"My personality quiz says I am an explorer, investigator and quality controller which I think describes me perfectly when you read the descriptions!Explorers are extremely curious and inquiring, practical and like to understand why things happen which are personality types I think are valuable as an engineer - as an engineer you need to understand the problem you are working on to be able to come up with new and creative solutions. If you don't understand the problem fully and ask questions, how are you meant to solve it to the best of your ability?Developers are creative, practical, inquisitive and interested in the world around them. Whilst on my placement year I found that I enjoyed learning how things work and figuring out how to make products better is a challenge I really enjoy, particularly when some aspects required me to work on my own whilst other aspects required me to work with a team!Quality controllers are curious, good with detail, proactive and challenge the way things have always been done. As an engineer I am very curious and enjoy understanding how things are done and why they are done like that, particularly when it comes to manufacturing parts. I always want to learn how they are made, and understand why they are made in certain ways - I've definitely annoyed a few people with my continual questions when they're trying to get on with their work!"

"I am a graduate manufacturing engineer at Rolls-Royce in Bristol. My graduate scheme is 18 months long, and is made up of four placements; a design and make task, a continuous improvement placement, a capability acquisition placement and a product introduction placement.Continuous improvement focuses on improving current manufacturing techniques, whether it's improving the whole process or just modifying the equipment used. Capability acquisition focuses on looking at new manufacturing techniques, that are often still in the early stages of research, that will make the manufacturing process more efficient both in terms of cost and time. Product introduction looks at how new techniques and tools can be implemented to the existing site - this can include things like using artificial intelligence or AR goggles!You are given responsibility and ownership of tasks straight away, which can be quite scary at first but is incredibly rewarding when you see the end results! My starting salary as a graduate engineer is £28,500."

"I took 11 GCSEs, which included Triple Science, French, History and PE as my chosen subjects. During my GCSEs, I realised that I wanted to study engineering as I enjoyed studying maths and sciences as well as solving problems with creative solutions, so chose my A level subjects based on this career path!My A levels included Maths, Further Maths, Physics, and Modern History (only to AS), as well as completing an Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) on a topic of my choice, which focused on whether pilotless planes should be the next big change in aviation.I then went to Loughborough University and studied Aeronautical Engineering to a Masters level, with a one year internship at Rolls-Royce in Bristol between my third and final year.During my A-levels and degree I completed lots of work experience; I did three summer placements as a mechanical engineer at James Fisher Nuclear Ltd. (an engineering company near where I lived) and 15 months at Rolls-Royce in multiple roles including working in Failure Investigation, Critical Parts Lifing and Optimised Maintenance. All of my work experience helped prove to companies that I was serious about engineering, and helped me understand more about what engineering involves as a day job that I didn’t necessarily learn during my studies!After my degree was completed, I applied and was accepted onto the Rolls-Royce graduate scheme in Bristol as a manufacturing engineer, which I am due to start in January!"

"In my spare time I enjoy playing netball, where I play goal shooter, and going to the gym, occasionally dabbling in yoga as well (although I'm not very flexible so struggle with some of it).I'm an outdoorsy person, as I grew up in the countryside, so love going walking and visiting new places. Whilst I love spending time outside, I enjoy curling up on the sofa with a good book just as much, particularly historical books, as I have a strong interest in history as well as STEM.I love going travelling, taking trips to different places and trying to learn as much about the city and culture as possible in a short amount of time. I have a map of Europe which lets me colour in each country I have visited, so I am working on visiting every country in Europe to make my map complete!I am a STEM ambassador, helping run events in schools because I want to see more students taking up engineering as a career, as I find it so rewarding and interesting as a career. I am particularly interested in encouraging young women to consider engineering, as I felt like I received little encouragement to follow a career in STEM during my time at school, which I would like to change for the next generation."

"Normally the first thing I do when I get to work is check my emails and calendar for the day, to figure out what my day will look like, before going to a daily team meeting. In this meeting everyone gets to check in on what everyone in the team is working on and how they are progressing. This gives everyone a chance to ask for help or offer feedback. If you know your workload is quite light, you can offer help to another project and pick up some of their work.A lot of my work is computer based, and tend to be tasks that I do by myself. If I need help or want other opinions on my work I often ask members of my team or find the person with the most relevant experience to help. As you rotate roles as a graduate, you get to meet lots of different people who specialise in certain subjects, meaning you often have a lot of people to choose from to ask for guidance!As a graduate, you are required to do multiple training courses, to make sure you understand the key principles of engineering and gas turbines, as that is the main thing Rolls-Royce does. Some of these courses are short online courses whereas others are practical classroom based courses. If I have any downtime during the day, I try and complete an online course.I meet up with the other graduates for lunch, which is a good way of finding out what other people are working on and thinking about what role you would like to work in next. If the weather is nice we often go outside and play table tennis during our lunch."

"AS: Modern HistoryExtended Project QualificationA Levels: Maths, Further Maths, PhysicsMEng Aeronautical Engineering with a placement year at Loughborough University"