A Lion’s Tale. 

Hello everyone, my name is Christopher Jones and I am a 4^th year MEng Aeronautical Engineering student at Glasgow Uni. I would like to point out that in my profile picture I am the guy with the red T shirt on and not the old Spanish lady in yellow. 

With that important piece of information now available for public consumption I shall move swiftly onwards and provide a description of my Saltire Foundation Internship. 

I will be spending 8 weeks with the strategy group at Lab 49, a technology consulting firm which builds advanced solutions for the financial services industry. Lab 49 was co-founded in 2002 by Daniel Chait, Luke Flemmer and Vivake Gupta. A quick Google image search has shown me that these 3 men look remarkably young to have founded their own company 8 years ago. This is the sort of thing which could inspire young students and entrepreneurs….anyone know any? 

My internship will take place at Lab 49’s U.S headquarters in Manhattan, New York. The Global Scot I will be working with in the company is Ross Hamilton, himself a graduate of Glasgow’s Aerospace department. And here I was thinking that all Aero graduates moved onto double-barrel named towns in England! 

In preparation for life in the Big Apple I have purchased an I heart NY wallet, or for those whose first language is instant messenger, an I (L) NY wallet, devoured a New York tour guide book or two and listened to lots of Alicia Keys and Frank Sinatra (think about it) as well as starting what seems like an endless battle with the people who answer the phones at the US Visa place. I just can’t seem to get through to them. Yet. Maybe if any of the other US people I met at the recent networking event are reading this they could advise me about when the best time is to phone. 

Speaking of the networking event, the sausage rolls supplied there were unbelievable, out of this world and made an impact upon me second only to the probable impact my Internship will have. If anyone knows where they came from please tell me. To withhold such information would be to deny the supplier a large order from the Bank of Jones. 

Culinary digressions aside, I am very excited and thankful for the chance to take part in what will likely be a life changing programme. If you (yes you) had told me at the start of the year I’d be heading off to the States to work for a young, forward thinking, creative company, I would not have believed it. That last sentence must be like a lottery win for anyone playing cliché bingo. It is, however, true. Having recently given up my part time job of over 5 years in Tesco (disclaimer: other supermarkets/grocery stores are widely available) I find myself with quite a bit of free time and I am enjoying filling it with thoughts of ‘what this summer will be like’, 'what will I be doing this time next month' etc. 

Oh and one more thing. You may be asking yourself ‘Why did he choose that particular title for this blog?’ I know I’d be staring at such a strange heading with a look on my face akin to that of a fish up a tree. The answer, my fellow Saltire Foundation interns is that A Lion’s Tale is the name of the autobiography of one of my favourite professional wrestlers, Chris Jericho and it is currently top of my pile of potential books to read on the flight to NY. 

Thank goodness I chose not to include the book’s subtitle. A Lion’s Tale - Around The World In Spandex. 

That’s all from me just now, I’m really looking forward to reading everyone’s blogs on here, good luck to all!  

Chris