Introduction - Careers Network Mentoring Scheme
Hi, my name is Edward.I graduated from Birmingham in 2007 with my BEng degreein Electronics and Communication Engineering. Since then I've been working as a professional Engineerin the steel industry, oil and gas sector, aerospace, in higher education and in R&D.
I'm also a qualified chartered Engineer having studied my part-time MBA and part-time doctorate research in higher education and higher education to industry collaboration.
Over the years I have worked for a number of professional bodies. I am currently IETs professional registration advisor and in October I will also join as a member for the IETs council and IETs membership and professional board.
Mentoring Support - Careers Network Mentoring Scheme
I can support you through the Careers Network mentoring scheme in a few different ways.
First I'm IET's professional registration advisors over the years I have already supported and mentored many graduates and professionals to achieve their chartered engineer qualification.
I’m very familiar with engineering council's engineering competence framework so to begin with I can help you benchmark your skills and experience against those competence framework. We can then develop a professional development plan which will guide you to achieve your chartered engineer qualification in the future.
Secondly I've also worked with the universities and in a number of different industries and sectors so I'm more than happy to share my experience with you. Whether or not you want a future career in academic settings or industrial settings, I can help you understand what your best interests are and help you and identify the best career that might suit you better.
So I'm very happy and to support and help you and I look forward to meeting you in the near future.
Top Tip for Industry - Careers Network Mentoring Scheme
My top tip for entering industry is to do as much preparation work as you can when you are still at the university. So if you have the time, maybe find a part-time job, take a summer placement or find a gap-year industrial internship.
It may also be a good idea to join a professional body as a student member you pay a reduced fee, however you can still attend all their professional training sand network events. It's also a good way to build up your professional network.
Also, maybe if you can, try to do some voluntary work or community services because all those experience will develop many transferable skills for you that you can't learn from the university and when it comes to job hunting those experience will also make you stand out and make you more attractive to potential employers.
So when you are at a university try to do more and learn more and after all enjoying the time at the University.