If someone told me, on leaving Westhill Academy, that in my first semester of my engineering degree, I would be taking part in meetings for an engineering company, discussing engineered solutions and asking for my input, I would not have believed you. Fast forward to late 2021 and that is exactly what I have had the opportunity to do. My name is Grace, and I am a first-year mechanical engineering student at the University of Glasgow. I have been working for ThinJack, assisting with the sales and marketing marketing and I have loved it so far.

My entire first semester of teaching at university has been online and despite everyone’s best intentions working remotely has been difficult for most students. Speaking to fellow students, it is clear that copying notes from zoom lectures, while it is the best that we can do right now, makes it hard to stay motivated to keep on track. However, because of my work with ThinJack, my experience has been slightly different, though of course I am not always eager to get up at 8:00am for a 2-hour lecture, I have been able to see the real-world applications of the modules that I am learning about in theory.

The marketing aspect of the job has been really insightful, before working here I had little idea what went into marketing a business, so I have enjoyed learning as I go along. Personally, the highlight of this job has been the weekly updates where I discuss what I have done for them that week and they have open discussions about what projects they have been working on and even ask my opinion on occasions.

A great example was when we were discussing the new BonnetBusterTM and talking about material choice and why it was important that the material had the properties they needed while still being economical. This discussion directly tied in with my materials module and made me realise how important material selection is. Seeing CAD models of the BonnetBuster that had been produced has also been interesting as I have been learning Fusion 360. I was actually able to download the BonnetBuster parts to my Fusion 360 package and assemble them.

I am excited to continue working for ThinJack and continue learning more about the real-world engineering industry and how that ties in with my university lectures.