Harris Watson Holdings

HWH Investments: Graduate Engineers

Location
Bath, Poole, Worcester + travel - some overseas
Salary
£25,000

APPLY HERE FOR OUR CURRENT GRADUATE SCHEME

Graduate Engineers
Mechanical, Electrical and Software
HWH Investments

 

We are looking for 12 graduate engineers to fill our 2012/13 programme. Look at the websites of four of our companies: Horstman, Froude Hofmann, AGI and ABP to see the kind of work that may be entailed. You will have to be smart and prepared to be passionate about what you do. You'll get some feel for the other qualities we're looking for by considering the following questions:

  • Can you multi-task and cope with shifting goal posts?
  • Can you keep calm in a crisis?
  • Do you think and communicate clearly?
  • If you can see the next step, do you take it or wait for approval?
  • Do you see the big picture but also the action needed – in detail?
  • Can you leave an important task unfinished?

This year’s intake will spend a week in September on an induction course learning about business in general and the companies in the Group in particular.  You’ll then have the chance to choose the companies you are interested in and to spend enough time with them to see if you fit, normally 4 months.  You’ll meet our previous intakes: two of the 2009 crew have become supervisors and one is in Germany.

What would you do?  Some companies have well defined positions, with others it will be a question of finding a way in which your talents can contribute, making yourself indispensable, and being asked to stay on.  There will be further development courses for the intake for the first twelve months, as well as activities at each company.

Why do we want graduates?  Our business model is to acquire companies that have been neglected, trim them back to reveal their potential, and then support them while they pursue it.  Froude Hofmann is the global leader in dynamometers for engines.  Horstman designs sophisticated suspensions for military vehicles.  And AGI and ABP’s eight business units have clients from Royal Mail to the Finnish Airforce.   These companies are led by highly capable engineers (at 23 the MD of Horstman designed the fuel pump for Concorde).  They need more like them to follow on.

If you would like to be part of this, fill in our special application form below.  We’ll let you know if you are a contender.  To help us make decisions quickly, don’t contact any of the companies, please use this website and submit the form.

The Small Print:
Many of our projects are for the MOD and the DOD (USA). 
This severely restricts our ability to use non-UK nationals - whether or not they have a visa.

Application Form

This form is a bit different. Apart from the basic biographical data, what we want is examples drawn from your life, personal or work-related, that show how well you match the kind of person we are looking for. Because of the design of the form, a decision on whether you progress to the next stage can be quick and, if positive, hold serious prospects of a job offer. For our graduate intake, there may be a wait while we arrange an assessment day.

Filling in forms is hard work. Make it easy on yourself; in the following sections (and indeed in Personal Details) we aren’t looking for accuracy on dates, job titles and the like. Just give us what you think is relevant. As well as the information itself, we want to see how you assemble it.

What we are looking for in each section is evidence that suggests that you have the qualities described. Often the best way to do this is to simply tell the story of what happened, in detail without 'digesting' it. However, it's easy to wind up describing something achieved by your team rather than by you. So remember: it's you we want to hire. If you can, give us detail that demonstrates your personal involvement. A couple of examples should be enough.

It may be that the examples you want to give involve more than one section. Use the space in any way that is convenient and then cross-reference to make sure we don't miss anything. And we don’t expect you to have every quality. We’re looking for humans not superheroes.

NB If your browser loses its connection to this website, your data may be lost. To avoid this, type your answers in your usual word processing application and then copy and paste them into the form. This way you'll also have a record of your responses. You'll know that your form has been sent successfully if you see: Thank you, your information has been submitted.

Personal Details

 

About You

Can you multi-task and cope with shifting goal posts?

This isn’t about being easily diverted. You pride yourself on being able to keep a number of key tasks going at once – and you can handle interruptions with grace. You know you have this skill because you’ve seen others getting flustered. How else do you know you have this ability? Give us some examples.

Can you keep calm in a crisis?

When things go wrong, are you the one they all turn to? When your team is losing the game; when you need to decide where to go on the gang’s night out; when the customer wants it now – and the machine has broken: somehow you are the one that gets people to pull together to solve the problem. Tell us some stories.

Do you think and communicate clearly?

Do bureaucratic letters that go on and on drive you nuts? If you find yourself stuck do you go back to make sure the brief is clear and correct? Do you often step in to help someone explain themselves? Do people visibly relax after you’ve explained? Describe an actual occurrence – or two.

If you can see the next step, do you take it or wait for approval?

Taking the next step can be tricky. It could be just what your ‘boss’ wants you to do or it could be the last thing he needs. How have you handled this in the past? Tell us a real story.

Do you see the big picture but also the action needed – in detail?

Tell us about a project, personal or work-related, where both ends of this spectrum were important, and you demonstrated your understanding. And tell us when you've noticed that not many people can do this.

Can you leave an important task unfinished?

Give us the story of a couple of occasions where you’ve gone the extra mile to deliver the goods. How have others reacted?

 
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