In the second part of our graduate blog series, we meet two of our newest recruits – Lukasz Okraszewski and Sam Horne. We’ll be catching up with all of the grads again next year, so make sure to continue reading!

Lukasz Okraszewski, Graduate Software Engineer

I had always held a passion for electronics since my younger days and it was something I envisaged myself continuing with into my professional career. I am originally from Poland but I moved to the UK to study Electronic Engineering at the University of Hull, however after my degree finished I decided to keep electronics as a hobby for my free time. This left me with a decision to make in terms of what I wanted to do career-wise, I decided that the field of Embedded Software would provide a welcome change of pace from my previous electronics experience.

Since joining ITL, it’s been a smooth transition from Electronics to Embedded Software my first project involved working on the next generation of NV11s, helping out on a variety of projects. My current duties for this particular project include the writing of firmware and various miscellaneous utilities to help with development.

I really enjoy the creative freedom that the job at ITL affords and I feel I can take my work in a number of different directions. I am also enjoying the relaxed work environment, everyone sits together in the brand new office and there are no physical divisions between the various departments, which makes communication much simpler and efficient. I used to travel all the way from Hull to get to work but in order to be closer to the office, I moved to Oldham in the summer of 2015 and I am currently enjoying a much shorter commute.

Sam Horne, Graduate Mechanical Design Engineer

I’m originally from Deal in Kent but I stuck around the Greater Manchester area after completing my MSc in Mechanical Engineering Design at the University of Manchester, having previously studied BEng Mechanical Engineering at the University of Cardiff.

ITL is full of extremely intelligent, interesting, kind, helpful people and I haven’t met a single person who I don’t like and respect (and I’m normally pretty scathing!). I always feel that if I encounter a problem, no matter how big or small, everyone in the office will be willing to pass on their wisdom. It also helps that I really enjoy working with my boss John Robinson, who is extremely knowledgeable about his chosen field as well as being funny and harbouring a not-so-secret obsession with cars!

I’m finding the work here fascinating and I get to work with a range of quality tools including super-fast computers, brilliant 3D printers, lathes and CNC millers. It’s also quite a relaxed working atmosphere where you can easily get on with your work without interruption and the inclusion of flexitime is really useful if you need to get off early one day or if you fancy getting away for a weekend break. This is basically my dream job, I love coming to work every day and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for me at ITL.