After studying aerospace as an undergraduate – and getting to experience a flight in the Cranfield Flying Laboratory - Alastair Stevens (MSc Process Systems Engineering 2007) ended up working in IT. A few years down the line, unsatisfied with his working life, he decided he needed to make a radical change. A chance encounter with a pilot family friend helped Alastair to reconnect with Cranfield and set him on a brand new path, working in the field of sustainable energy.
Reconnecting with Cranfield: “I realised that a job change was no longer enough; I needed a whole new start.”
My undergraduate degree was in aerospace – and I even got to enjoy a fascinating flight in Cranfield’s Jetstream 31 ‘flying lab’ from Filton in Bristol, back in 1997. Despite originally intending to, I never actually worked in aerospace. Instead, I held a variety of IT-related jobs, building on self-taught skills and work experience, gained during university holidays. While I enjoyed some aspects of it, I found myself in a very unsatisfying place a few years on. I realised that a job change was no longer enough; I needed a whole new start, and I decided I should re-focus on “real engineering” once more.
An aerospace enthusiast and pilot family friend reminded me of Cranfield (not so very far from my East Anglian home), during a chance career discussion one dark January evening. I attended the next available open day in March, and applied for an MSc in Process Systems Engineering soon afterwards – preparing myself for a big, fresh start. Handing in my notice at an unloved job a few months later was an extraordinary, liberating feeling!
12 years on, I’m working for a genuinely exciting start-up company… it’s highly unlikely I could be doing what I’m doing now if I hadn’t come to study at Cranfield.
I attended a few job interviews during the ‘solitary confinement’ months of thesis writing, and accepted a project manager role with an innovative third-sector organisation working across sustainable energy. I started a month after leaving Cranfield (a well-earned holiday was required first) and remained there for six years, before moving into more commercial roles involving low-carbon building services design, industrial energy auditing and small-scale renewables. Now, 12 years on, I’m working for a genuinely exciting start-up company in the hybrid energy storage field – building plants and control systems that few others are doing in the UK. Ironically, my role is quite IT-centric, but because of my technical energy knowledge I have a much deeper understanding of the wider business, and its challenges and opportunities within a fast-evolving field. The carbon factor of the GB electricity grid has halved in seven years, and we are one of the key enablers.
Studying at Cranfield taught me to redefine my own capabilities.
One of the most valuable things I learned at Cranfield was about redefining my own capabilities, while genuinely living out the “work hard, play hard” mantra. Prior to starting, I simply hadn’t fired up my academic brain for several years. The course was initially very tough, as you would expect at a prestigious institution. But once I hit full stride, I really surprised myself in what I could achieve. It was also a lesson in motivation: I had taken a risk and made a big sacrifice in embarking on this course and forgoing an income for a year; but because of my hunger to make this life change, I had a drive that I never felt during my undergraduate years.
If I could go back in time and give myself a piece of advice on my first day at Cranfield it would be: “Don’t give up – embrace the challenge! Once you’re over the initial hump and that captivating ‘work hard, play hard’ adrenaline kicks in, you just won’t want to stop."
Engineering is as interesting and diverse as ever – I hope that more people will see this and want to join in. We still have an enduring image problem, but I hope I can help to change that in some small way.
Being at the forefront of what is a relatively new field – grid scale energy storage – is very exciting. In a small, start-up breed of company, where I’m actually the oldest and longest-standing employee (despite less than three years in the role), I really have a chance to shape my own job, choose my specialities and make my mark.
In the next 10 years, I believe that the field of engineering itself will remain as interesting and diverse as ever, in terms of opportunities. But I hope more people will actually see this and want to join it – especially women, of course. Unfortunately, many of the often-heard stereotypes from 25 years ago haven’t actually changed much; engineering is still male-dominated, and still has a wider image deficit. Society simply doesn’t understand what engineers truly do, and how everything that they value depends on us. I hope I can help to change that in some small way.
Never be afraid to change pathways.
Going in a new career direction, and switching pathways, is one of the most refreshing things you can ever do. The irony for me is that, previously, the old idea of staying within one industry or even with one company for 30-40 years would have probably suited me well. But that world doesn’t exist anymore. By forcing myself to make a big change, I’ve learned to embrace it.
Thank you to Alastair for sharing his #CranfieldConnections story. If you would like to share your story, contact the Alumni Communications team.