I think at some point most people realize they can’t do everything. I have not yet hit that point. My interests are vast and the list of skills I want to acquire and perfect almost always overwhelms me. It seems like every day or at least week there is a new skill I would like to have or refine. It’s sometimes hard to tell which skills end up becoming my focus but I have a few ideas.
To compliment my current abilities there are a few skills I am focused on for this course:
- Making creative choices effectively and quickly
- Developing a better feel for getting to what just “looks and feels right” quicker
- Enhance my welding and machining skills
- Sketching ideas and designs quickly and effectively
- Communicating my ideas and intentions to small teams and large groups effectively
By graduation I would ideally like to have skills that will give me a pick of several interesting jobs and also develop myself as a person and engineer. A few primary skills I would like to come away with in addition to the ones above:
- CAD: become proficient in SolidWorks and gain experience in a few other programs
- Acquire a mindset to quickly and skillfully generate CAD models
- Design thinking: incorporating user’s into my designs
- Communicate inside teams and lead them effectively
- Incorporate manufacturing and assembly techniques into my designs
- Develop a better understanding of electronic systems and how to integrate them into designs
- Digital media creation to showcase designs and projects
Aspirations for my first job I’ll keep vague as I could see it going a lot of directions. I would like to work on or be a part of a team that designs and engineers products or systems focused on tackling user needs. My dream is to end up as head design engineer for an outdoor equipment company. One of my main career goals is to get more people outside to discover and connect with our world. I truly believe humans were meant to spend a lot of time outside and I would love to help them do it.
Just for fun I’d also I like to:
- Climb 5.13 and complete a large alpine traverse
- Land a clean backflip on a snowboard
- Run a trail ultramarthon
- Hike and also mountain bike the entire Continental Divide
- Build a personal assistant robot
- Write a book
2 Comments. Leave new
I think there a lot of things for you to learn and that is great. When it comes down to CAD I can help with that. I can help with machining (mainly mill machining), and I might be able to help a little with welding. At the very least I have a friend that should be able to help with MEG welding.
Dan, it sounds like you know what you want and you know what’s important, and I think you’ve nailed it in terms of what skills you need to be successful.