1. How long have you worked here at Guttridge?
16yrs, 6 months, 29 days (04/01/2005)
2. Is Principal Engineer the only role you have filled here at Guttridge? If not, what was your very first position/ job role when you joined Guttridge?
I wrote a speculative letter to Peter Guttridge. The company was not advertising for new recruits at the time. But I was invited in for an interview with the then Engineering Manager Ian Wild and was offered the role of Trainee Design Engineer. Many faces have come and gone since then. Along the way, a role was created for Senior Design Engineer, as supervisor to the Engineering department, which I gained, beneath the Engineering Manager – then, Simon Hooper. I was then promoted to my current role as Principle Engineer responsible for the Engineering Department, reporting to the Operations Manager – Steve Wade.
3. What do you do on a day-to-day basis?
Lead a department of 9 Designers Engineers and 1 BOM Engineer. Assess new orders into the department to allocate design time, complexity, and check for missing/conflicting information on specifications. Guide designers on the current day-to-day work. Guide designers on development/improvement work – from NCRs, Customer concerns, DCRs, or internal department improvements we want to implement. Answer enquiry questions from sales for future orders. Check, approve and issue work to programming/production – release files in the vault. Maintain the vault – our 3D CAD database and Filestore. Investigate errors arising in production. Investigate customer concerns with components we have delivered.
4. What is the most challenging part of your job?
60 years of Engineering data recorded on 20 different formats, in 10 different locations, and now 2 Timezones, and 2 languages.
5. What was your dream job when you were little?
Lighthouse Keeper
6. Your most memorable event/ thing from working here at Guttridge?
Locking the fitting shop and paint supervisors in their office, without them realising, and walking off. Then, several minutes later, be asked over the Tannoy system to return to the fitting shop. I think they got out ok….
7. If you could have one superpower what would it be?
Remember what I was doing 2 minutes ago.
8. If you didn’t have to work, what would you do with your time?
Travel
9. Three life lessons that you have learned whilst working here at Guttridge?
- The customer is always right, unless they are wrong, then they are still right.
- I don’t have to know everything to be a good Engineer – I need to know how to find it.
- Thank you takes two seconds to say