The time to think

摘要

But for a rainy day during his school days Nick Hughes maritime career might not have happened. 'The bad weather meant we could not play football, so a friend of mine and I decided to visit the Royal Navy Engineering Officers roadshow (a kind of travelling careers fair for the navy that used to tour UK schools and colleges in order to recruit) and I was captivated.' Plans to go to university were abandoned, and Nick embarked upon what turned out to be a 12 year naval career, rising to become Squadron Engineer for the Fleet Diving Squadron, where he helped develop repair procedures and underwater engineering capabilities that generated annual savings of over ￡8M. By this point (2003) the recently married Nick decided he wanted a new, land-based challenge and was approached to join Qinetiq's Maritime Platforms and Equipment Group as a senior engineer. Here he spends his time developing and conducting applied research projects for mainly Ministry of Defence (MoD) customers. The greatest joy is that here we have the time and freedom to think; the greatest challenge is we are often briefed to provide answers where we don't know the questions.'