What was your background before joining Stroud?

I joined Stroud in September 2022 after completing my B.A.Sc in Mechanical Engineering from Queen’s University. During my degree, I spent 16 months working for Honda Engineering North America designing new manufacturing lines for future Honda vehicles.

What is a typical day for an Associate?

Each morning I’ll arrive at site, review my goals for the week with my line manager, and plan out actions for the day to progress my goals as much as possible. I love that my daily actions can vary wildly as the project advances. In a single day, I can work directly with the plant management to set up and coordinate a test, execute the test with the plant operators, then analyze the data to progress the problem-solving process.

After a day on site, I like to explore the city that I am working in and find new/unique foods to try!

In what ways have you developed professionally since joining?

Stroud has enabled me to progress professionally and personally at such an accelerated rate. Following two weeks of induction, I felt like I had the tools and the confidence to tackle difficult projects. Immediately, I was able to leverage my analytical and problem-solving skills to drive results for clients.

Being given ownership of a project so quickly put me in a position to rapidly develop my leadership and communication skills in way that I do not think I could have at another company.

What have been your favorite moments on the job so far?

Your first project is always memorable. During induction, you are given the tools needed to solve complex problems. When you get the opportunity to apply those tools and see real world results, it is always exciting. On my first project, I was working on a de-bottlenecking analysis and challenged some constraints on the system output. I worked with an operator to trial some new settings on a piece of machinery and was able to increase output by 8%, with just a simple change!