.
The development opportunities so far have been a great chance to develop skills necessary for reaching Chartership. This includes the training days on different sites for developing softer skills as well as the Cranfield University course which has deepened my understanding of engineering and the industry. There are also fantastic opportunities to engage in STEM activities, where Thales will regularly send out requests for STEM Ambassadors to support and you get two volunteering days a year to take part. With these activities, I’ve been able to meet a lot of graduates from across the UK and made some great friends.
