INTERVIEW WITH
IN CONVERSATION WITH...
A series of interviews with AGR Board Members
MIRANDA DAVIES
Head of Graduate Resourcing and Development , Thales >>
Miranda moved into account management with Lloyds TSB before joining QinetiQ in a project management role. Then fate took over. “An opportunity came up in graduate
development at QinetiQ and I thought it sounded interesting so I applied...”
After completing a graduate development programme with Dixons she made the unconventional career move of becoming the landlady of a pub, before entering graduate development “completely by accident”. Miranda Davies spills the beans…
“A lot of retail management skills apply to running a public house,” says Miranda. “It was a family business and I threw myself in to it. I absolutely loved it.” Not that it is a role for lightweights. “It was hard work. It becomes your social life. It was a village pub so it was very much part of the community and to get a returning customer base you had to provide good local service. A lot of what I learnt on the retail management programme at Dixons helped tremendously.” And much of what she learnt pulling pints has stood her in good stead for her career in graduate recruitment. After leaving the pub to see the “wider world” Miranda
moved into account management with Lloyds TSB before joining QinetiQ in a project management role. Then fate took over. “An opportunity came up in graduate development at QinetiQ and I thought it sounded interesting so I applied...” Miranda’s appetite for a challenge played a part. “Graduate development was just starting up in the company. It was an opportunity to be part of something brand new, as well as being able to influence the ongoing future development of talent in the organisation.” It is still something she feels very passionate about. “I love seeing that potential flourish through graduate development and watching them grow to be the best they can be.” Miranda’s move into graduate attraction was equally as
serendipitous. QinetiQ soon restructured, separating graduate attraction from graduate development. “I had never done graduate attraction and I had never worked with a recruitment advertising agency, but I thought I’d jump in with both feet. I loved the whole on-campus strategy piece, building relationships with universities and working with an agency creatively to deliver a number of award winning campaigns.” When QinetiQ centralised their graduate recruitment, Miranda – characteristically – put herself forward for the role, despite her lack of experience. “I worked with GradWeb who helped
tremendously in terms of my learning curve, and then I ran attraction and recruitment together for the remainder of my time at QinetiQ.” Miranda moved to Thales in 2009. Her continued
experience in the engineering sector means she is vocal about the poor STEM pipeline in the UK. “I haven’t filled all my vacancies since I joined Thales in 2009 and I don’t think I will fill all of them again this year.” She says her colleagues in the Engineering Energy & Industry sector focus group are all facing the same challenge. “I think the situation is getting worse not better – the numbers of students studying engineering is declining. Kids want to work with Google and Apple and gaming companies, not a defence and security organisation.” She says Thales will be increasingly looking at school leaver programmes and enhancing its apprentice intake to feed the shortfall in the pipeline at graduate level. Miranda would like to see the government subsidise
STEM degrees at university, and she believes a lot more needs to be done in schools. “There are a lot of organisations working on STEM outreach activities but I think it needs a more collaborative approach – not brand led, but for the benefit of ‘Engineering UK’. If we can persuade the likes of BAE, Rolls Royce, Network Rail and the many other companies investing in STEM to agree on some collaborative activity, that would be ideal.” It is an issue she continues to champion in her role as an AGR Board Member. “That is where I hope my voice will be heard.”
When Miranda isn’t searching for new challenges she can be found walking her Trailhound dog at home in Worcestershire, to which she returns at weekends. “I largely live away from home in the week so I very much enjoy home time and catching up with friends and family.” She also loves to travel with her husband, adding that Australia is their favourite destination. Her spirit of adventure clearly hasn’t waned…
24 GRADUATE RECRUITER
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