I studied at the University of Bath for 5 years and moved to PEL as a graduate engineer in 2018. Outside work I play for Silverstone cricket club in the village; I was a Scout when I was younger and my partner and I like to go camping and hiking when we get the chance.
I applied to Partner Electronics through the Gradcracker advert. A key reason was the variety the company offered to a graduate engineer, being able to work with a range of clients in different industries. I liked the idea of experiencing a range of specialities (hardware, firmware, software etc.), not being confined to a set role.
I also engaged with the culture of being hands-on with clients and being able to help them design real stuff that people would actually use.
I came into the graduate position wanting to expand my technical skills and my soft skills: project management, client interaction, how electronics works in the real world etc.
I was keen to experience working with external clients from a range of industries and gain experience running projects myself while working as part of a multi-disciplinary team - not just being a single coder or designer for instance.
Coming into the role at PEL I had various areas around electronics that I was interested in but little experience or a desired speciality. I thought PEL would be allow me to get a broad technical experience (e.g. project management, hardware, firmware etc.) without being shoehorned into a specialist role early in my career.
As an engineer I like to solve problems and design new products that haven’t been seen before; ultimately, I enjoy taking a concept into a real thing. PEL seemed a great place to achieve that.
My first impressions of PEL were that it was a small hardworking team.
Everyone was very friendly and there wasn't much time before I was doing actual real engineering, it was on my first day in fact. I enjoyed that everything came pretty fast, training was done quickly, and it didn't take long before I was writing software that our clients would be using. I learned quickly that PEL work very closely with our clients, helping influence their projects and designs; working with the client, not just for the client.
I chose engineering mainly due to my dad being an engineer; the inspiration was from growing up watching him develop systems from scratch that people and industries were actually using. We work in completely different industries now but we both still enjoy solving problems and designing new things. I resonate with the idea that as an engineer I can design and build a product that is useful for someone else.
