Wise Words From The Engineer's Mouth
Posted 3yr(s) ago
Reading Time: A few minutes
HOW TO SET YOURSELF UP FOR SUCCESS
There are a few ways to get a headstart in your career. Here are some tips from the engineers who’ve been in exactly the same position you’re in now!
“ Try to do internships during your summer breaks. You will get more exposure to real-life problems that you may not find in your textbooks and classrooms. You can also gain insights into the life of professionals and determine the type of work that suits you best. All these will help you to make an informed decision about your career path, build your professional network and strengthen your qualifications. ”
“ A side hobby can help you apply what you’ve learnt in school on a practical level. While school learning focuses on theory and experiments, hands-on projects will help bridge the gap between school and real-life situations. ”
“ Actively participate in extra-curricular activities, especially in those that involve teamwork. That’s how you pick up people skills, communication skills and leadership skills. Engineering is not about individual contributions but about how we integrate different thinking processes and perspectives to come up with a solution. ”
“ Enjoy your time in school, the knowledge you gain in school can be applied in the real world. Learn how to learn, so that when you come into the industry, you will be ready to learn new things and relearn old things. ”
LIFE HACK
Engineers are trained to be systematic and organised. You can take them out of their engineering jobs, but you can’t take the engineer out of them.
“ As part of my engineering training, I took a module in economic analysis, which came in useful when I was buying a house. When was the best time to buy and which loans to take and so on. I would analyse everything. Even when we were buying our wedding rings, my other half would look at sizes, while I would fixate on the material of the rings. ”
“ My husband always jokes that I bring my organisational mindset home, so I end up training my children and my helper to be like engineers and solve problems. ”
“ As engineers, we are trained to operate within fixed parameters and this is a skill that you can apply to finance, marketing or sales. In life, we are always working on how to maximise resources within boundaries and this mindset is a good building block not just in our careers but also in our personal lives too. ”
“ My wife sometimes complains that I plan too much. She’d say, ‘When we are going on a trip, we don’t need an Excel spreadsheet, you know.’ But that’s how I’ve been trained and how I approach life. ”