Wow, I had certainly not intended on taking such a long break from blogging! Somehow over 12 months has gone past in the absolute blink of an eye… There has generally been pretty good reasons for my absence though, all of which I will cover in this “hello again” post! I even started this in January, and then somehow it’s April and nearly Easter… 2022 was a crazy year, where I started a new (awesome) job in a totally new industry for me, and have absolutely found myself again. There will be much more on this to come 🙂 Aside from professionally getting my mojo back, I very much resumed my usual lifestyle of fitting in as many gigs and adventures as possible… Oh, and I got married! I’ll start on that topic, mainly because it explains the biggest reason for my absence. We decided to have a planned elopement…
Today is World Book Day, which gives me the perfect excuse to dig into one of my favourite hobbies – reading. I’ve always spent a lot of time with my head in a book, and I try to read a wide range of styles…although I am guilty of often returning back to my favourites over and over again. I think reading is such an important thing for everyone to do as much as they can, which is why I wanted to share some of my favourites and recommendations to you today. I also always love getting book recommendations from people, so please get involved and comment your favourite books and authors! I’m very lucky in that I can read pretty much anywhere, so when I am travelling that is basically my go to activity. When I was a kid and we’d go on holiday in the car to France, I…
Are you looking for ways to boost your engineering career, whilst also giving back to your community and inspiring the next generation of engineers? Volunteering as a STEM ambassador is an incredible way to achieve all three of these goals! In this article I will explain what a STEM ambassador is, five key benefits to volunteering and finally I will share details on how to join the program (when I’ve managed to convince you to sign up!). Hopefully this will give a great insight into the STEM Ambassador programme, which I have been a part of since I joined JCB back in 2015. This year I received my 50 hours of volunteering certificate, which I am very proud of. My STEM Ambassador certificate for 50 hours of volunteering with the programme so far As a disclaimer for my readers outside of the UK, this is heavily focussed on the British…
This week is National Apprenticeship Week in the UK, which is a government-led celebration of all things apprenticeships aiming to showcase this career option. I will mostly be talking about engineering higher apprenticeships as this is where my experience lies, but a lot of the discussion will be relevant to apprenticeships in all fields and levels (particularly STEM careers). I am going to take you through my personal experience of apprenticeships, discuss the careers options that are available and ultimately explain why I think an apprenticeship is the best way into a career in engineering. Tip: You can search #NAW2021 for great apprenticeship content across all social media platforms. Firstly, I would be interested to find out what your route was into your career, regardless of what your career is or if you’re still on the route to this career. There are so many different routes that you could possibly…
What is imposter syndrome? How can I overcome it and deal with it in my personal and professional life?