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.

Working within the Project Management Department of R&D my key responsibility is to ensure adherence to the Project Master Schedule.

This involves ensuring we are meeting our Cost, Quality and Timing deliverable's for the Project to ensure effective vehicle launch.

There is no typical day!

I could be in any one of our European Plants, including Alliance Partner Plants throughout Europe or in Japan for pre-production builds one day or hosting Global Executives who are chairing Project milestone meetings another day.

Other days I can be working with colleagues from Nissan Europe responsible for Product Planning and Sales & Marketing looking at developing future vehicle offerings or holding hearings with R&D departments to secure cost and quality goals or defining product specification.

There really is no two days the same, cliche as that may be!

Other that the great breaths of opportunities that being involved in Project Management affords so far as getting across all of a vehicle Project at a high level, I really enjoy being able to see a concept become a real product on the road that hopefully enriches our customers lives.

I truly believe in Nissan's vision to enrich our customers lives and to fundamentally deliver innovation that excites by democratising technology.

Working within such a vast global organisation all the work we do is truly cross-functional and cross-disciplinary. The vast challenge that goes along with this of course is the lengthy decision making process that ensues.

And being in Project Management, everyone looks to you when things are taking longer than they should!

Albeit I love the discipline of Engineering and the intricacies of fine technical detail (my MSc project was doing CFD on Gas Turbine Injectors) I really enjoy being involved in Project Management as you get wide exposure to all areas of the business and vehicle development process from concept to product.

Graduate Sheffield University Jan '16

Bentley Motors

Whole Vehicle Engineering
Jan '16 - Oct '16


Nissan Technical Centre Europe

TdC Engineer
Nov '16 - Sept '18

Project Engineer
Sept '18 - Present

My short to medium term goals are to become a competent Engineer within the Nissan R&D community and move towards becoming a Senior Engineer and the first step of management. In parallel to this I want to pursue IMechE Chartership so that I can also be seen as a competent Engineer in the wider community

A medium term goal I have is to pursue an MBA which aligns with my future career ambitions in terms of where I want to go with my Automotive Career.

My longer term vision is to become a vehicle Programme Director, where I am solely responsible for one or more vehicle Programme lines.

My favourite quote is one of Einsteins written in 1952, he stated "...I have no special talents, I am only passionately curious"

Of course you can dissect this a million ways, especially if you gave it to a peer from the English Language Department. But what I would take away from this is two fold,

i) Once you get into the world of work, look to be curious about how the people there and the business runs. Dedicate yourself to getting a deep understanding of what makes the people and the company tick, just as you did with your studies.

Don't brandish your hard earned degree in peoples faces, as honestly once you get into the work place you are more important that your degrees

ii) Having an ability to work well with people isn't a special talent, but seldom people have it. Do everything you can to improve your soft skills and interactions with others.

I can assure you that is infinitely more prized and valuable in a business environment!

Nikhil  MSc (Res) Advanced Mechanical Engineering (2012)
Project Engineer  (Engineering and manufacturing)

Accepts questions from students about their career