Profile
Jennifer Carroll
My CV
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Work History:
I was a summer student at Sellafield Limited for 3 of the summers when I was at university. I work in operations support, providing safety documents for the work required to keep the plant operational. These summer placements helped me decide to pursue a career in nuclear.
I graduated from Glasgow and didn’t do as well as I needed to go get on the graduate scheme at Sellafield, so I had to rethink my plan. My self-confidence was hit by this. It took a while for me to rebuild that.
I got a job working for Cadburys, making new types of chocolate. This was great, it combined my chemistry knowledge with my love of chocolate. I also got to travel to Turkey to work on setting up a new chocolate production line there.
In the back of my mind I still wanted to make a difference and nuclear felt like the way to do that. So I used the money I had saved up working to fund a Masters degree. I went back to university to study Nuclear Decommissioning and Waste Management because there is skills shortage in this area and so would likely get a job after graduation. I also wanted to prove to myself that I could do it,
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Current Job:
I am a Project Engineer, two years into my career with Jacobs – the biggest nuclear consultancy company in the UK.
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I live in Birmingham with my fiancé and out kitten, Princess (he named her not me…). When I was at university I was a member of the Cheerleading team and won a national competition for pom dance two years in a row. I love all things vintage and often go to vintage fairs with my friends. I’m a massive Harry Potter fan and would love to go to the Harry Potter studios in London for my birthday this year.
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I studied chemistry at Glasgow University and when I graduated I got a job working for Cadbury’s. I learned to make chocolate from scratch and there was a lot of tasting sessions! I saved up the money I earned that year to fund my Master degree. I went on to graduate first in my class with a MSc. in Nuclear Decommissioning and waste Management, winning a prize for academic achievement in the School of Physics.
I have recently completed the Graduate scheme, which sent me on courses for presentation and writing skills, an outward bounds week for team building and took part in a couple of rotations in different jobs within the industry.
My first job at a nuclear power station took me out of my comfort zone. I have a science background, but I was put into an engineering role. I didn’t really know what engineering was before then, but I was able to apply all the science that I had learned at university to problems I had to solve at the power station.
For example, I was asked to design a pipe that would connect two tanks together and had to determine how wide the pipe could be. At university, I had done a course in Hydrogeology 9how water moves through rocks under the ground), I never thought I would actually use this course but I did. I turns out that the equations are the same for water flowing through a pipe and water flowing through a crack in a rock!
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My Typical Day:
My day starts with a morning meeting to check everyone is fit to be at work and get up to speed with the issues on the power station, what are we going to do today. My days are all different – from meetings all day to climbing up ladders on top on tanks to investigate in my overalls and hard hat! I love getting out to see new things and solve problem on plant.
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My Interview
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What did you want to be after you left school?
A doctor
Who is your favourite singer or band?
Billy Joel
What's your favourite food?
Sushi
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