Helping careers take off

Case study: Helping careers take off

Studying aeronautical engineering at university wasn’t what Daniel expected, but the multidisciplinary course, together with the leadership focus of the ELS programme, took him in a business-orientated direction. Having joined GKN Aerospace as a graduate, he is now a high-flying executive at the company and says the ELS programme helped his career take off.

Preparing for take off

Daniel studied aeronautical engineering design at the University of Bristol. “I was expecting it to be more industrial design and a bit more creative, whereas it was quite rigorously academic in terms of applied physics and maths,” he explains. “But as I went through it and learned more, my understanding of what it takes to design an aircraft deepened.”

He is grateful that the course gave him a broad understanding of engineering principles, and because it was multidisciplinary, he learned other skills too, such as management and finance. “In addition to the engineering, those modules enabled me to get to the position I’m in today, where I have an understanding of engineering principles and applying them at a business level,” he says.

Career in energy

To get experience of the working world, Daniel spent a summer at Renishaw and a year with Airbus, where he was inspired by a manager, who was in his mid30s and leading a research group. “Before that, I was naïve to the scale of what could be achieved and was looking at it purely from an engineering perspective, rather than an engineering organisation perspective,” he says.

Thanks to ELS funding, he also spent a summer working for Siemens in Orlando, Florida, and another on a language course in Spain, as well as doing some ‘industrial tourism’ touring factories in China and Japan, with some other members of his ELS cohort. “It was fantastic and met all the hopes I could have had for it,” he says. “It was really beneficial."

Flying commercial

Upon graduation, Daniel joined GKN’s International Leadership Development Programme, which involved moving countries for short placements. Having already worked in the US, partly funded by the ELS, he
could show he appreciated the challenges. “What I believe GKN was looking for was a level of emotional intelligence in leaders. Maybe if I hadn’t have done those placements and received the award, I wouldn’t have had those experiences,” he adds.

Initially, he worked as a project developer in the Isle of Wight, where his experience in factories around the world through the ELS programme stood him in good stead. His second placement was in Spain, where his language course came in handy.

Following a permanent move to the Aerospace division of GKN in 2008, Daniel enjoyed his first management experience of leading a team, working for the general manager of the Cowes factory. 

Moving to the US

An opportunity then came up at another GKN Aerospace site, in Portsmouth. It was there that Daniel gained ‘significant’ management experience leading a work cell and “really focused on the operations, product development and sales side.” Daniel moved to the US to manage a facility in Alabama for two years, then  moved back to the UK to also manage the larger Portsmouth factory.

He then left factories behind to lead other leaders in a global functional group, before moving to his current leadership role in manufacturing engineering. “I’ve gone full circle and have a responsibility to develop the processes and capabilities of our entire manufacturing engineering organisation for thousands of people,” he says. “To have got back to engineering and working at a level where I can understand the principles and define how people do their jobs at such a significant scale is really rewarding.”

Advice

Daniel believes engineering students should apply for the award as it’s good practice. “The application process is similar to applying for a job, so it gives you an understanding of what’s to come and it’s a great accomplishment to put on a CV when you’re applying for early career jobs.”