Engineer a Career

Engineer a Career

Helping you build a career in engineering.

  1. Sep 1

    Software Engineering Isn't Dead. AI, Careers and the Engineering Mindset.

    Josh sat down with Ryan to talk through his journey from the wee computer guy fixing the school projector to co-founding an AI advisory business, and how a career in software engineering shaped the way he now thinks about the biggest question in the industry. What stands out about Ryan's story is that the through-line was never really the code. It was the problem solving. From jailbreaking his iPod as a kid to building a Where's Wally clone in Visual Basic at school, the instinct was always the same. He got exposed to programming in fourth year of high school, fell in love with it, and never looked back. From there it built brick by brick. A placement year at BT that meant driving down to Ipswich in a beat up car for the assessment centre and living alone in a studio flat at twenty. Four and a half years at a startup where he was thrust into cloud infrastructure and told to make it happen. Then the audit world, and eventually founding Adastra with his co-founder Dan a few months ago. The heart of the conversation is a claim worth sitting with. A developer's job was never to write code. It was to solve a problem. It just so happened you had to write the code by hand to do it. Ryan makes the case that AI does not threaten that job, it sharpens it, and he reaches for the tractor and the arrival of animation software to explain why the fear of a new tool rarely matches what happens next. He is candid about the gap he sees in businesses right now. Everyone feels like an expert engineer overnight, but few understand the security, the scalability, or how to verify the thing actually works. His advice to students is the same thing he has said for years. Go build something, deploy it to the cloud, put it out in the world, because barely anyone can claim that and it is the real differentiator. The conversation also gets into why "we must use AI" is the wrong place for any business to start, why the younger generation's lack of preconceived ideas may be their biggest advantage, and why becoming literate in AI is the vocabulary of the future. If you are a student wondering how to stand out, a graduate weighing up the job market, or an engineering director trying to build an AI strategy, this is an honest conversation about solving problems and building a career without waiting to be picked. Follow Engineer a Career LinkedIn: @engineeracareer Instagram: @engineeracareer TikTok: @engineer.a.career YouTube: @engineeracareer Website: www.engineeracareer.co.uk

    Software Engineering Isn't Dead. AI, Careers and the Engineering Mindset.
  2. Aug 4

    Starting an engineering degree?

    Episode 60 of the Engineer a Career Podcast, with Josh going solo at the start of a new academic year to reflect on his own engineering degree what he got right, and what he would do differently.Josh started his degree at Glasgow Caledonian University in 2010 and has since gone on to become a chartered engineer, a project manager, and a business owner. He walks through the decisions that shaped that path: joining the Institution of Mechanical Engineers within his first six months, helping revive the university engineering society, taking on the class representative role and finding himself sitting on industrial advisory boards, and choosing the sandwich route that took him to a placement with Volvo in Sweden. The common thread is a continual pull towards industry, from society site visits through to industry-sponsored BEng and MEng projects.The second half is the more honest part. Josh reflects on the time he did not spend understanding his own capabilities or tracking how his skills were developing, the pressure he put on himself to have a career plan long before he needed one, and the applications he left too late with graduate schemes opening in September, he argues the job search deserves to be treated like a module rather than an afterthought. He also looks at the routes he never properly explored, including a PhD, and makes the case for seeing the degree as a stepping stone rather than a destination.A useful listen for any engineering student heading into a new year, and a reminder that the value of a degree is decided as much by what you do around it as what you study in it.Follow Engineer a Career -LinkedIn: @engineeracareerInstagram: @engineeracareerTikTok: @engineer.a.careerYouTube: @engineeracareerWebsite: www.engineeracareer.co.uk

    Starting an engineering degree?
  3. Jul 28

    From Electrician to Chartered Engineer

    Josh sat down with Ryan to talk through his journey from electrical apprentice to chartered engineer, and how he ended up working as a senior project manager in Perth, Australia. What stands out about Ryan's story is that nobody handed him the way in. He failed physics twice at school and never considered university an option. When he couldn't get an apprenticeship, he did a pre-apprenticeship course at college, and when that placement couldn't take him on, he printed a brochure, looked up twenty electrical companies and drove round Paisley handing them out door to door. That is how he found the apprenticeship that started everything. From there it became a long process of building it brick by brick. Night classes for an HNC while completing his trade papers, then a day release bachelor's degree, then a part-time masters, all while working full time. Eight years of study without a free afternoon, and a fifteen thousand pound pay cut to make the move from the tools into design at an SME consultancy. Ryan is candid about why he made that jump. There was nothing about being an electrician that he disliked, but he could not picture forty years of the same work. That honest conversation with his line manager is what opened the next door, and it is a reminder of how much a good manager can change someone's direction. The conversation also gets into what he now looks for when interviewing graduates in Australia, why intentional work experience matters more than a grade, and the free software anyone can download today to put a real skill on their CV. Alongside that, there is a long-held goal to move to Australia, set during his first years as an apprentice and held through several pivots until it happened. If you are trying to get your first opportunity, weighing up an apprenticeship against university, or wondering whether a trade background is a strength or a setback, this is an honest conversation about building a career without waiting to be picked. Follow Engineer a CareerLinkedIn: @engineeracareerInstagram: @engineeracareerTikTok: @engineer.a.careerYouTube: @engineeracareerWebsite: www.engineeracareer.co.uk

    From Electrician to Chartered Engineer
  4. Jul 21

    Engineering, Entrepreneurialism and The Energy Institute

    It's Episode 58, and it's time to share what it's really like being a member of one of our strategic partners, the Energy Institute. Ubong Essien is a PhD researcher at the University of Strathclyde and Secretary of the Energy Institute Young Professional Network. He studied mechanical engineering in Nigeria, where apprenticeships were not a common route into the profession and university was effectively the only path available. A master's in production engineering introduced him to sustainability and moved his interest towards energy. After a year working in the palm kernel oil processing industry he returned to academia as a lecturer, then began a PhD in Morocco before leaving after sixteen months and starting again at Strathclyde, where his research covers materials for fuel cells and ammonia decomposition as a route to hydrogen. In this episode he talks about deciding whether a PhD is the right choice and what makes one worth finishing, how membership of the Energy Institute led to panel sessions at All-Energy and a feature in New Energy World while still a student, and why he believes the sector needs people from business, economics and marketing as much as it needs engineers. He also discusses where hydrogen realistically sits as a fuel, and his plans to commercialise his research after completing his PhD. An honest conversation about building a career across three countries, and about taking opportunities that feel bigger than you are. ___ If you're student and you're interested in energy you can be a part of a global community of 20,000+ members from across the entire energy sector,j oin the Energy Institute for free - https://www.energyinst.org/membership-and-accreditation/membership/membership-types-v2/individual-membership/student ___ Follow Engineer a Career - LinkedIn: @engineeracareer Instagram: @engineeracareer TikTok: @engineer.a.career YouTube: @engineeracareer Website: www.engineeracareer.co.uk

    Engineering, Entrepreneurialism and The Energy Institute

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Helping you build a career in engineering.