Marvin Chao Yit Lim
2026 Saltire Scholar
MS Enhancement and Operational Alignment Intern, Power Professionals
Mechanical Engineering, Heriot-Watt University
Hi, I'm Marvin! I graduated a few months ago doing Mechanical Engineering from Heriot-Watt University, split between the Malaysia and Edinburgh campuses. This summer I worked as an IMS Enhancement and Operational Alignment Intern at Power Professionals.
I applied to Saltire Scholars wanting real exposure to how a business runs, beyond the reports and simulations that made up most of my degree. When I saw this role, I hesitated — Power Professionals is an engineering consultancy, but the title didn't sound like an engineering role at all, and as an engineering student that made me unsure whether I'd be relevant or whether it was even worth applying. I applied anyway, mostly to test whether I could add value somewhere I wasn't automatically the expert. Looking back, I'm glad I did, and I'd encourage anyone hesitating over a role that doesn't obviously match their degree to apply anyway.
Most of my time went into supporting the company's Integrated Management System behind their ISO 9001, 14001 and 45001 accreditations. This involved reformatting Health & Safety policies, building a master document register from scratch, and developing KPI tracking tables. I also helped with contract bid work for a client tender, which gave me a real sense of how technical detail and commercial strategy have to align. A few other things stood out too, such as helping shape a barcode scanning system with a software developer, a site visit to watch an offshore energy project's components being lifted at the Port of Leith, and getting to splice fibre optic cables myself.
By the end, colleagues were actually using the document register and new formatting conventions I'd built, and the H&S documentation was easier to navigate than when I started, which is a good feeling, seeing people rely on something I'd put together.
What I've taken away has less to do with technical skills and more to do with how I handle unfamiliar situations. I got a lot more comfortable asking questions when I didn't have context, and I built a genuinely useful understanding of how much process and documentation work sits behind any engineering project that actually gets delivered safely and consistently. Even though the internship wasn't directly aligned with my degree, it's developed me a lot — my confidence in unfamiliar settings, my attention to detail, and my ability to pick things up quickly outside my comfort zone.
If you're applying to Saltire Scholars and a role doesn't sound like your subject on paper, don't rule it out. It might teach you things a more "relevant" placement wouldn't. My advice is to go in with an open mind, ask questions honestly, and give yourself credit for the small wins along the way.
