Director - Product Design Engineering at PDD

Healthcare design and medical device development is a huge part of innovation within the UK and access to those sorts of people is invaluable. I'm not sure many other courses in the UK have that kind of link set up. I ended up going to work for Centre Line Design initially, who were the external industry experts who came in to help us with projects. So it got me my first job.

 

Why did you choose to study product design?

I’d never heard of product design or industrial design before university. I was thinking I wanted to go into mechanical engineering. I had the grades for it, but I also enjoyed art. It seemed like it had a good balance between the engineering, the maths, and physics and then had some of that art element, which is the design aspect. I didn't want to just do maths or physics, and I didn't want to just do art. This course just felt like it was a good blend. 

What did you enjoy most about your course? 

There was a good blend of design related modules and physics and mechanical engineering modules. 

While I was there, there were quite small class sizes when we had design classes and other modules in the design studio. This meant it was quite personal between us students and the tutors and external experts. I think it was useful having external industry experts coming in to supplement the design tutors. These experts helped us develop brainstorming skills, sketching skills and knowledge of manufacturing processes.  

For me the link with Queens Medical Centre, was absolutely brilliant. For one of the design modules, I was able to get into the Queen's Medical Centre and speak to some of the doctors and other healthcare professionals and access the neonatal intensive care unit. My major project was redesigning a bassinet, which is like a crib that you put infants into. I was able to speak to a lot of staff in the hospital thanks to the university contacts. Healthcare design and medical device development is a huge part of innovation within the UK and access to those sorts of people is invaluable. I'm not sure many other courses in the UK have that kind of link set up. 

What were your lecturers and fellow students like?

Everyone was very approachable, and there were talented lecturers. The course leaders were really supportive, you could talk to them at any point, and they were very helpful. I got good contact time with the tutors and was able to receive the support needed to improve my knowledge and skills. 

What was the reason you chose to study in Nottingham?

I think on the social side, I knew I’d have fun at Nottingham, but for the course I liked the class sizes. It was more intimate than other unis. This way my contact time with lecturers would be better, and it did have the opportunity to switch from doing product design to manufacture to mechanical engineering after the first year if you wanted to, which was a nice option. I also felt that maybe it would be a little bit more well respected from a maths and physics point of view, going into the working world. 

What advice would you give to a current product design student at Nottingham?

I wish I got more involved in the in the workshop downstairs and just became more confident in using all of the equipment. It's all there and you can use it whenever you want, all you have to do it go and talk to the technicians and develop your skills in there. I also wish I’d taken more advantage of the access to the Queen's Medical Centre. I now know how difficult it is when you're working in industry to get into those sorts of places, to work on a project and to talk to some of those staff. at Nottingham, you've got it right next to you. I did take advantage of it, but I could have used it more.

Every student is going to think about their career next steps. In your last year you're thinking about what you’ll do when you graduate. It's important for people to realize that you've got the whole of your working career ahead of you. You can spend a year trying to work out exactly what you want to do, what company you want to work for and affecting your portfolio, affecting your CV, but also going out and talking to people. I would say to people who are figuring out really where they want to go, what industry do you want to be in. I’d encourage people not to put too much stress on themselves about worrying straight away about jumping into a job. 

There’re so many pieces of kit and so many people around you that you can learn from that you might not realise. Just try to take advantage of that as much as you can. Think a bit more broadly about other areas that you could go into that are related to design but would get you into the working world. Don't stress too much in the short term if you don't find a job within the first six months of leaving uni. And be willing to travel around the country. People sometimes get obsessed about working in London, but there are so many smaller regional design consultancies that you can go into work for. Get a couple of years under your belt and then move somewhere else, you don't have to stress and focus on going to a massive consultancy to begin with.