Introduction - Careers Network Mentoring Scheme
Hi so to introduce myself my name is David Streather. I'm a Senior Process Engineer working for AstraZeneca in Macclesfield in the pharmaceutical technology and development department.
I graduated from the University of Birmingham in 2015 with a Masters in Chemical Engineering. During my time at university I was heavily involved with the Engineers without Borders Society. I also did a placement at AstraZeneca in 2014during the summer.
I was then fortunate enough to join as a graduate and my current role means that I'm involved in the development of the manufacturing processes for our active pharmaceutical ingredients for the medicines that we developing late stage clinical trials.
Mentoring Support - Careers Network Mentoring Scheme
So how can I support students and graduates through the Careers Network mentoring scheme. So I think I can offer three main things: I'm very active at university both from a sporting and a kind of committee point of view and I'm hoping that that will put me in a position to offer advice to anyone who's currently at university looking for opportunities and how to sell themselves in an interview situation as they're looking to graduate.
I think similarly I've benefited a lot in my own personal development through working with mentors and finding mentors at work and hopefully I can pass on some of those experiences to people that I mentor as well as helping them seek out mentors for themselves.
I think finally I try to be really active in the wider pharmaceutical and engineering communities and I get a lot from that and I really enjoy working with people outside of my current organisation. I’m hoping that I can kind of share some of those experiences and some of that enthusiasm with anyone that I get to work with on the mentoring scheme.
Top Tip for Industry - Careers Network Mentoring Scheme
What is my top tip for entering my industry? So I work in the pharmaceutical industry as a Process Engineer and I'd say two of the most important things for working in the pharmaceutical industry firstly is a real passion for science and for problem solving and this needs to be clear both in the way that you conduct yourself in interviews and things like that but also it needs to speak from your experiences and your what your activities that you've been involved in at university and outside of university also need to demonstrate clear passion for problem solving and research and development.
Similarly I'd say secondly it's really important that it's clear that you enjoy working with other people and again that's through work that you do at university but also by being involved in committees outside of your studies and other things that demonstrate that you enjoy and really get a kick out of working with other people.