What attracted you to Morgan Advanced Materials?

Having met graduates on the Morgan scheme at a careers fair held at my university I learnt about the range of projects available upon joining the leadership programme. I was impressed by the degree of responsibility given to those at such early stages in their careers and was pleasantly surprised to learn of the degree to which Morgan are committed to investing in their emerging talent through ILM and IOSH certified training courses, personal development activities and direct contact between senior management and graduates.

I was very much encouraged by Morgan’s ambition to support their activities with leading edge Materials Science and with my research experience felt that within Morgan I would be valued and could make an impact. The structure of the programme aims to provide you with a good understanding of the various functions, working culture and global nature of the business; where the ultimate aim is to allow you to be in a position to make a well informed decision about your career trajectory at the end of the programme.

Briefly describe your role

I work in the Electrical Carbon division, which develop carbon and graphite materials for current transfer. I am currently involved in developing a sales tool for Morgan’s Electrical Carbon division in Europe. This comprises collating a large amount of existing data across a number of countries and developing a tool to use this data efficiently, such that we can service our customers better. I am in a unique position that my line manager is based in the UK whilst I’m working at a site in Germany, which has given me the opportunity to experience the global nature of Morgan Advanced Materials first hand.

What has been the most interesting thing about your role so far?

Having never worked in Marketing before there was a steep learning curve, learning about various concepts and applying these to our business. This process, combined with learning about the particularities of some of the products and the division as a whole, from both the British and German perspectives in a matter of months, has been a challenging and rewarding experience.

How have you found the experience working abroad?

The experience has been fantastic. Seeing how two different working cultures tackle similar problems and most interestingly how they cooperate has been impressive. Having my line manager in the UK regularly travelling over for various graduate leadership programme events has meant that I’ve been able to experience living and working abroad whilst also maintaining strong functioning ties with sites and colleagues in the UK. My project is six months long and it is flying by. There seems to be considerable business requirement for graduates at most of our sites and I would happily consider another project abroad.

Do you have any tips or advice for students interested in a placement with Morgan?

I would recommend anyone applying to the programme to be prepared to be stretched, given responsibility from the offset and to engage fully with the opportunities afforded to them. The management structure and the nature of the programme allows for considerable interaction with managers from all tiers of the hierarchy, hence make the most of opportunities which are unique to this scheme.