About 18 months ago I graduated with a pretty good degree in Civil Engineering, from a pretty good university. In the last few months, I’ve also graduated from an MSc course in one particular part of Civils, again from a pretty good university. During the last year – and particularly the last few months since I finished my masters – I’ve been looking and applying for jobs within that industry. Had a few interviews too, but for whatever reason got nowhere. Lately, I’ve become bored of being skint, so I decided to look for a part-time job, something to do/earn money while I keep applying for “proper” jobs.

And, well, that’s sort of what I’ve done. I’ve taken what is essentially a part-time job, that I know will give me work for the majority of the year. But as part time jobs go, it’s a bit good…

I’m going to be working for a tyre company. Specifically, in the motorsport part of the company. Providing support to their customers in the World Endurance Championship. So basically, I’m going to go to a load of races, getting paid for it, and getting involved in engineering some of the cars that are taking part.

So I’ll be working at races at Sebring (Florida), Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium), Le Mans, Silverstone, Interlagos (Sao Paulo), Bahrain (or wherever they decide to reschedule it), Fuji (Japan) and somewhere in China. And I’ll also hopefully be involved in a bit of testing; I already know that I’ll be going to a tyre test in February, most likely at Monza.

So, my initial plan of “finish uni, get a civil engineering job” has sort of gone awry; I don’t know if this job will lead to any future work (although I get the impression that it possibly could), and of course I’m now not entirely available to start a “normal” office-based engineering job until about November, when the WEC season ends. But, well, I can’t say I’m really complaining…

I still find it slightly amazing that I had a few interviews for jobs that I should really be ideal for given my experience and my qualifications, and got nowhere. But somehow I’ve landed a job that’s completely different to what I’ve done before. Again, I can’t say I’m moaning; at least one of the companies I’ve interviewed for in the last 6 months is now in trouble. And, er, in this job I get to work in motorsport!

And that still hasn’t really sunk in. The way I keep looking at it is: I’ve wanted to go to the Le Mans 24 Hours for years. I’m going this year, and I’ll be in the pitlane for the race. I’ve been to spectate at the Silverstone 6 Hours for the last couple of years, this year I’ll be working there. It’s all a bit unreal really.

So that’s what I’m doing this year. I’m very excited.

Whilst I was thinking about and writing the previous post, a couple of extra things came to mind which I couldn’t really fit into the post. So I thought I might as well do a follow-up with a couple of extra observations. I did intend to write this earlier, but partly I was busy (more on that in a following post) and mostly I just didn’t get around to it. Continue reading…

You might remember that a couple of years ago, an Air France plane crashed into the Atlantic. Recently, Popular Mechanics ran an article which explained the causes of the accident using data from the aircraft’s black box. In the immediate aftermath of the accident, it was assumed that something on the aircraft must have failed as it passed through a storm. Continue reading…

Here’s an interesting video on why the American stimulus has pretty much failed to do what it was designed to do:

I’m not going to claim that it definitively explains why the stimulus didn’t work. As far as I can tell it was made by a libertarian think-tank – so possibly some bias there – and it really only gives anecdotal evidence. Continue reading…

At first glance, electric cars seem to be a good idea. Certainly at current prices, using electricity seems to be a relatively cheap way of fuelling a car. And for many people, who mostly use their car to make short journeys, the range issue isn’t generally a problem.

However, most people also use their car for occasional long trips. For example to visit friends or relatives who don’t live locally. Continue reading…

Climate change is a significant topic that affects the lives of pretty much every living human. As such, discussions about the subject can often get quite heated, with two distinct camps. One side says that climate change is caused by carbon dioxide emissions, and that the consequences for humanity will be absolutely dire. The other side seems to claim that the climate isn’t changing, or that the other side are making things up. Continue reading…

It’s a bit like a bad joke at the moment.

Last week, the Eurozone leaders announced their latest agreement to save the Euro. Essentially, what they announced was what it is that they’d like to do, but they haven’t really worked out the details of how they’ll do it. It’s only small details that are left to sort out, for example where exactly the money is going to come from…

So they haven’t really agreed much at all. Continue reading…

If you’ve seen the news recently, no doubt you’ve heard about the various “occupations” which are occurring in various places. It’s all spread from “Occupy Wall Street” in the States, and in the UK we have our own version in “Occupy LSX”, who are currently occupying that well-known fortress of capitalism, er, St. Paul’s Cathedral. Hmm, oh well.

As far as I’m aware, one of the main messages that they’re trying to get across is the idea of the “99 percent”; or the idea that 99% of people are struggling in the current economic climate whilst 1% are prospering, and that the 99% are angry. Continue reading…

As occasionally often happens, a while ago I started to listen to “just one more song” before turning the computer off and doing something else, and ended up listening to music for a while, rather than just 5 minutes. One of the songs that I listened to was Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Deep Blue Something. No particular reason, just happened to listen to it. Continue reading…

It’s been announced today that unemployment is at a 17-year high, and that 16-24 year olds are being particularly affected. In that group, unemployment is higher than it’s ever been.

Back when the minimum wage was introduced, there was a particularly interesting argument put forward against it. This was that it would have an adverse impact upon people whose labour is not worth the minimum wage. Continue reading…