Making life better
You’d have to go a long way to find a career as varied, exciting, challenging and rewarding as this. Where else could you sit in the cockpit of a fighter plane, stand on an oil platform out at sea, drive a high-speed train and walk in a virtual world? Where else could you watch close-up a surgical operation, air traffic control, a power plant start-up or robots building state-of-the-art vehicles?
And you don’t even have to choose between them! Ergonomists and human factors specialists might experience many of these situations during their career. ‘Experience’ is the key word here – and that’s what makes the difference between a career in this discipline and any other.
Experience life
It’s your job to make life better in some way (no pressure then) and the best way to do that is to understand exactly what someone else is experiencing by putting yourself in their shoes.
By doing this and then applying your specialist knowledge about people and their capabilities and limitations, you’ll be able to help develop their tools, equipment, tasks and workspaces to make their jobs safer, more efficient and more productive, whilst also helping to make them more comfortable, more motivated and happier. It’s a big ask, but it’s within your grasp as a qualified ergonomist and human factors specialist.
And we are here to support you. We can point you in the right direction to get you from where you are now, to where you want to be. You won't believe where a career in ergonomics and human factors can take you.
Download your free copy of the Ergonomics and Human Factors Careers Guide
CIEHF Career Stories
There are so many ways that you can get into this amazing discipline that we thought it would be great to hear direct from our members about how they got into the discipline and their experiences so far. Take some time to watch our series of career stories below and be amazed at their journeys in ergonomics and human factors.
- Rise to the challenge, Siobhan Burns
We talk to Siobhan about setting out on her human factors journey in healthcare.
- Never stop learning, Mark Young
Mark relates how he’s learnt so much in his journey around the transport sector.
- Reach your full potential, Alina Graham
Hear how Alina’s career in manufacturing took a surprising turn.
- Look at things from a different angle, Barry Kirby
Hear from Barry about why it’s important to keep your eyes open for opportunity wherever it presents itself.
- Get off to a flying start, Gary Guan
If you want to know more about a career in human factors, watch this video where Gary talks about his experiences as a student of the discipline.
- Be the one to make a difference, Fran Ives Fran reveals the impact she’s made in her human factors work in the automotive, nuclear and healthcare sectors.
- Take your skills far and wide, Lillian Antonio
Hear from Lillian as she explains how her career in human factors has taken her around the globe.
- Design things differently, Jon Mason
Jon tells us how his industrial design background has led to some great innovations.
- Do things your own way, Robin Ellis
Robin tells us how going it alone in consultancy can be challenging but rewarding at the same time.
- Make work feel like play, Alex Stedmon
For information about how varied a career in human factors can be, watch this video where Alex describes the amazing experiences he’s had so far.