Chris

My name is Chris Gosling, I'm an engineer at McLaren. I've joined as a graduate around four years ago. I've obviously worked on the MP4-12C and responsibilities for the exterior body panels closures, which include the door, engine cover, bonnet. Starting out, literally it was a concept sketch, and the stylist did their work to make a one-to-one model, and then the engineering work really started, and I was developing my engineering skills. I can look around the car and point out so many little areas where I've had a really specific involvement and feel that it's made a difference to the final product.

At A Levels, I studied maths and physics as my full A Levels, and I also did AS Levels in IT and electronics, so all of them are very focused towards engineering. I knew I wanted to do automotive engineering. It's getting more and more of a popular degree now, but when I looked at it probably 8 years ago, there was sort of limited numbers of universities that specified - lots and lots of mechanical engineering but automotive was quite a new subject. Kingston fitted the bill for what I was looking for. I found my way in following my degree, I applied to an engineering agency, and I was lucky enough to get an interview for a graduate role in the company and the rest is history. I've worked my way up through the company.

In 4 years of working here, I've managed to get to the project engineer level, which was always my aspiration of my first 5 years of work. Going forward into my next 5 years, I'm really enjoying my time at McLaren. I don't see there's anywhere else I'd want to go. It would be to develop into that role of senior project engineer, and almost looking up to my function group manager in front of me. I joined as a graduate, so obviously I had the support of the graduate role.

We created a development matrix and followed through different areas of the business. My development matrix ends up with completing a Master's degree and getting Chartered. Never think anything is impossible, so always follow your dreams to what you want to do. These things are stepping stones, with critical bits of learning you have to go through. Maths may seem a bit mundane and boring in the classroom, but believe me, sometimes you're very grateful that you've learned that stuff when you come across a problem that you need to apply some maths or physics or whatever that subject may be.

If you've got an interest in engineering, it's an absolutely fantastic job. For me, it's satisfying to look at finished products and knowing all the details of how things went into making it. Before as an engineer, I just looked at the product and wonder.