New Starters at Chemoxy

Posted on September 2, 2018

Chemoxy has recently had an influx of new starters, having had 6 starters begin employment between July and September. Four of them will be located at Middlesbrough and two at the Billingham site. Two of the starters are already familiar to Chemoxy, with them previously carrying out their University  placement years with Chemoxy; Andrew Smith – Graduate Plant Manager and Louise Chisholm – Graduate Chemist R&D. The other new roles where given to; Jonathan – Production Planner, is replacing a previous staff member who retired after 35 years working for the company.  Chemoxy have previously only taken one industrial student on over the last few years however, this year Chemoxy decided to take two as the 8 interviewees were all so impressive, the placements are for one year with them returning to University to finish their remaining year there.

This recruitment now takes Chemoxy staff number to 150> which coincides with Chemoxy celebrating its 150th year at the Middlesbrough site,  150 staff member for 150 years!

Marcia– Industrial Placement Student (Billingham) tells us how she felt getting the placement with Chemoxy;

“When I received the phone call I was excited and couldn’t wait to start, from the initial interview Chemoxy felt genuine and friendly, though despite this, like starting any job I was nervous. I was told that Andrew, a graduate from the same degree course I’m completing, was the first placement student at Chemoxy and had successfully secured a permanent position after graduating, I spoke to Andrew and he calmed my nerves by reinforcing my thoughts on how helpful and approachable everybody is on site.

 Opportunities like this are few and far between in today’s under-graduate placements, I love this job because of the daily collaborations between everyone and the flexibility in roles. Everybody is there for each other, there’s always someone that you can go to for a second opinion for work.”

Andrew who was Chemoxy’s first industrial placement in 2016-17 and has now secured a job as Plant Manager with Chemoxy, tells us the benefit of carrying out a placement year at Chemoxy;

“I found my placement to be rewarding and very useful for my final year at Uni. When I returned back for my final year, I had a much deeper understanding of the topics and their significance to real world applications. For those looking to go down the placement route Andrew advises; “My main tip would just be to be persistent and to not rule out any options out when it comes to looking for work. I had applied speculatively for placements at many other places before Chemoxy, and so by that point I felt it was pretty unlikely… but still worth a try!

And now he has a job with Chemoxy after completing his degree, in which he said “I feel very lucky to have been given the chance to return after my placement. I know it’s a work environment I enjoy and a role that will be challenging yet engaging.”