Sarah Davidson

"My top personality type, in the ‘My Skills My Life’ quiz was explorer, which is a very good match for the work that I do. In my role I constantly investigate Croda's sustainability programme’s impact on sustainability; from the products we make to way we make them. This involves looking at the science behind the composition of our products which uses my Chemistry degree. Further to this, I am an influencer. In my role I have to talk to people from different departments and at manufacturing sites around the world. Often this means convincing them that the new techniques that we have developed in the Sustainability team should be implemented within their teams. This uses my skills as an influencer. Finally, a strong aspect of my personality type includes manager traits. Although I don't currently manage any people, I do have to manage lots of projects at one time. This means planning my time and the resources that I need to fulfil each project."

"Croda create make and sell speciality chemicals that are used by some of the biggest; most successful brands in the world. Their ingredients go into products used by people every day, some examples of these are cosmetics, medicines, and lubricants. Some examples include cosmetics, medicines, plastics and lots more. In my role I look at different aspects of sustainability at Croda. There are two sides I focus on: 1) the way we run our operations and 2) the products we sell. We want to manufacture our products in the most energy efficient manner using new technology that has minimal impact on the environment. Day to day this means calculating the energy that goes into our processes using maths and chemistry to understand what is going on. As well as this, I have to talk to engineers to understand what is actually happening on site. The other side to the role, means I have to look at the products we sell and understand the sustainability impact. To do this, I have to speak to market experts and do research online. This also uses maths and chemistry. The main things I enjoy about my job are:- using the technical skills I picked up throughout my education- talking to people from different areas of the company like engineering and marketing- helping the world by working on sustainabilityThe starting salary for this job is around £25,000. This is quite standard for a chemistry graduate job within the chemical industry in the UK."

"I started by choosing triple science at GCSE. I always enjoyed science and had some really inspiring teachers at school. As I enjoyed it so much, I decided to choose all science subjects at A-Level. Chemistry was always my favourite, but during my A-Levels I came to love it even more as I learnt how it impacts our lives every day. This led me to choose Chemistry at university. Whilst at university I did a placement year at a company that makes food and drink cans. I really enjoyed working in industry and decided this was what I wanted to do after university. I enjoyed working in industry as it was fast pace and I felt like the work I was doing had real impact. I liked working on products that you could see in the shops too, which led me to look for jobs within the chemical / consumer goods sector. "

"I enjoy keeping physically fit by doing running and Pilates. I am a big football fan and follow my team, Manchester City. I also love music and am often found at gigs and DJ sets. "

"Normally I start each day by replying to emails and planning what work to do. After this I start working on my projects. One of my current projects involves looking at Croda's products and how they impact sustainability. I start work by choosing a product I think has an impact. I then organise a meeting with someone who knows the product well so that I can learn more. In the meeting I ask questions like, \"what does the product do?\", \"how is it made?\", \"how much is sold?\". Then I start to do some calculations on excel to see how much carbon dioxide can be saved when used by a consumer. The information I get from the meetings really helps with this. To do these calculations I also have to do some research on the internet. Once I am finished, I get my manager to check my work and then send it to our marketing teams for inclusion in their campaigns. This is then shared with our customers so they can learn more."

"A-Levels in: Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Psychology and General Studies. Also completed the Extended Project Qualification.Integrated Masters in Chemistry with a Year in Industry from the University of Sheffield (Graduated July 2018). "