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What Got You Started in Your Career in Engineering?

tariq.ahmad

In the Comments Below:  Let Us Know How You Got Started in Your Career!

 

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.” - Steve Jobs

"You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future." - Steve Jobs

One of my favorite speeches of all time was the Stanford commencement speech that Steve Jobs gave toward the end of his life.  Many of you have careers in engineering, and you come to the element14 community, the first online community for engineers, because you have a passion for engineering and technology.  During my first year working on the element14 community, one of the most exciting things that I have been a part of was the Bit by the Bug campaign where you shared what made you fall in love with engineering & technology:

 

     How Were You 'Bit by the Bug' of Engineering & Technology?

 

Your love for engineering and technology is what helps make this community special.  Hopefully, we all are doing something that we enjoy doing, even if everything is not perfect, but we've all had to start from somewhere.   Sometimes, we can go down many paths during the course of our lives and this could involve having to start over.   We're currently working on a webinar that is geared to those people that are just getting started, or perhaps starting over (or again?) down a path that may lead to a new (or different?) career in engineering.image

 

You're Invited to Be a Presenter!

In the past we've focused our career webinars in the past on IoT.   They're still very relevant and worth checking out if you haven't already:

 

 

This time around we would like to do something that speaks about engineering as career.   recently reached out to the top members to see if any of the Top Members  were interested in joining us as a panelist for a webinar on engineering.   I would like to extend this invitation to the rest of the community at large.   During the Project14 livestreams, I found that having members come on as hosts led to a very interesting discussion.  We'd like to do something similar with the upcoming webinar!

 

You don't have to prepare slides, prepare a speech, or prepare statements or anything like that.  Every career path is unique and we want to hear from a number of different perspectives and have a casual conversation on engineering as a career.   You'll have an opportunity to voice your opinion or tell us about your experiences.

 

In the Comments Below:  Let Us Know How You Got Started in Your Career!

 

 

If you are interested in being a presenter for this webinar contact me directly at or comment below to let me know you are interested.

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  • What got me started in engineering:

    I always like science classes, the teachers always were a little wacky and creative, alot different than the english and history teachers.

    I thought it was cool to know how stuff worked and how it was made.

    The teachers were all passionate about sharing their knowledge with the students, and teaching us how to think critically, challenge us tto thibnk out of the box.

     

    In 10th grade I moved onto high school, and was lucky to have a high school with a vo-tech school attached to it.

    One high school club offering was the amateur radio club. It was in the upper floor of the electricity shop of the vo-tech wing.

    We got to learn about electronics ( tube biasing and amplifiers way over my head ) some basic electricity, morse code, first got our novice ham radio licenses, operated ham radio equipment during study halls, earned our general class licenses.

    In fact, the beginning of each school year, we just told the study hall teacher we were going to the radio room instead of study hall, and we were golden for the rest of the year.

    This was in the early to mid 1970s, things were a bit less formal and school still was a sanctuary for the innocents ( well, maybe not always so innocent :-)  but nothing compared to the 2020 outside influences )

     

    The radio club was small, but everyone in the college prep curriculum who joined went onto college to become electrical engineers.

     

    As a contrast to alot of folks that talk about their distinguished scholarly & career journey, I was just good enough in school to graduate. I knew alot of really smart people that dropped out. They didnt have the love for engineering, or the dogged persistence to see though the tough times. I was a survivor.

    If I did it, you can to !!!!

     

    What kept me going in engineering:

    Out of school, I took a job as a field engineer for GE. I liked the romantic stories of company paid travel, working on all kinds of controls and power equipment, alot of training classes,   jumping on the white horse as the Calvary does to save the customer. I learned so much about so many things.  GE was the big dog in the world of electronics and electricity - we brought good things to life.

    Technology changed, and we grew with it. From analog magnetic controls, to solid state, SCRs, transistors, IGBTs, PLCs, digital controllers, PCs, low speed networks, high speed networks, servers, wifi, AI,.......

    technology just keeps accelerating, now using global partners,  and its very exciting.  I'm still at it, 38+ years with GE, always changing, always learning about new technologies, software, hardware, modeling, cyber security

     

    Still bit by the bug:

    I run a robotics & makers club: Just as my teachers in my early years were passionate about sharing their knowledge with the students, and teaching us how to think critically,

    I hope I can help influence and energize other kids and people to all become builders or electrical engineers too.

    I aim to excite people to think out of the box. build wacky stuff just because they learn about technology while doing it. Learn to think more analytically, less emotionally, data and fact driven, organize ideas, plan effectively, etc....

    Secondly I can justify building wacky things in the sake of sharing that passion with other people: at the library, school STEM events,  conventions, community events, girl scouts, boy scouts, teaching coding classes, Element14, You Tube,  etc....

    Atho I have a long road behind me, I'm still just getting started moving forward on the path ahead.....

     

    Let me know if my experience can help you in your webinar.

Reply

  • What got me started in engineering:

    I always like science classes, the teachers always were a little wacky and creative, alot different than the english and history teachers.

    I thought it was cool to know how stuff worked and how it was made.

    The teachers were all passionate about sharing their knowledge with the students, and teaching us how to think critically, challenge us tto thibnk out of the box.

     

    In 10th grade I moved onto high school, and was lucky to have a high school with a vo-tech school attached to it.

    One high school club offering was the amateur radio club. It was in the upper floor of the electricity shop of the vo-tech wing.

    We got to learn about electronics ( tube biasing and amplifiers way over my head ) some basic electricity, morse code, first got our novice ham radio licenses, operated ham radio equipment during study halls, earned our general class licenses.

    In fact, the beginning of each school year, we just told the study hall teacher we were going to the radio room instead of study hall, and we were golden for the rest of the year.

    This was in the early to mid 1970s, things were a bit less formal and school still was a sanctuary for the innocents ( well, maybe not always so innocent :-)  but nothing compared to the 2020 outside influences )

     

    The radio club was small, but everyone in the college prep curriculum who joined went onto college to become electrical engineers.

     

    As a contrast to alot of folks that talk about their distinguished scholarly & career journey, I was just good enough in school to graduate. I knew alot of really smart people that dropped out. They didnt have the love for engineering, or the dogged persistence to see though the tough times. I was a survivor.

    If I did it, you can to !!!!

     

    What kept me going in engineering:

    Out of school, I took a job as a field engineer for GE. I liked the romantic stories of company paid travel, working on all kinds of controls and power equipment, alot of training classes,   jumping on the white horse as the Calvary does to save the customer. I learned so much about so many things.  GE was the big dog in the world of electronics and electricity - we brought good things to life.

    Technology changed, and we grew with it. From analog magnetic controls, to solid state, SCRs, transistors, IGBTs, PLCs, digital controllers, PCs, low speed networks, high speed networks, servers, wifi, AI,.......

    technology just keeps accelerating, now using global partners,  and its very exciting.  I'm still at it, 38+ years with GE, always changing, always learning about new technologies, software, hardware, modeling, cyber security

     

    Still bit by the bug:

    I run a robotics & makers club: Just as my teachers in my early years were passionate about sharing their knowledge with the students, and teaching us how to think critically,

    I hope I can help influence and energize other kids and people to all become builders or electrical engineers too.

    I aim to excite people to think out of the box. build wacky stuff just because they learn about technology while doing it. Learn to think more analytically, less emotionally, data and fact driven, organize ideas, plan effectively, etc....

    Secondly I can justify building wacky things in the sake of sharing that passion with other people: at the library, school STEM events,  conventions, community events, girl scouts, boy scouts, teaching coding classes, Element14, You Tube,  etc....

    Atho I have a long road behind me, I'm still just getting started moving forward on the path ahead.....

     

    Let me know if my experience can help you in your webinar.

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