Name: Pascal Schirmer, PhD
Where you are from: Germany
PhD University: Hertfordshire
PhD topic area: Non-Intrusive Load Monitoring and Smart Grids
Current job title and company: Specialist Electrical Engineering, BMW AG
Current location: Munich, Germany

How would you describe to your granny/granddad what you do for work?
I am responsible for estimating the lifetime of electric vehicles. I am basically a vehicle doctor, but for preventive health care rather than for acute illnesses.

What does a typical day/week look like for you? 
After getting up I cycle to work, where I usually use the first hours for brainwork and more complex simulations. At around 8-9 core hours for meetings start. Around 12 we usually going to get lunch with colleagues. In the afternoon, there are various task including discussion about testing, questions from students, and of course more meetings.

What’s the best thing about your job?
The bridge between research and application, seeing a product grow from the first sketch to being driven around by yourself.

What hard skills does someone need for your job?
Good mathematical skills and fundamental knowledge in simulation and system design.

What soft skills does someone need for your job?
In a large cooperate networking and knowing the correct person to ask is key.

In 10 years' time, what job/position do you see yourself in?
I do love technical aspects and finding solutions for rather tricky problems, I hope can work within the same are, maybe with a larger focus on the design concept of the complete vehicle architecture.  

What advice would you give to someone starting out in your industry?
Automotive industry is vastly driven by cost. If you are interested in optimizing a technical solution under vary tight financial constraints, you found your place.

What advice would you give to someone coming to the end of their PhD?
When coming to the end of the PhD one should broaden their focus again, thinking about applications of the research that has been concluded. This must not necessarily be true for whole PhD topic, but maybe only for partial aspects like specific modelling approaches, et cetera.

Any links you want to share

ResearchGate
Google Scholar
Github