Tuesday 21st January 2014

Brits to take over Ferrari?

OK, early days yet but UK graduates shine in search for Ferrari interns

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Fervent patriotic pride and Ferrari go together like parmesan on your pasta and living at home with your mum, to the extent you may be surprised to hear they do on occasion employ non-Italians among their ranks. The most recent public face of this was, of course, Rob Smedley, Felipe Massa's engineer whose no-nonsense northern tones on the pit-to-car radio were more Middlesbrough than Maranello and all the more amusing for it.

The next Smedley in waiting could be inbound

With Massa's departure Smedley has reportedly left Ferrari's F1 team too but the company as a whole has been recruiting for interns among its engineering and marketing departments and British graduates feature disproportionately highly among the 96 selected for video interview from over 5,000 applications. 18 graduates from UK universities including Cranfield Institute of Technology, LSE, UCL and both Oxford and Cambridge have been selected for video interviews over the coming days from which half will be summoned to Maranello and five will get six-month internships and open-ended contracts to follow.

So. If your own patriotic pride was taking a dent at JLR being in Indian ownership and the public voice of many iconic British brands having a thick German accent rest assured it's simply part of the merry-go-round international nature of the car business and in years to come there may be more Robs than Robertos at Ferrari.

Photos: Rob Smedley image by LAT Photo

[TREMAiNE]

So I could one day be head of Ferrari?

I could only dream!

[Madkat]

Well They do say the Brits are best at motorsport.....As for Business acumen well i'm not so sure.

[bubney72]

Good stuff. Anyone lucky enough to land the job should know it's been voted the best place to work many times. That goes for all companies, not just car firms. I imagine the staff there all feel very proud, and so they should.

[samoht]

Incidentally, after Alonso lost the 2010 Championship by being sat behind Petrov all the way round Abu Dhabi, Ferrari started recruiting a professional software development team to make their race management software, including at a nice relocation package from the UK for at least one senior developer.

So yes, the door is very much open for non-Italians at Ferrari, as I imagine Ross Brawn would also confirm

[wemorgan]

bubney72 said:

Good stuff. Anyone lucky enough to land the job should know it's been voted the best place to work many times. That goes for all companies, not just car firms. I imagine the staff there all feel very proud, and so they should.

I thought Google would have that crown, what with all their table football games, free fizzy drink machines, bowling alleys all on site.

[dc2rr07]

Has Rob followed Massa to Williams !

[binnerboy]

wemorgan said:

bubney72 said:

Good stuff. Anyone lucky enough to land the job should know it's been voted the best place to work many times. That goes for all companies, not just car firms. I imagine the staff there all feel very proud, and so they should.

I thought Google would have that crown, what with all their table football games, free fizzy drink machines, bowling alleys all on site.

might be that Google's core product is your private information whereas Ferrari make awesome cars

[Munich]

Article said:

18 graduates from UK universities including Cranfield Institute of Technology, LSE, UCL and both Oxford and Cambridge have been selected for video interviews

That means something different to, "Brits to take over Ferrari". 18 graduates from UK unis does not actually mean they are actually British...

[Dave Hedgehog]

Munich said:

Article said:

18 graduates from UK universities including Cranfield Institute of Technology, LSE, UCL and both Oxford and Cambridge have been selected for video interviews

That means something different to, "Brits to take over Ferrari". 18 graduates from UK unis does not actually mean they are actually British...

or they are actually going to get the jobs

[bubney72]

wemorgan said:

bubney72 said:

Good stuff. Anyone lucky enough to land the job should know it's been voted the best place to work many times. That goes for all companies, not just car firms. I imagine the staff there all feel very proud, and so they should.

I thought Google would have that crown, what with all their table football games, free fizzy drink machines, bowling alleys all on site.

Pride in where you work/what you make and dossing (google) are a big difference

[Dan Trent]

Oh, and if you're a smoker it's a double win!

Dan

[Behemoth]

I'm all for tutti frutti. Get the best people available for the job, wherever they are from.

[sunsurfer]

The picture heading the article is not very iconic.
Headquarters of the great Ferrari looks like an industrial estate in Slough.

[bubney72]

The Crack Fox said:

This is a refreshing reminder to the Daily Mail reading, UKIP voting dinosaurs who think the EU is always a bad thing, it's now a doddle for Brits to live and work anywhere in the EU and for open minded pro-European thinkers you can earn a few quid. Like I did

Where is Smedley headed now?

Well said and an excellent point. Several of my friends have deserted UK shores for work abroad in Italy, and one of them is in Bulgaria! One of the very place's the Daily Mail claims will have a mass exodus for the UK

[DJRC]

bubney72 said:

Well said and an excellent point. Several of my friends have deserted UK shores for work abroad in Italy, and one of them is in Bulgaria! One of the very place's the Daily Mail claims will have a mass exodus for the UK

? Plenty of ph'ers work abroad doing funky jobs and are well discussed elsewhere. We just dont discuss it much here in the shallow waters of ph.

[Otispunkmeyer]

wemorgan said:

bubney72 said:

Good stuff. Anyone lucky enough to land the job should know it's been voted the best place to work many times. That goes for all companies, not just car firms. I imagine the staff there all feel very proud, and so they should.

I thought Google would have that crown, what with all their table football games, free fizzy drink machines, bowling alleys all on site.

From what I have read, those things are indeed all well and good, but some note that those things are in place as a means of keeping you at work. Plenty of job reviews from google citing that they essentially are bereft of free time outside of the googleplex (though the things I have read do only relate to said HQ in California). I don't think google employees do much dossing around either, from what I read, many are rushed off their feet with multiple projects to manage or work on, hence why so much is provided for them!

Still, I imagine its great fun for a couple of years!

Edited by Otispunkmeyer on Tuesday 21st January 15:57

[SteveSteveson]

Hardly new. Scuderia Ferrari have employed a large number of British engineers for many years, along with many other British staff. A friend of mine at university went to work for them just after finishing her auto engineering degree about 13 years ago. Its good that the British are so strong in engineering, as we are in many things, but hardly news.

Otispunkmeyer said:

wemorgan said:

bubney72 said:

Good stuff. Anyone lucky enough to land the job should know it's been voted the best place to work many times. That goes for all companies, not just car firms. I imagine the staff there all feel very proud, and so they should.

I thought Google would have that crown, what with all their table football games, free fizzy drink machines, bowling alleys all on site.

From what I have read, those things are indeed all well and good, but some note that those things are in place as a means of keeping you at work. Plenty of job reviews from google citing that they essentially are bereft of free time outside of the googleplex (though the things I have read do only relate to said HQ in California). I don't think google employees do much dossing around either, from what I read, many are rushed off their feet with multiple projects to manage or work on, hence why so much is provided for them!

Still, I imagine its great fun for a couple of years!

Ive heard much the same. Brilliant company to work for, as long as you don't expect any work life balance and are willing to tow the company line and put up with some of there more eccentric interview and working practices. I have heard it is very good on your CV if you are young, but also heard of a few well qualified people being head hunted and telling google to take a long walk because they didn't like how google work.

Edited by SteveSteveson on Tuesday 21st January 16:16

[stats007]

sunsurfer said:

The picture heading the article is not very iconic.
Headquarters of the great Ferrari looks like an industrial estate in Slough.

I had an interview there a year ago. Maranello is miserable and the money they were offering wasn't competitive compared to the UK so I declined.

[tbc]

intern = fked over for all your worth, for maximum benefit of the company and fk all benefit to you or your CV

[matsoc]

stats007 said:

sunsurfer said:

The picture heading the article is not very iconic.
Headquarters of the great Ferrari looks like an industrial estate in Slough.

I had an interview there a year ago. Maranello is miserable and the money they were offering wasn't competitive compared to the UK so I declined.

Yes, this is true, as an Italian mechanical engineer with petrolhead blood I was not thinking about the money when just after graduating I got an interview there for a 1 year fixed-term post-degree contract but I was surprised how low the wage was. Actually a girl in my same class was chosen over me and the first months were tough for her, also because she was coming from Turin too and living there was a bit expensive. But she was later confirmed with another contract and the last time I saw her she was still working there after 8 years and doing very good.