'When I talked to my university friends, I realised what a high-level I was working at from the outset. They were sitting in offices doing small projects, whereas I was commissioning an expanded silver nitrate plant, working in the real commercial world, getting the best out of people and improving the quality and throughput of the product.

After a year, I moved from development to production. I liked the change in pace, as the work was continuous with challenging targets. I was constantly doing something different: making decisions, sorting problems and providing technical advice. During that time Johnson Matthey supported my educational needs - I wanted to learn Chinese, which I did at evening classes!

This led to a fabulous opportunity based in Hong Kong in a commercial role providing technical and marketing support to local sales managers across Asia. I used my technical skills to understand customer's needs and provide solutions - while seeing places I never dreamed I would visit.

My journey has since continued and I now manage our US jewellery sales team based in New York. Yet another set of challenges to maximise sales opportunities, motivate staff and solve problems. There are always opportunities to be grabbed.

Looking back I can't believe what a wonderful ride it's been and how lucky I have been. I've already experienced a wide range of roles - both technical and commercial. I have gained management skills and know what it takes to run a business. I now look forward to whatever's next! '

'I joined Johnson Matthey after completing my PhD (and after back-packing around the world for a year as well) and spent just over 2 years in the technical development team of our Noble Metals business unit.

My role evolved considerably in the time I spent there, with direct customer contact taking an increasingly significant proportion of my time. I transferred to the Sales and Marketing department as a Product Specialist. In this role I travel extensively, all over the world, being the primary contact with our Glass Industry customers. In this field there are no standard "off-the-shelf" solutions - you have to be able to understand the customers problems and come up with creative solutions, often on the spot. It's challenging, but if you can do it, immensely satisfying.

Learning and development shouldn't stop when you get a job, quite the opposite in fact. I've been on a number of internal Johnson Matthey development course including the year long business training course, as well as external courses in a number of different fields, from sales and negotiating skills through to computer applications training. I'm currently half way through a part-time MBA which Johnson Matthey is encouraging and sponsoring. '

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