Hi,
I like to think I did get some skills from my parents. My both were teachers and I remember doing experiments with my dad at home. My mum encouraged us a lot and I remember her helping us prepare the skeleton of a dead blackbird one time. She is an artist as well, and learning to look at the world in different ways has helped a lot.
Unfortunately my brother got all the common sense and organisation in the family and left me with none.
My dad is a surveyor and studied Civil Engineering, but I certainly didn’t inherit his skills for technical drawing. My uncle on my mother’s side is an Electrical Engineer and seeing the work he did certainly influenced what I wanted to do at University.
My father is an electrical engineer and spent most of his career writing computer programs for engineering systems. Growing up, I never really understood what he did and thought engineering was boring…
He was however a great help when it came to tricky maths and physics homework and we always had computer games at home. He never pushed me into or away from engineering. I discovered engineering for myself when my A-level physics teacher suggested a friend and myself went on a taster course at Imperial College. He was shocked when I came back and said ‘this is what I want to do.’
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