Mechanical Engineering student secures job with acclaimed scientific analytics company

A GCU student has been recently offered a job position with an acclaimed information and analytics business which focuses on life science and health.

Fourth year Computer Aided Mechanical Engineering student Laura Phillips was offered the position with Elsevier after giving a presentation at her interview, which was described as “impressive” by the interview panel.

Laura did her presentation on “Using ANSYS to Create Comparative Stress Analysis Model of a Healthy and an Ulcerated Human Foot” which is also the title of her final year thesis.

Laura was delighted to have been offered the role. She said: “I am really happy to be offered a position as a software engineer with Elsevier.

I am a mechanical engineering graduate so my skill set doesn’t perfectly align with the job description. However I was able to show I had taken on multi-discipline work in and out of university so I think that definitely helped with being hired.”

GCU’s Department of Mechanical Engineering is very keen to encourage their students to consider applying their skills and knowledge into different disciplines. Laura said: “I think there are a lot of problems in other industries which would benefit from having a new perspective to the problems they are facing, which include health, economics and finance.

As an individual, I think it’s important to be flexible and learn as much as possible about what it is you’re interested in and be open to change.

Technology is always changing and as engineering graduates we need to be able to adapt to that. A job may come up where you have 4 out of the 10 requirements but if you’re interested you should definitely still apply.”

She added: “What I learned with getting hired with Elsevier was that ‘hard skills’ weren’t the most important as they can be taught on the job. ‘Soft skills’ such as team work and the willingness to learn were considered to be the most important.”

To find out more about Elsevier, click here

By Rachael McAlonan

Got a SCEBE or GSBS story? Email me at Rachael.McAlonan@gcu.ac.uk or connect with me on social media here