Rachel Herron

"I think the personality types match me at this point of my career, starting out as an Engineer they were probably quite different. Manager - I am a Senior Engineer, within our department this is equivalent to a team leader. I manage a small team of an Engineer & a Student. I try to keep them motivated & work with them to progress tasks & breakdown roadblocks on a weekly basis. I encourage them to manage their own tasks & only interject to offer direction & advice. I find this motivates them to own their tasks & take responsibility which in turn will develop their knowledge & confidence.Influencer - My manager comments that I set a good example for the wider team. I often get assigned tasks that require someone thorough & trustworthy. I can then offer feedback in a polite, detailed & easy to understand manner. I am diplomatic & like to see everyone treated fairly. Coordinator - I wasn’t surprised to see this pop up on my personality profile as I am always making lists to organise my own tasks & enjoy co-ordinating other team members to ensure everyone knows their responsibilities & everything runs smoothly. This includes managing my own team, running STEM events, team outings & factory visits. On these occasions I’ve co-ordinated tasks for engineers & managers that don’t report to me. I find that I work well with people & can really pull people together to get things accomplished."

"Working in a factory that manufactures forklifts every day brings a new challenge to investigate, learn & solve. I work in the Product Engineering department which supports current forklifts through production but we also get to give input to the next generation of forklifts. Just like cars release a model every few years, our industry is constantly evolving & improving our forklifts. Issues that come to us include deviation requests, parts out of specification or a forklift not behaving or running as it should. As there are so many components on a forklift I feel that I am always learning, each new day bring a new area of expertise required. I really enjoy the interaction with all the different departments in the factory & how as a team we come to a solution. Our factory has over 500 employees & we also work remotely with teams in China, India, Scotland & the USA so it do require a lot of collaboration & good communication skills.Engineers beginning their careers in our company earn around £25,000. We have a performance management plan so each year there is a chance to prove that you've met your goals to achieve a salary increase. If you have the drive to succeed & are exceeding your goals there are career progression opportunities with the salary increasing with each level of responsibility."

"I entered Engineering through the standard route of A-levels & a Bachelors degree at the University of Ulster. However I didn't always know that I wanted to be an Engineer. I actually didn't continue to study Maths or Physics at A-level. I loved Technology & Design so just kept doing that along side IT. When applying to university I also choose to study Technology with Design. It was only at university that I realised that I was studying many of the same subjects as Mechanical Engineering & Engineering Management students. So I started to look into the possibilities more when it came to applying for placement opportunities. I struggled to get work with the big engineering firms for my placement. My part time jobs has been a waitress, a bar tender & working in a shop. I completely overlooked the fact that my Dad was a mechanic & I'd been helping him in the shop & garage since I was 12 years old! When I updated my applications to include this I suddenly got interviews & was successful in getting a placement with a consultancy firm in Belfast. This role involved sitting at the computer a lot of getting out to site on very rare occasions. It was during this year that I realised I wanted to see products being built as I didn't find the work very rewarding. After completing my 1 year placement with this firm I applied to a summer position working in a Quality lab for a big engineering employer & spent 3-4 months working there to develop my hands on experience. This wasn't a job that required a degree or maybe even A-levels but it was a really good addition to my CV. When I return to university to complete my Final year I got involved in the Formula Student project. A team of students built a single seated race car & we got to go to Silverstone to compete. Again I think this project made my CV stand out when applying to jobs in the future. I graduated in 2009, which I'm sure doesn't mean much to you...some of you may not have been born yet! But this was an awful year for business in Northern Ireland, there had been a huge financial crash & no-one was hiring. I was fortunate to have family members keeping an eye out for opportunities & they found a start up company in Dungannon who were trying to take advantage of the down-turn & hire some fresh (& desperate) graduates on slightly lower than expected salaries. But I grabbed this opportunity with both hands & I was 1 of only 2 people in my class of over 20 to secure a graduate role that year. This was a small family run firm so I learnt a lot in a very short space of time. I was being trained up by Senior Engineers so had some very experience teachers that showed me the industry way to do things, rather than why we were taught at university. The highlight here was designing parts, creating all the drawing & getting to see them fitting up to machines & leaving on the back on a lorry each Friday afternoon. I soon realised however that my future in this company was limited as family"

"I have a 2 year old son so my spare time is usually spent keeping him entertained but I love meeting up with friends for a walk & a chat over coffee. I enjoy baking & signing in my local choir.My husband & I really enjoy watching Formula 1 & I've been to 4 races; Silverstone (UK), Monza (Italy), Spa (Belguim) & Suzuka (Japan). Monza was actually our Honeymoon so we travelled to several destinations in Italy whilst there, I loved it & hope to go back some day. Again whilst in Japan we visited a few locations including Tokyo. Japan was a very interesting country, as an Engineer I admired the efficiency of all their systems whether it be trains or queuing in shops. It was a fantastic culture to see first hand. We hope to go to another race soon when my son is old enough to enjoy it."

"Every day is different but I generally start each by checking my e-mails to ensure no crisis have occurred during the evening or night shift. When I'm satisfied that is resolved then I'll move onto my list. I don't know if every Engineer's day revolves around lists but mine does...even after work, I have a to-do list! I have a list of priority tasks that I agree with my Manager each week. Generally each time a problem happens on the production line that requires a drawing update then we add it to our list. The issue will need investigated by looking at the forklifts in production to understand the issue & speak to the operators. Then we will return to our desk to check it doesn't affect another of our global sites; this includes e-mail & online meetings. We also have to contact suppliers for pricing of any changes & ensure they can still meet the specifications. When content we have all of these answers then we update the drawing using 3D CAD & release the changes. As a team we check each others work & then it goes through global approvals to ensure it is mistake free 7 approved by different departments. As well as having this list we need to keep checking our e-mails throughout the day & react to any urgent issues that come in. Recently we've had a lot of deviation requests. This is due to the global material supply issues & container shortages. We have to review that part that is not available & try to find a replacement ourselves or on some occasions review a specification the supplier has sent us to ensure it is suitable.As we also have involvement with New Product Development then I also sit in on global meetings for these projects. As I have 10 years experience working with forklifts then I can give my input for new designs to ensure they don't cause issues or repeat old problems."

"A-level: Technology & Design (B), IT (B) & History of Art (C)BSc Hons Degree in Technology with Design (2:1)PGDip Management PracticeIEng iMechE - Institute of Mechanical EngineeringPMP - Project Management InstituteI entered Engineering through the standard route of A-levels & a Bachelors degree at the University of Ulster. However I didn't always know that I wanted to be an Engineer. I actually didn't continue to study Maths or Physics at A-level. I loved Technology & Design so just kept doing that. When applying to university I also choose to study Technology with Design. It was only at university that I realised that I was studying many of the same subjects as Mechanical Engineering & Engineering Management students. Since entering the world of engineering I have gone on to complete a Postgraduate Diploma in Management Practice, become an Incorporated Engineer with the iMechE & have also recently completed study to become a Project Manager Professional."