Parkour enthusiast Joe Hill has always wanted to be an engineer. Here he talks about his early love of tinkering, how he first got into free running, and why he wouldn't be as happy working for a large corporation.
*'There are more opportunities here than at a bigger company'*
**Hi Joe! Where are you from?**
I'm from Brighouse, near Leeds — famous for being home to the Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band, originally formed in 1881. I went to primary school in Leeds, even though it was an hour away from where we lived.
**Did you have many ambitions growing up?**
I've wanted to get into engineering for as long as I can remember. My dad is an engineer — he builds performance car race engines, so it's a bit messier than what I do. I've always liked playing around with stuff and building things. As a kid I loved Lego, and when I was seven or eight I got into computers. I was always on the family computer trying to make it go faster. As I got older I started building custom machines — I once won £300 of equipment to add water cooling to my computer, keeping the temperature lower so I could tune the noise level versus performance.
**When did you get into parkour?**
I started when I was 14 or 15 — I'd seen a video online and found out there were classes nearby. After doing some volunteering for my Duke of Edinburgh Award, I started volunteering as an assistant coach, which progressed to paid work. We travelled internationally too, visiting Italy and Thailand. Parkour is also what took me down to Brighton for the first time — the city is a mecca for parkour.
**You studied electronic and computer engineering at Brighton — tell us how you chose that course?**
I just fell in love with Brighton when I visited. The university also had a course that wasn't available at many other universities and it sounded like the perfect fit. I also had the time and headspace to do electronics projects for friends, and started doing photography and videography jobs on the side.
I did a year in industry as part of my degree, working with engineering consultancy Mott MacDonald. It was interesting but happened during the Covid-19 pandemic so I only ever met one person from the whole company. I was working in the systems safety department for HS2 and found the whole thing very slow moving. It made me realise I didn't want to work at a big corporation in the future.
**What happened after you graduated?**
My favourite part of my degree was my dissertation, focused on electro-tactile haptic feedback. I was excited by prosthetics and wearable electronics in particular, and eventually did a Master's in biomedical engineering at the University of Kent — a Master's by research and thesis, which suited me perfectly.
**How did you hear about TG0?**
I found the job online and it just felt like the perfect fit. All of my university work was relevant, and it looked like a fun company to work for. The social side has also been incredible — I go climbing with colleagues, and there are more opportunities here than you'd find at a bigger company.
