I was an intern at PA in the summer of 2021, before joining full-time as a graduate in September 2022. Most of my work at PA has been in the Consumer & Manufacturing area, focusing specifically on the transition to sustainable packaging and food ingredients. This mostly involves creating roadmaps for clients such that their future product development is in line with upcoming sustainability regulations. I am also involved with PA’s quantum computing work, in which the focus is to create tailored optimisation algorithms to solve client problems efficiently.
The main thing for me is the amount I have learned whilst working here. So far, I have been lucky enough to work on a large range of short-term projects, meaning that I have had the chance to learn about everything from how yoghurt is formulated to the structure of the electrical distribution grid. I also love that everyone here is encouraged to keep on learning, and it allows you to influence your career trajectory. For example, if I wanted to get involved with projects that have more of a focus on coding, there are multiple platforms that PA offer through which I could develop my skills and therefore become the right fit for any relevant upcoming projects.
Something that I have found quite hard is the transition from one project to another, as I find that these often slightly overlap time-wise. Additionally, both the starts and ends of projects are quite intense, with a very steep learning curve coming at the beginning and a lot of work to complete a final report at the end. However, this is something that I have got much better at over time.
Get involved with as much as you can. Project work is obviously very important, but there are lots of networks and groups to get involved with such as sports clubs and maker’s meetups that enhance the work experience so much more. The people at PA are great, so make sure you take the time to get to know everyone!
