Engineer a Career

Episode 56 of the Engineer a Career Podcast, with Josh joined by John Casey. John Casey started his engineering career at 16, spending eight weeks of work experience at a wind farm in southwest Scotland after bombing his fourth-year exams and pouring everything into boxing. Nine years on, he's a senior engineer who's returned to that very same wind farm, this time delivering its extension....

Katie started her engineering career at 18, turning down a university place to take an apprenticeship at Jacobs, a decision she had to make before she'd even sat her Highers. Eleven years on, she's a Chartered Engineer who's worked on site at Grangemouth, spent nine months on assignment in Malaysia, and built her career the earning-and-learning way. In this episode, recorded back at GC...

It's International Women in Engineering Day 2026 and this year we are so excited to introduce our guest Jessica Gagen. Jessica is an aerospace sales engineer at Gulfstream Aerospace, a Miss England and Miss World UK winner, and one of the most visible STEM advocates in the country. Her route into engineering didn't follow a straight line, it went through a modeling career, a supermarket sh...

Josh sits down with Mamta Singhal MBE, who found her calling early, taking apart plugs and mechanisms as a child long before she knew the word "engineer." Inspired by James Dyson and a Tom Hanks film about a toy designer, she set herself a single goal: to engineer the things that make children smile. She studied product design engineering at Glasgow University and the Glasgow School of A...

What does it actually take to build a career in engineering when the path is anything but straight? In this episode, Josh sits down with Susan Ipri-Brown, immediate past president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, one of the oldest engineering institutions in the world. From a grandfather who never doubted she'd follow him into the profession, to internships at General Motors, t...

Paul is an independent consultant working at the nexus of public and private heat networks, having most recently spent five years at Vattenfall and, before that, a long career at Whitby Bird and Ramboll. His route in started early, a grandfather he knew as an engineer without ever learning what he did, an uncle's stories over slabs of Irn Bru, a laser lab in Liverpool, and a week of work exper...

Episode 50. Two years, 56 guests. There's no straight line into engineering. In this milestone solo episode, recorded at the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland (NMIS), Josh shares the four things 49 conversations have taught him about how people actually build careers in engineering, why the routes in matter far less than what you do once you're there, and why there's never been...

Tobias is a renewable energy engineer, founder of Embodied, and one of the most layered guests we've had on the podcast. His career has taken him from Germany to Sweden, the United States, China, Norway and now Scotland — through solar cell research at Fraunhofer, hydrogen compressor development, and into his own boutique engineering consultancy. But the most interesting part of his story isn&...

Jack Chalkley joins The Engineer a Career Podcast to share what a career in construction actually looks like from the inside and how a project director gets built one project at a time. Jack is a Project Director and Scotland Healthcare Lead at AECOM, where he leads multidisciplinary delivery across some of the country's most complex social infrastructure projects. His route in wasn't plan...

Josh sat down with Josh Murchie to talk through his journey into aerospace engineering and how he ended up working at GE Aerospace Caledonian in Prestwick. What stands out about Josh's story is that it isn't a straight line. At 17, he made it to the final stage of the GE apprenticeship he'd dreamed of since doing work experience there as a school pupil and didn't get it. From there...

Alan Sinclair joins The Engineer a Career Podcast to share what it actually looks like to go from engineering student to graduate engineer — and what nobody really tells you about the journey in between. Alan is a Graduate Design Engineer at Vital Energy, working in building services, and is five months into his first role after completing his mechanical engineering degree at UWS. His path wasn&#3...

Josh takes Engineer a Career to the University of Glasgow for a live podcast, bringing together a panel of engineers at different stages of their careers to share how they got started. From discovering engineering later than expected, to changing paths at university, to landing that first role in industry, this episode explores the real journeys behind the job titles. The panel share what sparked...

Josh sat down with Ivona and Ondrej at the University of Edinburgh to break down what an engineering career actually looks like after university. From their first interest in engineering to where they are now in industry, they share the real journey, the decisions, the challenges, and the moments that shaped their careers. They talk about placements, mentors, career changes, and why your degree do...

Josh sat down at the University of Dundee for a live podcast in front of students to hear Reese’s story and it’s not the typical engineering path. From leaving school with no qualifications, working at McDonald’s, and going through college, to eventually breaking into university and now working as a Project Engineer in subsea engineering, this conversation is about what it really takes when things...

Josh sat down with Ryan to talk through his journey into building services engineering and how he ended up working at the University of Glasgow. What stands out about Ryan’s story is that it isn’t a straight line. He didn’t think engineering was for him at school, spent time working in an admin job, and only found his way into the industry after being given an opportunity to apply for an apprentic...

John Kraus joins The Engineer a Career Podcast to explore what engineering needs to become if it is going to meet the challenges of the future. John is the CEO of Engineers Without Borders UK and has built a career across policy, climate and the built environment. Although not an engineer by background, his work is focused on one clear mission: helping engineering create better outcomes for people...

Engineering careers are often framed as a simple question: apprenticeship or university? But what if that’s the wrong debate? In this solo episode of The Engineer a Career Podcast, Josh explores why engineering has never relied on a single pathway and why the real challenge facing the profession isn’t which route people choose, but how effectively we transfer knowledge to the next generation. From...

What if the thing holding you back wasn't your grades, but your belief in what you were capable of? Abby joins Josh on The Engineer a Career Podcast for one of the most honest engineering career conversations we've had on the show. From leaving school with a B in English and a C in Chemistry, being rejected from art school twice and nearly not making it through third year at Strathclyde, t...

Kate Barnard joins Josh on The Engineer a Career Podcast to share the unconventional path that took her from failing her A Levels to leading engineering teams at Rolls-Royce, and why mindset matters more than grades. From leaving school with just three UCAS points to discovering engineering by accident during a foundation year, Kate explains how giving it “a go” changed everything. Josh and Kate e...

Rob Cussons joins The Engineer a Career Podcast to share his route from astrophysics to offshore wind, and what it really takes to build a career in the energy transition. From being inspired by an unforgettable physics teacher, to studying physics with astrophysics at the University of Leeds, Rob explains how early exposure to industry shaped his thinking long before he ever joined a renewable pr...

Another week, another episode. Welcome to The Engineer a Career Podcast Sarah Graham. Sarah joins Josh to share how a high school work placement opened the door to electrical engineering and ultimately led her into offshore wind. From discovering the real world application of maths and physics at school, to studying at the University of Edinburgh and completing a PhD in power systems and marine en...

Graeme Jackson joins Josh on the podcast to share his route into engineering, and how it took him from a Strathclyde lecture theatre to offshore rigs in the North Sea, and eventually to leading data and AI in the energy sector in New Zealand. From almost choosing architecture, to a physics teacher spotting his potential, Graham explains how maths, physics and creative subjects became the foundatio...

Erin joins The Engineer a Career Podcast to share her route into engineering and the real story behind it. From being inspired by her dad’s offshore work and travel, to discovering engineering through school subjects like maths and physics, Erin explains how a single opportunity changed everything: a University of Strathclyde summer school for girls that helped her commit to the path early. We als...

New year. New colours. Same mission. This is 2026, and this episode is about direction. Engineering doesn’t have a motivation problem or an ambition problem. It has a visibility problem. And this year, that’s the issue that needs to be confronted properly. Too many people who could thrive in engineering still can’t see it clearly enough to move towards it. They see job titles, entry requirements a...

2025 was the first full year of Engineer a Career operating with intention. A year shaped not by strategy documents or long-term roadmaps, but by people. Students. Engineers. Educators. Industry.   Hundreds of voices, each revealing something about what engineering really looks and feels like today. It was a year of travelling across the UK, from Aberdeen to Dundee, Edinburgh to Glasgow, and even...