Even though many of our graduates will have progressed in their careers since completing a case study, they are still of interest to students who wish to gain an understanding of the world of work.

The graduate programme has provided me with the opportunity to experience different roles within the company. For the first three years of the programme graduates do yearly rotations in different areas of the business.
My first assignment was in Research and Development (R&D) where I was responsible for development and validation of new technologies utilised in the Industrial Gases industry. For my second year-long assignment I was in the role of a mechanical engineer in the design group where I was responsible for executing the mechanical side of an oxygen generator project. Currently I am in my third assignment in the Liquid Bulk Supply Chain team.

In R&D the biggest part of the validation was done through testing. My daily activities included design of the tests, tests setup and test data analysis. Design and order of the prototypes is another example of common activities of the development engineer at Air Products.
During my second rotation as a mechanical engineer, my main daily activities included preparing technical specifications for vessels, liaising with vendors and the project team to ensure deadlines are met, review vendor drawings and calculations. This role has a very good combination of technical and managing work.

The challenging aspects of the job are not different to most of another jobs available out there – they are meeting deadlines and the specified budget.

Vessels engineering may seem like a well-established discipline, however, there are still many challenges and opportunities to test the creative minds of engineers.

To be a successful engineer it is very important that you possess problem solving skills. It includes not only technical problem solving but also any day to day activities’ problems. Communication and team work is another important set of skills I use on a daily basis.

As part of the graduate programme all graduates attend presentation, communication, leadership training and Myers Briggs Type Indicator session. I have also received relevant technical training depending on the role I was in and there is a number of internal training resources available to all employees.

Stay open minded – there are many small and not so small companies which you haven’t heard of. Don’t be afraid to look for the opportunities there, as these companies may have just the job you are looking for – do your research.
Do a year in industry or summer placement to make it easier to get the first job after graduating. Also, doing that, you will get a better insight of what the industry/company is like and it will make it easier to decide on your career path.

Usman    BEng Mechanical Engineering (2016)
Junior Mechanical Engineer  (Engineering and manufacturing)

Accepts questions from students about their career