“Don’t be scared of changing jobs.” That’s the message to young engineers across the UK, from Lewis Mowatt, BEng MIEE, Chairman of the Institution of Electrical Engineers Younger Members Board. The Career Engineer talks to Lewis about what started his career and his perception of engineering in Britain right now.
Lewis Mowatt -"British engineers are
at the forefront of concept and design"
Engineers thrive on challenge, and it was the desire for challenge that inspired me to follow a career in engineering. I’m 34 and thoroughly enjoying what I do, both with the IEE and with Jaguar Cars, where I work in the development of user interfaces and entertainment systems.
It’s a sad fact that within the UK, manufacturing and traditional industries are on the decline, but the balancing fact to this is that British engineers are at the forefront of concept and design. Many companies are using British engineering excellence for the ‘thinking’ and foreign expertise for manufacturing. It’s not that we haven’t got manufacturing expertise – we have – it’s just not economical on a global scale. But I do have to say, that the manufacturing that does go on in the UK is usually to a very high standard.
'Intellectual Engineering'
For Intellectual Engineering, the UK is definitely the place to be. Whether it’s training, development or projects, we’re up there with the best. In some fields, we’re actually world leaders. I don’t think there has been a better time to contemplate an engineering career. There are so many fields to work in, so many talents to develop and so many things to be dreamed up and made!
Engineering, the discipline constantly evolves, just like the techniques we use to produce engineered solutions. One of the more notable evolutions quietly moving on is the change from document based projects, with everything being explored and recorded in words, to a modelled system, where models – concepts - are explored and expanded and recorded in a format that allows the greatest flexibility and widest understanding.
I believe very strongly that innovation is the key to keeping the UK in front. And it’s not only project innovation, it’s process innovation, ways that make our methods of working better, stronger and more adaptable.
And adaptable is a key word when it comes to engineering careers – my work with the younger members of the IEE obviously gives me an affinity with those at the beginning of their careers, where entry level jobs can be a problem. Generally, only the very largest companies provide graduate programmes. That means that there can be a tendency for people to join a company just for the training, and not have any intention of staying. This situation is exacerbated by the SME’s who make it particularly attractive to join their companies for people with two or three years experience, once they’ve been through a major companies’ training programme. It’s not wrong, but I do feel that more companies could take responsibility for training and staff development. A lot of this early career manoeuvring is really down to the individual – the more pro-active they are within their programme, the more likely they are to find it rewarding and the greater benefit they bring to the company and themselves. But this really is down to the individual and personal dynamics.
To make a good engineer you need adaptive skills and a challenge, and you shouldn’t be afraid to either develop your skills, or to seek out the next challenge, even if this does means moving jobs.
‘pep talk’
We asked Lewis what ‘pep talk’ he would give to a group of "A" or "HS" level students about to embark on an engineering career: That would have to be ‘don’t specialise too soon.’ Make sure you get a good basic grounding first, so you can discover what interests you. There are so many disciplines and applications that there is a temptation to specialise in the first one that seems attractive. What you will need is a broad base of adaptive skills, something that will set you up not only for the rest of your course, but for any subsequent training and the rest of your career.
"It was an incredible buzz the first time the Jaguar car I was talking to answered me back."
Lewis Mowatt on voice control for automotive applications
I believe that being interested and even excited by what you do makes work a pleasure and allows you to achieve far more. There have been a couple of memorable moments for me, the first one was, just like many engineers the first time I saw something that I had designed physically realised. There’s nothing to beat the proud feeling of ‘I did that!’ Right now I’m working on voice control and response for automotive applications. It was an incredible buzz the first time the Jaguar car I was talking to answered me back.
The early part of my career involved power transmission systems, I didn’t imagine that within a few years the power would have decreased, the complexity increased and that I’d be talking to cars that talk back! It’s technology that’s available now, on some Jaguar and Range Rover models as well as some pretty funky Fiesta’s!
‘what’s changing’
In terms of what’s changing, I think it’s probably the social conscience, we are becoming increasingly aware of the environmental and social implications of the products and systems we are creating, and we are designing and adapting accordingly.
And what about the future? Well, in the next five years I expect that there will be a lot more work on creating user friendly interfaces, making it easier for people to use complex technology. Because that’s what engineering is all about, creating solutions to make life better and easier.
The IEE is there as a forum for engineers of many disciplines, to help right the way through their careers right from start to finish. I’m pleased to be part of it and I’d encourage anyone to use the resource to help their career and make life easier.
And The Career Engineer website? Well, there certainly are some jobs on there to get you thinking!
