• A Level Maths, Physics and Geography
• MEng in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering from the Queen’s University of Belfast.

My dad was a science and technology teacher for young children and this probably got me interested in some sort of technical career. I chose mechanical engineering at university because it’s a very broad field and it allows you to take many different career paths.

I did my sandwich year placement in the oil industry and when I graduated I had offers to work in this field. I would have been earning a lot of money if I took this route, but I chose to work at the Rutherford Appleton Lab because the it seemed really interesting and inspiring and they offer a good work-life balance.

I work in the Applied Science Division which is at the interface between science and engineering. There are many people doing a similar job to me who started with a physics undergraduate degree. People with a pure maths degree may also be suitable for some of the computational simulation work we do.

The travelling is good: I’ve been to Japan many times, as well as Canada, the USA and Switzerland. But the thing I like most about my job is the fact that it’s at the cutting edge. Thanks to the publicity of the Large Hadron Collider and CERN, people are really interesting in my job and always have many questions! At a lab like this you also feel like the work is worthwhile. We are trying to solve the world’s energy crisis and answer questions involving the origin of the universe. Both worthwhile aims!

Take maths seriously! There is a lot more to my job than mathematics, but you will struggle at university unless you are comfortably passing your maths exams. If you want to be an engineer or a physicist, you should be choosing maths and physics at A-level.

Try your hardest to get into a well-respected university. Many employers have a list of preferred universities from which they hire. I would also say that whilst at university you should get relevant work experience and consider doing a year in industry before or during your degree. I enjoyed my work placements immensely and they really helped when I came to apply for jobs. IAESTE is a good student exchange program that gives you the chance to work abroad for the summer. I spent two months with Olympus Optical Company in Tokyo!

Last year I took some time off from the lab and completed a media fellowship with Times Higher Education in London. I was basically working as a science journalist. One of the things that most annoys scientists and engineers is the way their fields are portrayed in the media. This was a good experience for me as I learned how journalists think and this will help me to promote a positive – or more accurate – picture of my profession in the future. Some of my friends with science degrees have since become journalists and this is another potential career path to pursue if you choose to study science or engineering at university.