Helen Arch
Senior Reliability and Maintenance Engineer at Amazon
Be resilient and believe that you are capable of what is put in front of you. I would advise to take an apprenticeship route and then onto higher education if necessary as the hands on approach in engineering is much more valuable than theory.
About Helen...
Who am I?
"Being an Influencer personality type I believe fits well with my work, such as having to liaise with cross functional departments and often having to simplify technical detail for others to understand. Daily in my job role I have to write up reports to disclose Engineering activities and any process improvements made. Being conscientious is a key role when being an engineer especially as a support function you need to deliver results to the customer."
What do I do?
"I work as a Senior Technician on shift for Amazon in a robotic warehouse. My job role includes managing a shift of 10 technicians and ensuring all engineering planned maintenance is carried out, whilst ensuring all machinery continues to run and any breakdowns are dealt with quickly. It is my responsibility to liaise with operations throughout the shift to ensure things are running smoothly. There is plenty of opportunity to develop and it is well supported within the organisation. "
How did I get here?
"I began as an Engineering Apprentice at Burtons Foods, then moved to be a Multi-skilled Maintenance Engineer at Encirc, followed by being a Multi-skilled maintenance engineer at TI Automotive."
The life I live
My typical day
"A typical day involves firstly assigning the days maintenance tasks to each maintenance engineer on shift that day. Then to attend a meeting with management to discuss the previous 24hrs. Throughout the day radio call outs will be made to engineering from operations to ask for assistance on any machinery malfunctions, these will be attended to and resolved after fault finding. "
My qualifications
"Secondary education (GCSE/O-Levels) GCSE Maths A GCSE Science dual award A GCSE English language A Vocational qualification (Diploma, Certificate, BTEC, NQV4 or equivalent) HNC in Electrical Engineering NVQ3 in engineering maintenance Apprenticeship (please specify level in other) Advanced Apprenticeship in Engineering Undergraduate degree (BSc, BA, etc.) Honours degree 2:1 in industrial electronics and control "