I've developed a strong set of skills and professional business acumen, with lots of knowledge and unique experience relevant to working for an SME

Who do you work for, and what do you do?

I work for Elaros, a health solutions provider, incubator and accelerator working with industrial, clinical and academic partners on various systems to support the monitoring and management of conditions relating to long Covid, urology, hydration, clinical trials, asthma, sleep, NHS service improvement and more.

I graduated from Sheffield in July 2019 and started at Elaros 2-weeks later after receiving an employment offer just before my final exam in June. I had been in touch with my company for 18 months prior to that since meeting the CEO in a lecture on my degree which allowed us to get to know each other and craft a bespoke role for me to start.

I started as the Graduate Trainee R&D manager and was promoted to the company’s R&D Manager a year later. I have been responsible for a number of projects working with a variety of industry, clinical and academic specialists from an early stage. Fast-forwarding to now (during the pandemic), I’ve developed a strong set of skills and professional business acumen, with lots of knowledge and unique experience relevant to working for an SME in my sector.

As the Research and Development Manager, I manage and contribute to the research and development of Elaros’ core projects across their product lifecycle, as well as project managing Elaros’ internal and externally funded live projects. I am also the Commercialisation Lead for Elaros’ first products to market and look after operations management for the production and delivery of all our products and services.

As this is still a small company, I also have responsibility for internal team supervision and recruitment.

Can you describe a typical day?

I can’t really! When working for an SME in a smaller team there are so many different responsibilities, so nearly every day is quite diverse. Depending on which project needs the most resource or energy at any given period will decide on my daily or weekly schedule.

For our more advanced projects, on some days I will be speaking to representatives of NHS organisations to learn more about problems they are facing and to demonstrate how our systems can help them to improve their service delivery and patient health outcomes with a look to eventually sell our products to them.

For newer products that are still being developed, I could be managing and contributing to projects with industrial and academic partners on improving their designs by gathering clinical and user feedback through a pilot study where people test our systems to see what can be improved.

We also have regular team review meetings to horizon scan for new opportunities and competitors and to assess project status.

What is the most rewarding aspect of your current role or your greatest career achievement so far?

The greatest achievement in my career so far would be successfully managing a part-government funded Innovate UK project for our Digital Bladder Diary system which was aimed at collecting clinician and patient user feedback to demonstrate its effectiveness and cost-saving potential through a usability report and health economics study with Aston University and The University of York respectively.

The 12-month project ended up being extended by a further 8 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic which hit us with once-in-a-lifetime challenges that I had to navigate the company and its partners through and provided me with invaluable experience that couldn’t be replicated.

As a result of the pandemic, we simultaneously created a new system focused on the assessment and monitoring of long Covid symptoms using the original Bladder Diary system. I have been responsible for managing the development and commercialisation of this product which is expected to have a national and potentially global impact on healthcare systems worldwide.

Are there any challenging aspects to your job? If so, what are they?

Self-discipline, organisation and time management can be quite difficult considering the number of things we as an SME have to do for a variety of projects at different stages which requires multi-disciplinary knowledge and activity.

Determining the pace and importance of each task required for individual projects can be tricky when there’s lots to manage but it keeps work interesting, different and entertaining as nearly every day brings a new challenge and feels rewarding to make exciting things happen.

What skills/qualifications from your degree or other training do you make use of in your job?

Studying an interdisciplinary degree helped to provide me with a core understanding and appreciation of various biology and engineering topics and potential applications. This has helped me to understand real-life problems faced by clinicians and society better, and to explore ideas on how technology and digital health in particular can be used to address these challenges.

The core management, finance, report writing and research skills that underpinned my engineering degree have been incredibly useful to help me act in a professional manner when managing my personal and team’s activities and when liaising with external colleagues.

How have these skills or your course made a difference in your career?

Studying the various STEM modules in my degree has provided me with strong foundational knowledge, skills and an appreciation of the industry which has helped me to contextualise problems better, seek and understand specialist support to implement into my own work and explore various solutions to mitigate risks and achieve better outcomes.

The interdisciplinary analytical skills and knowledge I’ve gained lets me think about and approach new problems from different perspectives and have more effective conversations, team working and project management.

Where do you see yourself in the future?

I plan to continue my personal development with my company to help develop novel and impactful R&D projects, commercialise its first products nationally and globally to grow the company with a look to taking a senior position at Elaros.

About your university experience...

Why did you choose to study at Sheffield rather than another institution?

As an A-level student from South Yorkshire, I didn’t want to study too close to home and wanted to move to a completely new city. However, after visiting The University of Sheffield on an open day for my course and comparing these with other universities, I was really impressed by the course content, departmental staff and university facilities on offer. I was one of the first students to have lectures in the Diamond when it was built and the course on offer was really interesting and modern, so I chose Sheffield as my first choice over anywhere else.

Did your time at Sheffield meet your expectations?

Yes, definitely. My course was really interesting over the four years and it provided me with a strong skillset which I’ve come to appreciate more as I’ve progressed with my career.

What were the best things about studying in the Department?

Studying a broad, interdisciplinary range of subjects was my favourite part of my degree which kept it interesting and exciting. The facilities on offer with the diamond, the IC and the other engineering buildings were really nice and welcoming parts of the campus to have lectures in and revise from.

If you could give one piece of advice to current students or recent graduates, what would it be?

Don’t be afraid to enquire and chase up potential employers and opportunities for experience. Send out multiple emails and do your homework on the company to see if that’s what you really want but expect rejection and setbacks before the first opportunity comes.