Name: Chase Beswick
Works for: McLaren Automotive
Job Title: Data Integration Lead
What attracted you to the job?
The reputation which McLaren Automotive has a world leader in technology and performance, as well as the drive and passion everyone within the company clearly has.
What does your typical day involve?
Day to day activities can vary considerably. My day can involve assisting the business in releasing components, to supporting the design, development and launch of new car programs, to running upload programs to load large volumes of data when the business is particularly busy with engineering changes.
No single day is the same which helps keep me motivated - because I never know what challenge will be next.
What gives you the most job satisfaction?
The role I currently have within the business touches on all areas of the business. This means that I am fortunate enough to have a good understanding of the dynamics and interactions between each business area. For me, I get the most job satisfaction seeing the dynamics and interactions between each business area improve based on improvements we have made. This ultimately results in us working together better to improve the amazing products we produce.
What do your friends and family think about your job?
The idea of working for McLaren is a dream job when I speak to most people, whether they are friends and family, or simply someone I meet for the first time where the conversation arises. This is because of the reputation the company has globally as being the best at what we do.
Once anyone realises where I work, inevitably they have a load of questions to ask about what we do and what new projects we may have coming up. Unfortunately, due to the sensitive nature of the work we do, what I can say or tell them is very limited.
How did you get where you are today?
I left school with no more than GCSE's for qualifications. After this, I signed up to an employment agency to try and find work and earn a living.
The first few jobs they found for me were very basic jobs with not much of a future, so I kept ringing the agency asking for anything else they had to offer. Fortunately, one day they mentioned they had a job as a general labourer at the McLaren 'Paragon' building site where they were finishing the McLaren Technology Centre building. My role was to clean up the building site whilst the builders finished their work.
Whilst working on the building site, I worked alongside the paint shop team who had moved in early, as McLaren Automotive did not have their own paint shop yet. As I worked alongside them, I asked their manager at the time if I could work for him as a Paint Shop Junior. As he had seen my work ethic, he took me on to work for his team.
Working within the paint team, I was keen to carry on with my education, as I could see the potential which was staring me in the face with my new-found career. Eventually, the company offered employees the opportunity to sign up for a foundation degree which could be run at the local college - Brooklands. I signed up for the course and after 4 years of evening lessons, finally managed to secure a foundation degree in Performance Road Car Technology.
However, this made me want to progress further in my education, so I asked my Director if the company could support me to convert my foundation degree to a full degree. After some deliberation with the rest of the Directors, he agreed and I enrolled on the Computer Aided Mechanical Engineering course run by Oxford Brookes University and after a further 2 years of day release studying, I managed to successfully secure my full honours degree. Interestingly, for my dissertation, I designed the paint fixtures that were used to paint the panels of our first McLaren only road car - the MP4-12C. Pictures of these paint fixtures can be seen widely on the internet when images of the McLaren Automotive paint facility are shown.
With my new qualifications, I began exploring the opportunity of putting the new skills into practice and was placed on secondment as a Quality Engineer. This then evolved for me to become a Quality and Manufacturing Engineer, then on to Data Reconciliation Lead for a new project the business ran to move on to a more stable software package for the business called SAP. It is that role which eventually led to me being Data Integration Lead for the business, once the project completed and the business was fully up and running on the new software. That is the role which I currently have within the business.
Did the subjects you studied after the age of 16 prove useful in the job you are doing now?/any subjects you wish you'd studied?
Each of the subjects I studied at the age of 16 have helped in some way or another. Whether it be something which relates directly to what I do today (such as IT), to something which does not directly relate to what I am doing today (such as Geography). I say this because the subjects which relate directly to what I do obviously help me better understand what I do day to day, whilst the other subjects which do not directly relate to what I do taught me other life skills such as how to manage my time and priorotise several tasks which need my time and attention.
In retrospect, there are no subjects which I wish I had or hadn't studied, because they have all been useful in their own right, and have allowed me to progress in to a career I am very happy with.
What advice would you give to someone thinking of following in your path?
The key advice I would give is to remember to face all challenges with a keen and positive outlook, as these are traits that people look for and invest in. There have been a number of times where I have felt like I would not achieve anything substantial, but through putting my head down, getting the job done and showing a desire to progress, fortunately I have managed to achieve more than I could have imagined.
How well is your job compensated? What is the starting salary for someone in your field and how much this can be expected to rise?
The starting salary within Data related jobs is normally around £25,000, and this can rise to as much as £60,000 or higher depending on the amount of experience you have and how specialised your skill set is.
What out of office hours pursuits light your fire? What kind of hobbies or extracurricular activities do you have?
I play golf during the weekends (sometimes during the week when the days are longer!). I am also a STEM Ambassador and like to attend events which encourage young talent into STEM subjects. I was fortunate enough to tell the story of my career as a guest speaker at the 2016 SATRO STEMX awards ceremony which I find extremely awarding.
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