Length of service: 37 years

What area of Doncasters do you work in?
My current role is Sales and Commercial Manager for the Turbine Airfoils Division, previously I have held other Commercial, Engineering Management and Product Development Engineering positions within the Company.

I started as an Engineering apprentice 37 years ago and have thoroughly enjoyed every one of them.

What does a typical day working here look like for you?                         
One of the reasons I enjoy my job so much is that there is no such thing as a typical working day. I am based in the DPC Deritend site in Droitwich, but could also be visiting customers or other Doncasters sites.

For me, a typical day in the office start at 8am and finishes around 5:30/6 pm , during which time there will be multiple internal and external calls or meetings. No two days are the same and can involve interactions at all levels within the organisation.

There are many instances of multi- site and cross-discipline interactions so the scope is very wide.

What been your greatest learning experience?
I feel that every day is a learning experience so it’s difficult to pick just one , however one that really stands out is from my early days as a Development Engineer: I tried a new concept for tool build on an important new product which unfortunately didn’t work as expected, however it did lead to the right direction for more accurate tool builds in the future.

More importantly I learnt from the reaction of my Manager at the time, as rather than chastise me for the initial poor result, he praised the initiative and ultimate improvements it led to over the resulting years.

It is a lesson that I have tried to carry forward and apply throughout my career .

What advice would you give to others trying to develop their career?/ start an apprenticeship?
One of our greatest strengths at Doncasters is our people so the best advice I can give to anyone starting out is to listen to the people actually performing each stage of the operation within the organisation. In many instances they have decades of learning that they will eagerly pass on.

This knowledge will give a sound foundation to build your career upon.