• Question: When you were in school, did you want to be an engineer? If not what did you want to be? And what made you change your mind?

    Asked by Abi F on 29 Sep 2021.
    • Photo: Charlie Young

      Charlie Young answered on 29 Sep 2021:

      I had no idea about my career at school. My dad was a type of engineer so part of my decision of becoming one was to follow in his footsteps. At school I actually wanted to study art but my parents felt I should learn something more ‘useful’ like science and maths. ho hum. At the time I didn’t agree! It’s not helpful, but I really had no idea about what i wanted to become until I left university – and i didn’t want to become an engineer even though i had an engineering degree. Then British Aerospace offered me a job working on satellites, and i thought to myself, ‘hmmm, that does sound interesting!’

    • Photo: Harriet Gamble

      Harriet Gamble answered on 29 Sep 2021:

      I think I decided I wanted to be an Engineer when I was about 12 years old, I was really lucky to decide so young lots of adults aren’t sure what they’d like to do! Before that I thought I would like to be a horse riding instructor or a vet but then I realised how much I enjoy the creativity of designing and making things so I swapped to Engineering.

    • Photo: Jennie Murray

      Jennie Murray answered on 29 Sep 2021: last edited 30 Sep 2021 11:06 am

      The short answer is, I wouldn’t have imagined I’d have this job now – I didn’t know it existed or it was possible for me. I didn’t realise there were many other ways of working within the space industry – but there are!

      I have always loved making things, painting and sketching from a young age, chose GCSEs that I enjoyed, and when I decided I wanted that to be an architect I chose A-levels that were well suited for this (art, product design, maths and physics), as well as doing work experience at an architecture firm which was brilliant fun. When I was looking at university courses, my choice moved from architecture to Industrial Design and Technology (D+T/product design) as the skills are similar, but the design course was shorter (architecture is 7 years, Industrial design 3) and it was better suited to my learning style (lots of sketching, not so much reading). I worked hard and did well at university and then took a graduate job as a design engineer, and after a couple of jobs in-between as a more senior designer, I now help companies design and launch things in space! It wasn’t planned so it’s amazing to be able to be working with space technology.

      There’s a lot more opportunity in the space industry than just rocket science. Space companies need to make money like any other business, so there’s need for people trained in business studies, finance, marketing, maths, making, designing as well as engineering.

    • Photo: Daniel English

      Daniel English answered on 5 Oct 2021:

      I never knew that engineering was a thing until I was thinking about choosing what A levels to take, although I have always been someone to enjoy problem solving and seeing how things worked. As a child I would break things (usually my brothers toys/electronics) to see how they worked and put them back together again. I don’t think when I was younger engineering was really something that I was made aware of until late in secondary school. I guess I had the right traits to become an engineer from a young age, I just never knew what it was.

      Since the age I can remember talking I’ve wanted to be an astronaut and go into space, I’ve watched about every rocket video you could imagine and read every non-fiction book to do about space as a kid. I’ve not given up on this dream of becoming an astronaut but I thought the next best thing in the meantime is to design and build things that go into space instead!

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