Life after graduation: shaping a successful career

Sophie is an engineer of today – building a successful career, and her future.

After five years at university, Sophie was awarded The Salters' Award. Sophie now works for Procter and Gamble (P&G) as a Process Engineer. We interviewed her to find out how studying at the University of Nottingham helped shape her career today.

What attracted you to studying engineering?

At the beginning of sixth form, I hadn’t considered engineering and had a few different degree options shortlisted. Once I began to research what was out there, I discovered engineering.

Engineering appealed to me mainly because I wanted to study a degree with practical applications which had good career prospects.

I remember reading through the 'whynotchemeng' page on IChemE and realised how diverse and varied engineering really is – even now I’m still shocked at the scope of job opportunities, it can take you anywhere!

Why did you choose to study at the University of Nottingham?

I came to an offer-holder day and was really impressed by the enthusiasm shown by the staff in the department here. I remember it having a really different feel from the other engineering departments I’d visited. The staff were really keen on driving a community feel.

Tell us about your year in industry

As part of my course, I completed a year-long industrial placement at Cargill. Cargill operates in a number of food, agricultural, financial and industrial markets and I worked within their oilseeds business unit at a soybean crush and refinery plant in Liverpool.

Completing a year in industry was a completely different lifestyle from university. I’m really glad I took that year out to learn more about the practical applications of engineering and to identify the scope of roles I could get involved in.

I was able to utilise the teamwork and problem-solving skills I had gained throughout the degree and learn new skills such as project management and adaptive communication with a range of team members.
 

Tell us about your graduate job at Proctor and Gamble

Since graduating I have secured a role as a Making and Utilities Process Engineer at P&G’s Reading Plant, where we produce Gillette and Old Spice products.

I think one of my favourite parts is having the freedom to work collaboratively with colleagues with multiple skill sets to drive improvements, whether that's to a physical or digital process, with the aim of reducing consumption or introducing a time-saving plan.