In spring of 2024 a 5th year student from Trinity Academy Edinburgh approached me to see if I could help him secure some work experience. I contacted some friends in 6 different Edinburgh based Photonics companies and two were keen to support Adam’s quest to learn more about the life of work in Photonics.

Here is Adam’s description of his 2^nd week of work experience:

Week 2 work experience at ST Microelectronics

My first impression was of a massive hall with around 100 employees as one small part of a much larger international company. This was very daunting.  

ST is a global business of more than 115+ nationalities and present in 40 countries, 50,000+, diverse and dedicated creators & makers of technology around the world. It is a leading semiconductor developer delivering intelligent and energy-efficient products and solutions that power the electronics at the heart of everyday life. ST’s products are found everywhere today enabling smarter driving and smarter factories, cities and homes, along with the next generation of mobile and Internet of Things devices. 

We were given a presentation on what ST does as a company. We were given one meeting room as industrial cadets and over the course of the week were given different presentations and asked to undertake small tasks. 

We had time in labs it was more somewhere between work experience and a maybe a university summer school. We had really interesting presentations from different departments and engineers. It gave a sample of work and but not quite the same full day of work that I think a full-time employee would experience. There was great variety, one day we were working in lab running tests and seeing how the tools were used. Another day we were given a tabletop display and given the challenge to figure out what each item was and what it was used for.  

Even though there were 6 of the 11 people from the same school the whole group interacted well. This gave me my first time approaching different views of approaching university. To this point I had only focussed on getting to uni whereas I discovered many of the other students were so sure that they would go to university they were able to focus on the idea of what you do in uni. 

My time at ST gave a vision of what working in a larger company might be like. The combined experience helped me see what work would be like, how projects work and how teams work. To me the very interesting difference was that Ai Exploration was faster paced, ST more structured but both were good, and I could see why different people would go to different companies. I feel that bigger feels more stable and structured with the chance to become very niche whereas in a small er company there may be more variety – you can start touching on totally different disciplines and gain a more holistic view of the work of the company. 

It’s the first time that I thought about really working in industry rather than stay in academia. Now understanding more how you start with ideas and turn them into products. 

The value and the point of work experience and a challenge to the Photonics industry. 

I appreciate the opportunity that has been given to me by both these companies and I know this work experience will be a selling point not only for university applications but also for my future career. 

Now I am back at school I feel I have much more understanding of how the theory fits into practice. I have an understanding how I can use capacitors. 

This work experience has given us all a realisation that the Photonics industry exists and what it does. I feel it is a shame that so many Physics students drop out into other courses or disciplines. I now definitely know and have a passion and inspiration about the industry. 

It worries me that nobody talks to us in school about the Photonics industry in Scotland. I had not heard about it. We do get shown a variety of job opportunities by school and university options and careers. There more that can be done to sell the photonics industry. 

From the group of 11 going to ST only 2-3 had previously heard of ST. 

The experience showed me how I need to and will open up as a person in the workplace. The more you open yourself up the more you will get out of things. 

Having been in Ai for a week helped me be more confident in the ST experience. 

Ask more questions 

What advice would you give companies about engaging with high school students? 

Promote yourselves to s1 /and s2
Help them understand why you want to do physics, “that weird and difficult subject” and how it relates to the real world. 

Then when students hit s5/s6 it is useful to have work experience opportunities. 

What advice would you give high school students about going on work experience? 

Don’t be scared of it. The employer will know what your knowledge level is, and they will be keen to support you and you will enjoy it. 

Enigma People Solutions is an award-winning technology recruitment consultancy. We find technical leaders for the emerging and enabling technology industries. Visit our services page for more information. Visit our job search page for the latest vacancies in photonics, electronics, semiconductor, software and IoT in Scotland and the UK. Check out our blog page for the latest in the technology industry. You can get in touch with us hello@enigmapeople.com or call us on + 44 131 510 8150