Profile

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Mark Dougherty

Curriculum Vitae

  • Work History:

    Fujifilm, Maccy D’s, paperboy…

  • Current Job:

    Process Development Engineer

  • Employer:

    HJ Heinz

  • My Work

    I help make Baked Beans

  • Read more

    I work in Research and Development and help to design the processes required to turn kitchen recipes into factory batches.

    My role is in the process team which means that once the chefs have designed the recipes it is my job to figure out how to make them on huge scales so that they still taste the same, aren’t too expensive to produce and most importantly are safe to eat and won’t give anyone food poisoning.

    I have to travel to different factories around Europe depending on what food is being made but spend most of my time in a central research building full of engineers and scientists from around the world

  • My Typical Day: Measuring samples, killing germs, sizing pumps, sending emails, exploring factories, annoying schedulers, boarding planes, writing reports and making food!

  • Read more

    Generally I am working on 3 or 4 different projects at any one time. Sometimes it will be a completely new type of processed food, sometimes we will be trying to fix something that has broken in a factory and sometimes I will be trying to think of clever ways to make our products cheaper (without effecting the quality).

    I work in a team of 6 people and in a building with approximately 100, normally I work 09:00 to 17:00 on school days but occasionally I will need to do a factory trial in the middle of the night or travel to a country hundreds of miles away.

    My time is split between planning factory trials, making calculations and designing processes that will help make lots of tasty food!

  • What I'd do with the money

    I would use the money to plan an even with a Kent stem network about the engineering of food production.

  • My Interview

    • How would you describe yourself in 3 words?

      Full of beans

      What's the best thing you've done in your career?

      Angry Bird Pasta!

      What did you want to be after you left school?

      Police dog handler

      Were you ever in trouble at school?

      I got banned from the 6th form common room once or twice…

      If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?

      Teacher

      Who is your favourite singer or band?

      Eminem (aka Slim Shady)

      What's your favourite food?

      Spaghetti and meatballs

      What is the most fun thing you've done?

      Formed a band

      Tell us a joke.

      I had an argument with one of the seven dwarfs… He wasn’t happy

Questions answered by Mark

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