Let me tell you a bit about myself...
I rejoined Conway Stewart in November 2009. As you may have noticed there, this is not the first time I have worked for Conway Stewart.
I first found myself involved with Conway Stewart in October 2007. I was fresh from leaving school with my GCSE’s in hand and I was keen to progress with my career. I made the decision to enrol onto an engineering apprenticeship, with the view of learning on the job. My primary role within Conway Stewart at that time was to program, set up and maintain the machines used to create the specific parts of Conway Stewart luxury pens. Being new to the engineering industry it was fascinating to see how the manufacturing and assembly of numerous parts, creates such a unique product for the market.
However, after 14 months of employment the company was restructured with fully qualified engineers and craftsman bought in to cope with the increase in demand. The company therefore took the decision of reducing its apprentice program and I was subsequently laid off. This setback did not dampen my enthusiasm for engineering and I quickly started to look at other options. I was lucky enough to find a small tool making company which was the perfect platform for me to enhance the skills I had already established whilst with Conway Stewart.
The role was similar to what I was used to and allowed me to gain confidence with operating the machinery. However after 6 months I felt I wanted to try and expand my knowledge and subsequently made the move to a larger company whereby I could try my hand at other areas of engineering which I had not yet experienced.
About a year later, I heard that Conway Stewart was looking to add to its workforce. I immediately phoned Glenn Jones, Managing Director of Conway Stewart and to my pleasure he was delighted to be able to offer me a position. I certainly feel I can offer the company much more thanks to my experiences and skills gained over the last few years.
My role has developed since my first time at Conway Stewart. I work with a great mentor called Rafal who has helped me develop my skills and encourages me to experiment in designing future models. The only downside of working with Rafal is he still calls me Louise, instead of Louis but then again no one is perfect! Designing Conway Stewart pens is a very lengthy but worthwhile process as the joy you experience in seeing your design being put into production outweighs the twenty prototypes which do not make the grade. Whilst our work of designing new models and making the outer shell of the pens is essential– it’s the work of the craftsmen which really set Conway Stewart apart from other competitors. The fine attention to detail they work to really produces a pen we can all be proud of and it is such a pleasure in seeing their work close up.
Louis Emery
Conway Stewart