Tara’s dad was a time-served tool maker who worked for Darchem for 32 years, and for as long as she can remember, she was always interested—especially when he would bring home posters of Rolls-Royce plane engines for her brother.
After leaving school, Tara didn’t really know what she wanted to do for a career. Engineering wasn’t heavily promoted for girls or women at the time, so she moved between jobs trying to find something that sparked her interest. In 1997, she was offered an interview with Darchem to be a viewer/checker in what was then Aero-Fabs.
She quickly progressed into Goods Inwards Inspection, where her job took her into Honeycomb and DIS. There, she inspected Honeycomb panels, Crimp, stainless steel coils, and small components.
In 2001, Tara moved permanently into DIS and worked on the shop floor as a semi-skilled operator making exhausts for rally cars.
By 2002, she was offered a move into stores, and she has never looked back. This role also gave her the opportunity to use her inspection stamp again.
In 2014, Tara was promoted to chargehand of DIS stores, and in 2019 she made the move up to DPD.
After a short time as a team leader, she transitioned into her current role as Materials Controller for the Projects team. In this role, she is currently going through another learning curve within the marine sector.
Tara describes her time in DPD as the highlight of her 28 years at Darchem:
Working on the HPC contract, Sellafield, and now Marine has given me extensive knowledge from both engineering and warehouse/logistics perspectives. I love my role in the office but also feel fortunate to spend time on the shop floor, learning more about ductwork and how everything fits together.
If there is one lesson Tara has taken from her time at Darchem, it is that sometimes you have to go back in order to move forward.