Alumni

Glyn Hughes

Career Path: Machine Dynamics Engineer, Siemens
Location: Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

I left school and served a fitter and turner apprenticeship, upon completion of my apprenticeship I was due to start university sponsored by my company, however due to redundancies the timing wasn’t great and it was postponed. Twenty years later, I’d moved companies and was in a technicians role within my new company.

I was having a discussion regarding one of the younger members of the team and was commenting on how impressed I was with his development during his time at university, when my boss offered me the opportunity to study and gain a professional qualification. Approaching 40 years old I was apprehensive, but 4 years later I graduated and the experience of studying along side a great group of friends made at university was one I’m immensely proud of.

What are you doing now?

I’m travelling the world performing vibration analysis, fault finding and dynamic balancing on large land-based gas and steam turning turbo generators. The job allows me to be both hands-on in the field and also provide remote support to customers globally via technical support and in line evaluation of vibration performance via remote access PC’s.

What was it about Northumbria that made you decide to study here?

Well in all honesty, I had no choice, my company paid for my studies and they chose Northumbria. However I’m from Newcastle and very proud of its strong reputation and history of heavy engineering so where better to study than at home.

What was it like studying at Northumbria?

The quality of the lectures and course material was varied, we had some great lecturers during my time at Northumbria.

How connected was your course with industry?

I was a part time student, so I already had a job. We only had 1 day of guest lectures and the man who came from Shell was interesting.

What was the best thing about your course?

Meeting and working with the other part time students in my year, I made friends for life and it was great getting to work with guys of similar levels of ability and interests as myself.

How did studying at Northumbria help you achieve your career goals/ give your career an edge?

It’s given me more confidence in my own ability and enables me to challenge ideas and openly discuss issues with my peers, where as before I always felt as if I didn’t have the right to a professional opinion.

Which skills/knowledge did you learn on your course that you use most now throughout your career?

My ability to produce much better quality and more professional reports. I think a lot more about the content and how to put it across than I did before I’d studied.