Before I graduate I hope to learn more about the different technologies that can be used to manufacture products as well as more experience with electronics. I have experience with wood working and I’m learning a lot about machining through senior design, but I would like to learn more about 3D printing and laser cutting. My projects in the past never needed 3D printing or laser cutting but I’ve always been interested in them. I also want to gain more experience with Arduino and more specifically controlling LEDs with an Arduino. Over the years I’ve seen and had ideas for cool LED projects but I haven’t had the time to build them. I will try to incorporate these into my final project for this class.
There are a few things that I want and don’t want in my first job, but I understand that my first job probably won’t be that great as it will be entry level. I think I want to work for a smaller company, maybe a startup as I like the more casual, creative atmosphere. Larger companies don’t interest me as much as I would be just another worker bee and I feel like I wouldn’t be contributing much to the company as a whole.
I’m interested in maybe starting my own company at some point so I would say my dream job would be running a small business or company. My dream engineering job would be working for a small product realization company or making medical devices. I’m looking for a job where I can work in a team designing and building new products that will in turn help people. I would like to work for a company that makes products for the developing world because it helps people and also presents an interesting design challenge; to make products that are robust, function, and very affordable.
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Wow, who knew that we are both interested in the medical field? I totally agree with you there. In addition to being an interesting field and having the potential to save people’s lives, it will also be a highly stable industry compared to say, something like aerospace. I also admire your mentality when it comes to your first job and what kind of position you want to be in. Having worked for Covidien and Medtronic in the past, I can confirm that you do kind of feel like a worker bee in the system. Even though I felt accomplished with what I did there (and there are perks to working in a big company), I still felt it didn’t make a whole lot of difference because the company is so big. So good on you for wanting to make a difference when it’s time to apply your engineering knowledge.
I think designing/engineering functional and practical tools for people in developing nations is definitely a challenging and much-needed pursuit. There’s a lot of discussion and implementation of ideas about just that within the Atlas Information and Communication Technology for Development program. They offer graduate classes that focus on all the different business, design, fieldwork, and technological aspects of that kind of creative problem-solving for humanitarian causes.