{"id":2162,"date":"2017-06-22T14:53:21","date_gmt":"2017-06-22T14:53:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/?p=2162"},"modified":"2022-04-13T16:14:24","modified_gmt":"2022-04-13T16:14:24","slug":"alex-smyth-mchem-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/2017\/06\/22\/alex-smyth-mchem-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Smyth (MChem 2013)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"lead\">Alex Smyth <span style=\"color: #ff0000\">(MChem 2013)<\/span> is a customer relationship manager at Thames Water Utilities<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cardiff.ac.uk\/chemistry\">Cardiff\u2019s School of Chemistry <\/a>has a very good reputation.<\/strong> It has <a href=\"http:\/\/russellgroup.ac.uk\/\">Russell Group <\/a>status, the facilities are good and the standard of education high. I think back fondly to my time spent in classes and lectures, where I learnt so much that I have been able to successfully apply in my career thus far.<\/p>\n<p><strong>I honestly think my best four years were spent at Cardiff University;<\/strong> the vibrant city life was very appealing and I remember spending many hours with friends in beautiful parks. University has so much to offer \u2013 societies, sports teams, and social events to name but a few \u2013 it\u2019s equally important to enjoy yourself as it is to work hard.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Chemistry requires lateral thinking<\/strong>. The ability to communicate complex ideas, sometimes to non-technical audiences, is a skill very much sought after in industry. The level of data analysis and eye for detail required on the Chemistry course has also contributed significantly to my career progression.<\/p>\n<p><strong>After graduation, I moved to London to join the Thames Water graduate scheme.<\/strong> I was a performance manager at one of their water treatment works, where I managed a team of 17 technicians. I eventually moved into a more customer focused role, and further developed my stakeholder engagement skills.<\/p>\n<p><strong>I will always think fondly of my time at Cardiff University and would recommend applying to anyone.<\/strong> While at the time I was probably pulling my hair out, the academic and social aspects exceeded my expectations and I was very sad to leave. It was supportive, innovative, challenging, fun, and dynamic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cardiff\u2019s School of Chemistry has a very good reputation. It has Russell Group status, the facilities are good and the standard of education high. I think back fondly to my time spent in classes and lectures, where I learnt so much that I have been able to successfully apply in my career thus far.","protected":false},"author":1080,"featured_media":2165,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chemistry","category-our-alumni"],"meta_box":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1080"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2162"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2166,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2162\/revisions\/2166"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}